Clamp Discussion

[Chet]

Submitted on the old forum by Kev

Can you ever have enough?

I've had some discussions with some people who subscribe to the thought that having a boat load of clamps is silly. If you do your joinery correctly, minimal clamping is all that's required so, there's no need to have a lot of clamps.

Where I agree that proper joinery is a must for what we do, I don't believe that you can have too many clamps.

I was doing some leg glue ups just this morning and thinking about this topic. I was laminating 2 pieces of 8/4 poplar that were fresh off my milling process. All my machines were tuned up and my joints looked great. The legs were about 36" long and I used 3 clamps under and 2 clamps over to equal out the pressure. All had minimal clamping pressure as the joints were good but, I still used 20 clamps in the process.

So, let the discussion begin. Can you have too many? How many of which sizes should you have? What about parallels vs F style? 

For the record, I have 5ea 12" clamps, 5ea 18" clamps, 10ea 30" clamps, 10 ea 44" clamps, 1ea 54" clamp, and 2ea 64" clamps. I have a boat load of F style clamps (probably way more than anyone needs) but, they're easy Christmas gifts for people and I don't really think I've ever actually purchased any.

[Chet]

Follow up posts

1) There have been times when I had just enough, probably because that was all I had. I would love to have, say twice as many, in case the need arises. I have a limited amount; 6ea. 31”, 8 ea. 24” and 4 ea. 40”, all Jet quick release parallel. I wish I had several of the smaller ones but beingthe Scrooge I am, I hate paying the price when for a couple $$ more, I can get longer ones. I have numerous Fclamps but I don’t care for them I don’t care for them on a lamination as the turn of the handle tends to misalign the pieces. Good for caul clamping though.

2) It depends on what you do, and how much of it you do at one time.

I have had the same 8 parallel clamps since I started (same sizes, I did change brands) and never wanted more parallel clamps. I made my clamp rack purposely bigger incase I wanted more sizes. Nice storage for other crap, but I will be making it smaller when I finally put up the insulation so it fits in a different spot.

I have 4 Dubuque panel clamps which I prefer for door glue ups and things around an inch or so thick.

Aside from those, I really don't have any other clamps that I use. Couple of c-clamps, few spring clamps... but they rarely make an appearance. Oh, and blue tape. Love blue tape for clamping things.

If someone is doing a bent lamination more clamps are nice... but, should probably be using a vacuum bag anyway.

Yeah... there is something to be said about better joinery. For the tree inlay table I glued all 4 legs up and used five clamps for them. Five clamps for the whole thing, stacked those babies up and clamped it down. Probably could have used 4, but I grabbed 5 and used them  

Some guys love using tons of glue, and they need more clamps because they're silly. 

3) I do a lot of gluing and laminating so use a lot of clamps. . .

However and not sure where I found the article but last year I asked the great online orical [Google] this same question. Can you over clamp something? Too many clamps or too much pressure when you clamp was the main gist really of my quest. I found an article from some one, could even have been a glue manufacturer now that i think more about it. Where they ran a series of test using different woods, clamp numbers as well as clamp pressure. 

What I got from this is no you can't have TOO many clamps. But depending on the wood hardness you can over tighten your clamps. The article went on to explain how you estimate the tightness for various woods. BUT since 90% of the wood that I glue is similar to concrete, I will never over tighten my clamps because its physically impossible to do so and I most definitely will never use too many clamps because I will run out of room to add more. 

Soft woods on the other are a completely different kettle of fish. 

I primarily use a but load of clamps to get a consistent pressure along the entire length of the two or more bits of chopped up tree that i am gluing. Sometimes this concrete wood is a bit twisted so in order to get a slightly better join (when I'm building those garden tables) I'll run a thinner length of tree top and bottom, then clamp the hell out of it to straighten them up then screw them down [Using 100mm batten screws]. Usually works pretty good.

4) I have no C clamps but I bet as you posted, they come in darn handy, especially using the cauls to keep the primary pieces from shifting.

5) I'm sure you could have enough ... I have not hit that number yet haha. I always end up having to get crazy with clamps it seems because I don't have enough.

6) Anyone found a use for handscrew clamps where other types weren’t quiet as good? . I don’t have any myself.

7)I assume you're talking about the wooden ones?

I do use them from time to time..  They're great when you want to stand a piece of wood on edge!  Just screw them on and it's an immediate kickstand.  

I also will use them from time to time where I don't have enough clamp length to clamp something up.  I just put them in the middle and clamp to them.  Or, when I don't have a good edge to pull a diagonal clamp to.  I think I posted a picture of this on the final cabinet of the quilting desk..

8) I use one to hold pieces in place in a jig for cutting box or dovetail joints at the router table. To be honest I use that type of clamp because when I first saw the jig being used, that is what the demonstrator was using... monkey see, monkey do.

9) I just think they are neat, being made of wood. So not really clamping pressure but to hold things in place?  Given the simplicity, recon HF are as good as any, well, probably not?