The main point is that pipe clamps are incredibly affordable compared to pretty much every other option. I just checked: a 1000 mm Bessey K Body clamp will cost me about 70 bucks, more like 100 to 120 if I buy it locally, and don't even think about the really long ones which become ridiculously expensive because they are made of unicorn horns or something. A pipe clamp of arbitrary length is more like 20 bucks.
Seems like the way people use pipe clamps is to get them early on when they're the only thing you can afford, and then upgrade when the frustration of using the pipe clamp exceeds the dollar value of the parallel clamps.
Thanks. I started primarily with pipe clamps. Your comments are them are all accurate. I now have a number of parallel clamps. The difference in cost is huge. The parallel clamps were outside my budget back when I started.
I have a lot of problems with my parallel clamps. They don’t tightens as well and often don’t close right when I want them to and cause a lot of headache. The boot in the back tends to get stuck on the bar. I’m planning to switch them out to pipe clamps this weekend.
3/4” pipe 3 foot long costs $27 at big box store. Pipe suppliers sell 3/4 pipe for less than $2 per foot; of course, you’ll have to thread the pipe. Grizzly pipe clamps are about $13.
I have around twenty or so pipe clamps I love them there strong and believe me I have put them to the test I've never had any of them slip or mark the wood each and there own i
Interesting opinion, I find pipe clamps are go to for long sections or supplement parallel clamp usage. Also I keep a collar on one end so i can lengthen the pipe clamp. Can’t imagine what Bessey would charge for a 96” parallel clamp. Thanks for the video to get your opinion out there and keep on making video’s as we learn something every time.
Parallel clamps are great for their intended purposes, but the gripes that you have with pipe clamps are either wrong or easily solved. For example, use galvanized pipe and glue a small piece of leather to the end of the pipe claps. If you damage the wood when using a leather pad, then you did not mill your material well enough. Parallel, F Clamps, and pipe clamps all have a place in a shop. In my opinion, pipe claps are superior to parallel for panel glue-ups. However, I still use parallel clamps in certain situations... as I do F claps... as I do spring clamps... as I do strap clamps... and so on.
You can use 1/2” or 3/4”galvanized pipe here in the US pretty cheap and they will even cut them to length and thread them at Home Depot. Pony’s are the best but yours look different than mine.
Sure parallell clamps are probably better than pipe clamps, but just as with your complaints about F-clamps in your previous video, in the end, it comes down to cost, cost, COST! (Oh yeah, and if you use galvanised pipe, it doesn't leave black marks on your work
I have pipe clamps I have been using for over fifty years. Best thing I ever did to them was add Baltic birch plywood faces to them, similar to yours but screwed into place. Made them all sit up at a uniform height. Also made the pads tall enough that they support the pipes when placed from the top side. Sprayed the pipes with rattle can lacquer to reduce staining. As to parallel jaw clamps, I have some but have not made friends with them yet. Very heavy and awkward. Limited stroke. Lots of plastic. My favorite ones are Dubuque aluminum bar clamps. Get some and you will leave the pipe clamps in the ceiling and those cursed parallel clamps hanging in the rack, waiting to be moved to the ceiling.
I inherited my mom’s eight pipe clamps. They’re weight is what stops me from using them more. I know I’ve hit stuff with them when I did use them before I had other clamps. I think there greatest strength is pipe length and couplers for those times when you need 60 inch or longer.. making a bed or some larger dressers.
I know a lot abouth clamps after watching a lot og woodworking channels for years, but I realy enjoyed this series. Good content and many good tips. Thank you Art.
I sold my Pony clamps and replaced them with the newer Bessey pipe clamps that have feet that hold them up off the glue table and stabilize the pipe. I also get 3ft double ended pipe and 2ft and purchased some pipe connectors so I can screw the pipes together to get big clamps without having to store them. The Bessey clamps work very well and have seen some hard use. I just put a piece of 1/4in plywood under the pipe to keep it from bowing. I use mine all the time and hang them off a 2x4 bolted to the wall to hang them from.
I have a couple, they only get used for really big stuff 4-8 FT. I really do need to invest in some parallel clamps though. They look like they make glueups much easier.
Art, great vid. I also own a couple pipe clamps that I haven't reached for in over twenty years. I also like the parallel clamps but my go-to is a good, lightweight aluminum bar clamp. They are light, apply plenty of force, and are a far better investment than pipe clamps. Enjoy your weekend, Scott
I use blue painter’s tape on both pipe clamps and parallel clamps, so that’s a bit of a non-issue for me. Parallel clamps are nice, but at 3 to 5 times the cost of pipe clamps, it’s hard to be able to stock a shop with the same amount of money if you bought only parallel clamps.
A very well balanced series and your observations, while your own, were very well explained. Here's hoping that you might did another series in future in the same vein, perhaps some of your power or hand tools
Great series. There's at least one other type of clamp that I've found useful in my shop: wooden handscrew clamps. They're a bit bulky but nice to have Cccc around.
They’re so useful I like having two or three of various sizes. I just used them on drill press as a guide when drilling diagonal surface to stop it from moving my work piece. Made an alley kind of.
Great series Art. Thank you very much. I agree that pipe clamps are in general inferior to parallel clamps, with one exception (at least for me). When you really need to crank a lot of pressure on the joint or whatever you're clamping, pipe clamps can generate much more clamping force than parallel clamps. At least in my experience. Of course some will say "you shouldn't need that much force when clamping...", and they'd be right. But sometimes I find myself needing that extra clamping pressure, and when I do, the pipe clamps really shine. Other than that, parallel clamps carry the day imo. Thanks again for these vids and all the great work you do on your channel.
Devil's advocate here. I'll do it first, and be nice. This video could attract some serious hellfire ire. In UA-cam world, as soon as a tool is claimed to be useless, a chasm opens and locusts with scorpion tails and the faces of commenters spring forth. Ok, I'll admit, my Pony clamps have leaned in the corner rusting for most of their lives. But the video seems to keep your low opinion of them restricted to the context of woodworking, and outside of that, pipe clamps are indispensable! They deliver an almost unmatched point-force over generous length. Just recently, I used a few to straighten a bent snowplow, which would've been harsh otherwise. No hate here-I totally get it. It's just my recommendation that you _not_ get rid of 'em yet. Might regret it ;) On another subject, it's seriously awesome that you openly hold a clipboard as you go through your points. That's a level of genuine that you can't fake. It also tells us that you're actually trying to make a case, and not just ask us pointless, empty questions without coming to a conclusion. I hate when they do that. I appreciate your opinion!
Advocate to your hearts content. And it's true I'm just speaking my own opinion as a woodworker. I claimed that clipboard when a coworker moved out of his office. It seems to be an old 286 motherboard (or similar). I don't have a teleprompter, I don't like tons of cuts, and too often I get through a take and realize I forgot to add one point. (actually I've tried teleprompter software on a mini tablet, but generally i find it a bit of a pain to set up so I'd rather just wing it) thanks for dropping in your 2 cents.
Kewl video, I prefer pipe clamps. Because I wood and metal work I find them to be cost effective and I have modified them, welded the pipes to the table for a fixture.
Stumbled across your channel today. Very entertaining style, fun to watch. You very much remind me of Steve Ramsey, WWMM channel. Keep up the good work.
Lamentablemente yo compré un juego de estos baratos y la única solución ha sido hacer perforaciones a lo largo del tubo cada 5 cm para bloquear esa pieza con un pasador atado a una pequeña cadena ahora sí que funciona de maravilla y es imposible que se resbale un saludo
You ca send all of those pesky pipe clamps down here to me!!! I would be more than happy to knpck the ust off of them.I couldn't afford parallel clamps at these crazy prices.Wish I could and definatelt need more clamps. I see all these videos and think a lot of the time, damn that must be nearly $10,000.00 worth of clamps. Gotta have dreams I guess.
I think the screw of the pony clamp can generate more force. (I don't have any parallel clamps yet but thought they had a smaller diameter screw.) And they hold up fairly well to crude use and abuse. ie using them as a burke-bar to shift old iron around the shop.
I following the "affirmation': "You can't have enough clamps." You look like you have a number of p-clamps, but at what cost? I don't own any large p-clamps because I have a large number of pipe clamps, 3/4 and 1/2" at probably way less than the cost of the p-clamps. I can buy more pipe clamps than I can buy p-clamps at less cost. I do agree that they have their cons, but use them enough and it becomes irrelevant. Just another opinion.! :)
Exactly. I used them to hold the sheet-metal sides of transfer tables to the table while welding them in place (as there is nothing to clamp to along the length).
I use my pipe clamps all the time to clamp full size 7 foot doors togethers. If you tighten the clamp to where the pipe bends, your clamping way to tight. No reason to clamp wood that tight.
I totally respect you opinion about pipe clamps, and strongly disagree. Pipe clamps are easily reconfigured and much less expensive. Just avoid black iron because of staining.
But Why? You never mentioned why you like your other clamps better. I have only used pipe clamps and agree with everything you said, but I never considered it a problem.
Are you a Canadian woodworker? You mentioned Canadian tire and Busy Bee tools. Please try to support fellow Canadians with (affiliate) links to Canadian distributors for products if you can 😃 unless amazon Canada doesn’t allow it?
No C-clamps? No spring clamps? No ratchet clamps? No specialist clamps (for clamping corners, edge pieces etc). At least another four episodes’ worth…..
The main point is that pipe clamps are incredibly affordable compared to pretty much every other option. I just checked: a 1000 mm Bessey K Body clamp will cost me about 70 bucks, more like 100 to 120 if I buy it locally, and don't even think about the really long ones which become ridiculously expensive because they are made of unicorn horns or something. A pipe clamp of arbitrary length is more like 20 bucks.
Yup they are.
Seems like the way people use pipe clamps is to get them early on when they're the only thing you can afford, and then upgrade when the frustration of using the pipe clamp exceeds the dollar value of the parallel clamps.
Like he said in the beginning "in the hobby" that says volumes long live the pipe clamp.
Thanks. I started primarily with pipe clamps. Your comments are them are all accurate. I now have a number of parallel clamps. The difference in cost is huge. The parallel clamps were outside my budget back when I started.
Yup, it's not necessarily a cheap hobby to get into.
I have a lot of problems with my parallel clamps. They don’t tightens as well and often don’t close right when I want them to and cause a lot of headache. The boot in the back tends to get stuck on the bar. I’m planning to switch them out to pipe clamps this weekend.
3/4” pipe 3 foot long costs $27 at big box store. Pipe suppliers sell 3/4 pipe for less than $2 per foot; of course, you’ll have to thread the pipe. Grizzly pipe clamps are about $13.
I have around twenty or so pipe clamps I love them there strong and believe me I have put them to the test I've never had any of them slip or mark the wood each and there own i
Glad they work for you.
Interesting opinion, I find pipe clamps are go to for long sections or supplement parallel clamp usage. Also I keep a collar on one end so i can lengthen the pipe clamp. Can’t imagine what Bessey would charge for a 96” parallel clamp. Thanks for the video to get your opinion out there and keep on making video’s as we learn something every time.
Parallel clamps are great for their intended purposes, but the gripes that you have with pipe clamps are either wrong or easily solved. For example, use galvanized pipe and glue a small piece of leather to the end of the pipe claps. If you damage the wood when using a leather pad, then you did not mill your material well enough.
Parallel, F Clamps, and pipe clamps all have a place in a shop. In my opinion, pipe claps are superior to parallel for panel glue-ups. However, I still use parallel clamps in certain situations... as I do F claps... as I do spring clamps... as I do strap clamps... and so on.
This interesting series had me clamped to my seat. Thanks Art!
thanks for sticking around.
Hello frieend 🙏🤝🇮🇩
You can use 1/2” or 3/4”galvanized pipe here in the US pretty cheap and they will even cut them to length and thread them at Home Depot.
Pony’s are the best but yours look different than mine.
Sure parallell clamps are probably better than pipe clamps, but just as with your complaints about F-clamps in your previous video, in the end, it comes down to cost, cost, COST! (Oh yeah, and if you use galvanised pipe, it doesn't leave black marks on your work
Top 👍
Most woodworkers cannot afford 50 dollar parallel clamps and I have never had problems with pony clamps.
I have pipe clamps I have been using for over fifty years. Best thing I ever did to them was add Baltic birch plywood faces to them, similar to yours but screwed into place. Made them all sit up at a uniform height. Also made the pads tall enough that they support the pipes when placed from the top side. Sprayed the pipes with rattle can lacquer to reduce staining. As to parallel jaw clamps, I have some but have not made friends with them yet. Very heavy and awkward. Limited stroke. Lots of plastic. My favorite ones are Dubuque aluminum bar clamps. Get some and you will leave the pipe clamps in the ceiling and those cursed parallel clamps hanging in the rack, waiting to be moved to the ceiling.
You don't get rid of them because a few weeks after you do you'll need them. Never fails. Can I get an amen?
I inherited my mom’s eight pipe clamps. They’re weight is what stops me from using them more. I know I’ve hit stuff with them when I did use them before I had other clamps. I think there greatest strength is pipe length and couplers for those times when you need 60 inch or longer.. making a bed or some larger dressers.
7 points the C clamp was also the S square made from 2 rectangles
That’s interesting. I seem to only use pipe clamps. I can’t recall a time when they have slipped. I am starting to think I should try Parallel clamps
Once you start you may regret it (the price...)
I know a lot abouth clamps after watching a lot og woodworking channels for years, but I realy enjoyed this series. Good content and many good tips. Thank you Art.
Awesome, thank you!
Enjoyable series, Art.
thanks, John. Was kind of fun to push myself to come up with five, and in quick succession.
I’ll take your unwanted clamps. Beginner wood worker with little equipment here!! Haha great video thanks.
I sold my Pony clamps and replaced them with the newer Bessey pipe clamps that have feet that hold them up off the glue table and stabilize the pipe. I also get 3ft double ended pipe and 2ft and purchased some pipe connectors so I can screw the pipes together to get big clamps without having to store them. The Bessey clamps work very well and have seen some hard use. I just put a piece of 1/4in plywood under the pipe to keep it from bowing. I use mine all the time and hang them off a 2x4 bolted to the wall to hang them from.
Excellent 😍😍😍😍👍
Pura vida mi amigo thanks for sharing your piece of advice about pipe clamps.pura vida
I have a couple, they only get used for really big stuff 4-8 FT. I really do need to invest in some parallel clamps though. They look like they make glueups much easier.
No surprise that I agree... 😁
Art, great vid. I also own a couple pipe clamps that I haven't reached for in over twenty years. I also like the parallel clamps but my go-to is a good, lightweight aluminum bar clamp. They are light, apply plenty of force, and are a far better investment than pipe clamps. Enjoy your weekend, Scott
Hear good things about those, but have never used them.
It was a good series and you were engaging...thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it
I use blue painter’s tape on both pipe clamps and parallel clamps, so that’s a bit of a non-issue for me. Parallel clamps are nice, but at 3 to 5 times the cost of pipe clamps, it’s hard to be able to stock a shop with the same amount of money if you bought only parallel clamps.
A very well balanced series and your observations, while your own, were very well explained. Here's hoping that you might did another series in future in the same vein, perhaps some of your power or hand tools
We'll see... thanks for watching!
Great series. There's at least one other type of clamp that I've found useful in my shop: wooden handscrew clamps. They're a bit bulky but nice to have Cccc around.
never tried those, but I've thought about them...
They’re so useful I like having two or three of various sizes. I just used them on drill press as a guide when drilling diagonal surface to stop it from moving my work piece. Made an alley kind of.
Great series Art. Thank you very much. I agree that pipe clamps are in general inferior to parallel clamps, with one exception (at least for me). When you really need to crank a lot of pressure on the joint or whatever you're clamping, pipe clamps can generate much more clamping force than parallel clamps. At least in my experience. Of course some will say "you shouldn't need that much force when clamping...", and they'd be right. But sometimes I find myself needing that extra clamping pressure, and when I do, the pipe clamps really shine. Other than that, parallel clamps carry the day imo. Thanks again for these vids and all the great work you do on your channel.
thanks, David
You did a great job on this series. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you!
thanks! Appreciate it.
Devil's advocate here. I'll do it first, and be nice. This video could attract some serious hellfire ire. In UA-cam world, as soon as a tool is claimed to be useless, a chasm opens and locusts with scorpion tails and the faces of commenters spring forth.
Ok, I'll admit, my Pony clamps have leaned in the corner rusting for most of their lives. But the video seems to keep your low opinion of them restricted to the context of woodworking, and outside of that, pipe clamps are indispensable! They deliver an almost unmatched point-force over generous length. Just recently, I used a few to straighten a bent snowplow, which would've been harsh otherwise.
No hate here-I totally get it. It's just my recommendation that you _not_ get rid of 'em yet. Might regret it ;)
On another subject, it's seriously awesome that you openly hold a clipboard as you go through your points. That's a level of genuine that you can't fake. It also tells us that you're actually trying to make a case, and not just ask us pointless, empty questions without coming to a conclusion. I hate when they do that. I appreciate your opinion!
Advocate to your hearts content. And it's true I'm just speaking my own opinion as a woodworker.
I claimed that clipboard when a coworker moved out of his office. It seems to be an old 286 motherboard (or similar). I don't have a teleprompter, I don't like tons of cuts, and too often I get through a take and realize I forgot to add one point.
(actually I've tried teleprompter software on a mini tablet, but generally i find it a bit of a pain to set up so I'd rather just wing it)
thanks for dropping in your 2 cents.
If you don't use them I'll take them?
Kewl video, I prefer pipe clamps. Because I wood and metal work I find them to be cost effective and I have modified them, welded the pipes to the table for a fixture.
Stumbled across your channel today. Very entertaining style, fun to watch. You very much remind me of Steve Ramsey, WWMM channel. Keep up the good work.
Poor Steve, always being compared to me. 😉
Excellent Series. Thanks..
Good series, keep up clamping🙂
Hayyy sir 🙏🤝🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩
Lamentablemente yo compré un juego de estos baratos y la única solución ha sido hacer perforaciones a lo largo del tubo cada 5 cm para bloquear esa pieza con un pasador atado a una pequeña cadena ahora sí que funciona de maravilla y es imposible que se resbale un saludo
You ca send all of those pesky pipe clamps down here to me!!! I would be more than happy to knpck the ust off of them.I couldn't afford parallel clamps at these crazy prices.Wish I could and definatelt need more clamps. I see all these videos and think a lot of the time, damn that must be nearly $10,000.00 worth of clamps. Gotta have dreams I guess.
It's not something I bought overnight, that's for sure. And to be honest I don't even know what replacement cost would be nowadays.
I think the screw of the pony clamp can generate more force. (I don't have any parallel clamps yet but thought they had a smaller diameter screw.)
And they hold up fairly well to crude use and abuse. ie using them as a burke-bar to shift old iron around the shop.
Parallel clamps have various screw types.
I following the "affirmation': "You can't have enough clamps."
You look like you have a number of p-clamps, but at what cost? I don't own any large p-clamps because I have a large number of pipe clamps, 3/4 and 1/2" at probably way less than the cost of the p-clamps. I can buy more pipe clamps than I can buy p-clamps at less cost.
I do agree that they have their cons, but use them enough and it becomes irrelevant. Just another opinion.! :)
pipe clamp is the only option for needing a really long clamp and the sizing is literally infinite
Exactly. I used them to hold the sheet-metal sides of transfer tables to the table while welding them in place (as there is nothing to clamp to along the length).
I use my pipe clamps all the time to clamp full size 7 foot doors togethers. If you tighten the clamp to where the pipe bends, your clamping way to tight. No reason to clamp wood that tight.
In may on,boy pipe clamp cheffed,comper to Ligget clamp, because aincanot apord to expensive clamp...
I totally respect you opinion about pipe clamps, and strongly disagree. Pipe clamps are easily reconfigured and much less expensive. Just avoid black iron because of staining.
The world would be pretty boring if we all liked the same things! Thanks for watching
Do they work on pex?
I don't understand the question?
Price comparison?
But Why?
You never mentioned why you like your other clamps better. I have only used pipe clamps and agree with everything you said, but I never considered it a problem.
Are you a Canadian woodworker? You mentioned Canadian tire and Busy Bee tools. Please try to support fellow Canadians with (affiliate) links to Canadian distributors for products if you can 😃 unless amazon Canada doesn’t allow it?
I would call pipe clamps "better than nothing".
that's one way to put it. 🤔🤔🤔 😁😁😁
Gripping! 😁
👍👍👍👍muito top 👍👍👍👍🇧🇷💯
No C-clamps? No spring clamps? No ratchet clamps? No specialist clamps (for clamping corners, edge pieces etc). At least another four episodes’ worth…..
No c-clamps at all. What is there to say about spring clamps? I do have a strap clamp, but again, I did not think I had any story to relate about it.
Must be cheap in Canada. not cheap here, in the US.
i just can barely justify the cost of parallel clamps.
What's wrong with pipe clamps?....WEIGHT! Dont use em. Wouldn't take em even if they were free.