Really good video. Ideally deflection should be tested at 300 lbs for all of them rather than deflection at whatever max force you obtain. I would really like to know how squarely each applies the force.
the amount of squeezes actually should be higher scored for more squeezes as it allows more variation in pressure. Also, you should have done a clamp overnight as the harbor freights have come unclamped many times in my experience, I have sold them all at garage sales for a $1, they are complete crap and they break.
The squeeze distance is directly related to strength because of mechanism leverage, so for me the shorter distance would be preferred if I want a greater pressure. If my need was just to quickly clamp at low pressure then I'd want the long squeeze distance. I would reverse the squeeze chart to have green on the short stroke and red on the long stroke.
Makes sense, Michael. That's why I wanted to show all of the data so you could see what works best for your scenario. I think a lot of people would prefer the shorter distance squeeze just like you. Thanks for watching!
Watching your tests, I was wondering if there was space for another two tests? #1-A test to see how long a clamp can keep its "clamp" at its rated capacity. Sometimes we will clamp something over night. A clamp isnt good if it loses this compression after a short while. #2-An additional test of "squeezes per inch". I took a guess that some clamps took quite a number of squeezes to reach 24" because they increment in small measures on purpose. If you take two clamps, one moves in 1/2 inch increments, the other in 1/64 inch increments, placed against the items to be clamped, the smaller incements will provide a larger final force because you can "inch" towards the max force more easily. Thus its possible to apply a larger force more easily. #2a-Ease to reach final max clamp. The smaller incrememts might lead to a larger final clamp because of the smaller incremental movement of the clamp heads. Thanks for your work. Im gonna check out your site soon after this, and make a budget for a couple of new clamps.
As someone who has managed joinery shops of over 40 joiners. A point that’s hard to touch on with a simple one time review is durability. The Irwin clamps definitely fail quicker after daily usage. The internals are quite weak wear out quite quickly resulting in next to no clamping force. The dewalt do the same but lasted a bit longer. I’m about to buy the Bessey as have got 2 friends in the industry who’s besseys have outlived many of the Irwin and dewalts I’ve had. Great review by the way.
I have the same concern about the durability of these clamps. I can’t figure out what is actually wearing out on these Irwin clamps. I’d like to know so I can fix or replace the worn out internal?
Well done comparison! I loved the thought behind the info graphics and appreciate the work that went into this video. I personally have some of these Clamps and agree with your results. I have noticed after a while certain plastic like pads slip/ fall off, which is annoying. I'll say, I love my Jorgensen the best for power, releasability, slidability and it's expansion feature!
Thanks for watching, Pete. I hadn't owned Jorgensens until recently (got them on sale for $12.50 each!) and they don't look like anything special but they're great performers!
Noticing how they slip, I think an important feature to test would be clamping force loss after 15 minutes or so. My guess is they probably settle down since you're nearing their max, but it would be good to see if some hold better than others.
Yeah, they were the only ones that broke. I think that in my case I probably have overtightened them more often than not since it’s hard to tell how much force to apply.
I'm curious to those have broken the HF clamps. Were they the old black ones with orange pads, slightly less old pittsburgh ones with gray pads, or the new Bremens? I havent purchased trigger clamps in over a decade, so I only have used the old orange pad ones. I was thinking about trying a few of the new Bremen branded ones
@@ckmoore101 I bought the new Harbor Freight Blue Bremen Label. I really like them. I’m a retiree casual woodworking. I think their great. Very reasonably priced been holding up like a champ. I’m not a professional or in commercial production business so these are great. HF opened a store near me and I noticed some of their products have really improved. I’d give them a serious look even if your not budget mined….
I don't throw broken tools away if I can fix them. I have fixed the end of Quick Grip clamps too. Real Vise Grip Quick Grips. I make a whole new head out of steel. That doesn't break.
The only issue I had with your method was that the use of another clamp to squeeze could have stacked the deck against the two that broke. Not sure if you agree, just my observation. Very nice comparison on so many different clamps. The little Harbor Freight guy might be a good choice for me. I don't need 400lbs of squeeze and I could buy a whole bunch at that price!
One feature I really like about the DeWalt (and possibly others) is you can remove the fixed stop and put it at the other end of the bar, thereby making this a spreader or jack of sorts. It works great for lifting heavy objects when there's nobody else around to help!
Bonus features for the Bremen and Pittsburgh is that they are also spreaders. Also I don’t think the releasability scores should be factored in when you are clamping it beyond its maximum capacity. You should see how they do at around 300 pounds instead of almost 450, because if you’re testing it at those pressures, you’re clamping your work too hard anyways. Great vid!
WTF! Stop fk'ing with the clamp! I wanna know how much pressure the clamp will SUSTAIN, not how strong your grip strength is. "Clamping force" isnt a peak number when the force continuously fluctuates downward.
Once I bought my Bessey 300 pound clamps, I don't think I can go back. They are so nice to use, and they feel incredibly strong. I still have some older 100 pound Irwin / Quick-Grip clamps for smaller jobs. I owned a couple of those Pittsburg clamps before, they were terrible. Mine felt weaker than the 100 lb clamps, they would just slip. I don't care if they're cheap, they just work terribly. Dollars per pound of clamping force is not a useful metric. A cheap clamp seems like a good idea until you think about usability, the cheap clamps are terrible to work with. I'm sold on Bessey, strongly recommend them to anyone.
I started watching this video to decide between Irwin and Bessey 600. But it is obvious to the naked eye that you are biased against HFT and deliberately break them. Why haven't you done the same with other brands? I mean using another clamp for stretching. This is very unfair. And if you add to this the ridiculous prices of HFT products, then it is doubly unfair. Treat the samples you test as if their brand was not written on them. Thanks for the review!
You missed a bigger drawback of the $6 HF clamp: it leaves oily pad prints on your wood. And you can’t wash it out of the plastic pads, it seems to be impregnated so they will always leave oily footprints no matter what.
All the tests where you gripped the clamp with another clamp are meaningless (which includes the two catastrophic failures. The ratings should reflect only what can be achieved with normal bare-handed power, because that's how they're used. All you've proved is that it's dumb and dangerous to do it that way. It makes the comfort rating meaningless as well., since that will affect how hard you can close it by hand.
Love your content! Although I think you probably could benefit from moving this video (and the others) back onto the main channel. It's sad to see such a laboriously crafted video get only 3.7k views where your main channel would get more traction on it.
That's a great point and one that I have thought about several times. I'm considering releasing a condensed version on LRN2DIY to see how it does there and yes - it was a ton of work to make this so I'd love to get it in front of more people. Thanks so much for the suggestion and for watching!
Nils, the quality and usefulness of this video and your related blog post just flabbergast me! I've been in the market for some new pistol grip clamps and though I've watched and enjoyed several of your videos, for some reason I wasn't subscribed. (I've since resolved that!) Anyway, this was awesome! I was already sold on the Jorgensen E-Z Hold clamps and this video makes me wonder if you've ever considered doing a deeper dive into the entire range of their clamps. I was just at Lowes and was surprised to see that they have them in several clamping capacities and even have one with aluminum components that put me to mind of the "Six Million Dollar Man". Anyway, I couldn't just let this one go by without a comment. Well done. Scott
Hey Scott, I really appreciate the comment and kind words. Yes, this channel is somewhat abandoned at the moment but I do plan on resurrecting it soon to re-harness my woodworking hobby. I agree that Jorgensen clamps are pretty great and I might just do some further comparisons down the road. After all, you can never have enough clamps :)
@@lrn2diywoodworking Ain’t that the truth! By the way, your mini split video really helped me out last summer! I look forward to more woodworking content, Scott
Very good. But I think squeezes per 24" isn't showing what it appears to be showing. Go go say 20", you slide the handle toward the end and only squeeze the last 1/2" or so. No one does a 20" squeeze play until they butt up. If you want maximum load, you need more squeezes per inch. Think in terms of energy per inch. Your hand can only exert a limited amount of force. Applying that force over a smaller distance means you can gain more strain on the bar and less on your hand. So you WANT a high squeeze count.
You're clamping force as a percentage of claimed force is completely ridiculous when your scale Maxes out before the clamp does. And then you arbitrarily just decide you've put enough force into a couple of them (without even stressing them) - and then use a clamp to squeeze the handle on another until it breaks.
In the market for new trigger clamps. I lost it last night, after 10+ years of struggling with Bessey's DuoKlamps, I finally snapped and slammed them all on the floor of my shop until it looked like Pete Townsend had been over with a poorly setup Gibson guitar that tweaked him out. From the first week I got them (brand new) only 1 of about 8 worked close to properly, the rest would refuse to ratchet, just slip and stay frozen in place. I lost count around the 1,000th time they caught me in an awkward/dangerous situation and simply refused to function. I have Bessey strap, pipe, C and K-body clamps and, honestly, after using them in a pro 40+ hour/week shop for over a decade I have to say they are 90% hype. The only products of theirs that I haven't had overt major issues with are so heavy and difficult to place smoothly that I dread using them. As I said initially, I'm in the market for new clamps and Bessey is totally out of consideration now. Never again. I so wish the Mitt Romney-fication hadn't happened and left Craftsman a shell of a company playing the whack-a-mole of which Chinese sweatshop can produce all the clamps but make ours look better racket. Ugh. Good video.
I appreciate hearing your experience on the Besseys. I've had good luck with mind so far but not in all ways and I'm sure I'm using mine a lot less than you are. I'd love to hear what you settle on and how it goes.
@@lrn2diywoodworking Yeah, I'll definitely get back with you on it. Yesterday I picked up a couple of Jorgensen 12'' 1,000lb bar clamps. I haven't gotten their trigger clamps yet as covid slowdowns have made sourcing them first-hand near impossible, in-store stock is apparently non-existent. Whenever I can I prefer to sort through groups of such things and pick out the ones that don't have obvious flaws, that's just not possible on Amazon or eBay, as I'm sure you know. In my looking, including your video here, the Jorgensens seem to be the best bet and their mechanism looks to me to be superior (saw the internals on another UA-cam vid). Also, the company/distributor seems to be a lot more responsive than most other brands. I've tried to deal with so many seemingly large corporations' customer service only to find out they are now shells just drop-shipping product and contracting phone reps who work for multiple ''brands''. In the end, we'll probably all have to move to China to get what was once in the USA a decent sense of connection with and concern from manufacturers. Either way, forward from here is all we got, it's either splat into it or plow through it lol.
"As with all Sears products, Craftsman tools were not manufactured by Sears during that company's ownership, but made under contract by various other companies." -- Wikipedia The Craftsman brand is now owned by Stanley Black & Decker
@@agimasoschandir That wikipedia entry goes on to say that Craftsman tools were manufactured, pre-K-Mart, by New Britain, Moore Drop Forging, Stanley, Easco Hand Tools and Danaher Corporation - which were all US manufacturers before 2010. Stanley has always done a lot of production in England but only a handful of Craftsman were Stanleys. Dave Warren's (ECE rep in Crystal Lake, Illinois) father was Stanley's top USA rep from the 1940s-1970s when Dave took over (as he was writing articles and doing seminars for Fine Woodworking and other woodworking related magazines). I spent a day with him back in December 2006 going over all the history of it, he even took me on a tour through his house, workshop and apothecary building he built and sold tools out of. I bought Craftsman tools from when I started acquiring them back in the 1980s, used my dad's in the 1970s which he acquired in the 1950s-1970s and NONE of them were made outside of the USA except for a couple that were Stanleys marked ''Made in England''. That all changed after 2009 when Sears merged with K-Mart and they started parting out their operations to Chinese dropshippers to compete with eBay and Amazon. I've known people who worked in the Chicago and Rockford shops for Greenlee and other brands pre and post WWII and they all had up and down times due to distribution issues. Craftsman was a kind of consortium which Sears evened the distribution out for, without that flow of production to sales it would have been the insane patchwork of hardware store ''rackjobs'' that existed into the 1950s which was literally dependent upon hoards of salesmen driving all over the country to replenish stock and rebrand small groupings of tools with local names like ''Bob's Hardware'' on runs as small as a few dozen items (it was insane). If you weren't around in those years then there is no way you can comprehend how far quality has dropped and how much more annoying it now is to deal with replacements under warranty since 2009. If you enjoy everything being dropshipped from warehouses importing Chinese and Taiwanese tools by people who know absolutely nothing about them - good for you. I've bought Stubai tools while I was in Tirol, Austria and Paraboni tools while I was in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil at below half the price of what they would be in the USA - both manufacturers still make excellent quality tools but their distribution here can't happen because the Mitt Romneys don't like selling tools that LAST, they make more money on repeat sales of trash items at their dropshipper Big Box stores. I'm not new to this.
G’day mate, I just wanted to say that you have a good channel and that you make some good videos. I believe that if you change the name of your channel to something else , eg another word in front of woodworking you will probably have more people find it. Hope this helps. Cheers 🍻 🍻
Tell ya what Bremen has won me over lol... parallel clamps are better in some ways if not just as good as bessy...everyone likes them and no questions life time warranty....super fare comparison, nice job man...
I know the ones I started using first (300) are the ones I reach for most often. They don’t hold the best but I know how they are going to work. in my hands how it is slides and how to whip them open with one hand it just the one I used the most. I wish I had started with a better clamp so they feel as comfortable but back then thats all I could afford or was available. Now I own most of the ones you tested and they definitely work better for most jobs but my old ones are familiar and I just find myself reaching for them because it’s just what I’m used to. Like a broke pair of jeans or your favorite work boots.
My Roughneck spreader one handed clamp is perfect for me & others here in UK Looks most like the Bessey & Jorgensen with same release and rubber comfort handles.
Good comparison! I think you would have done better to assess the ease of release and deflection at the rated tension, then clamp a 2nd time to determine max tension.
I get the DeWalts when they are on sale at Home Depot. For the bigger things I have a bunch of Tay Tools parallel's that they no longer have. Wish I had bought twice as many of those.
I have a lot of old Harbor Freight knock off one handed clamps and a lot of them the pins in the handles have blown out on me. But it's a relatively easy fix to drill those plastic pins out and pass a screw through the handle. I haven't had a screw break on me either. Apparently metal is a lot stronger than plastic is.
@@1pcfred I had that in the past. They used to have plastic pins in the triggers of the squeeze clamps. The latest ones I have bought have been really strong. The black and grey ones, not the red and black.
Good video. Both the Irwin and the Bremen (Harbor Freight) you can slip the end pieces off and put on the other end to make spreaders. Dunno about any of the others.
I’m confused you said the Dewalt was easiest to release, but then you gave it average releasability at 5 and then the harbor freight was harder to release but then you gave it a higher rating for releasability at 6
Great sense of humor but most importantly *great data*. I am looking for a clamp to cinch deck boards together after watching DrDecks' videos on the topic. Unfortunately the Irwin attachment to convert their clamps for this purpose is unobtanium, so I decided to search for a clamp with adequate clamping force that has the jaws shaped in a way that would allow a bit of grinding to allow them to get in between boards. Looks like the Jorgensen and (possibly) the HF Bremen might fit the bill. I appreciate the time you put into this, best of luck with your channel!
I have about a hundred clamps and none of them is store bought. I get them cheaply at garage- and estate sales. Once I get really good ones the not so good ones have to go and I usually sell them for more than I paid.
excellent review..note that the Werth durability of clamping clutch plate assembly is critical factor in squeeze clamps. You can predict that somewhat by: removing covers, count clutch plates, test hardness of plates, inspect and/or caliper accuracy of punched bar hole whilst seeing condition of hole edges. Sometimes the stamping dies are not top notch/ worn which rolls the entrance to hole. If that side faces bar in clamp mode it can slip. As with pipe clamps try flipping plates over .
That jorg extension trick is neat. I’ve had this bessy clamp for years and it is excellent. I bought one of the cheap harbor freight this year and it came apart within a few uses.
I jumped online to see if I could find a head to head review like this to help me decide which clamps I will purchase. This is exactly what I was looking for.
If you’re okay with replacing them when they break. I think I bought a half dozen to supplement my old Irwin’s. The HF have all broken while the Irwin are still going strong.
@@johnlee7085 I've never met a broken clamp that I couldn't fix. I have a lot of the really old clamps Harbor Freight had and the pivot pins in the handles would blow out in those. So I'd drill them out and put 1/4"x20 screws in there. I haven't had a screw break on me yet. I have a genuine Quick Grip that lost it's head. I made a metal head for it. Metal is a lot stronger than plastic is. Who knew?
Paul - Congratulations in being skilled and interested enough to fix the broken clamps. Personally, I don’t buy tools to fix them when they break. I buy them to build. IMO, time spent fixing tools, is time that could be used building; AKA wasted time.
@@johnlee7085 Personally, I do acquire broken tools with an aim to fix them. This is an 00556 Quick Grip clamp. It had to be repaired. For posterity! It's an OG quick clamp. The one that spawned all the ones you see today. The real deal. My fix certainly did it justice too. It's a chef's kiss! I was inspired by my 5906 welding model. It has a metal head.
I think I will have to stock up on the Jorgensen. Great video and yeah, those welds...lol. But somehow they held up so you could have done worse. Keep up the great content.
A decent weld is a minimum of 60,000 PSI So even a poor weld is going to be pretty strong compared to the forces going on here. That was some popcorn on them beads. But the kernels stuck. Needs more trigger time. Practice makes better.
Vise Grip Quick Grips used to make a welding clamp that was metal. That was how many years ago now? Then there's a product called Supergrips. Which is like Vise Grips with an F clamp head in them. The Vise Grip mechanism is rated for one ton of clamping force. But I think Supergrips only come with about a one foot bar? It should close up those joints that are a bit too tight though.
Even now when I look for a new tool I may need I look at the side or bottom hoping for a small American flag saying "Made In America". It saves me a lot of money. I haven't bought a new tool in 12 years. I like your humor and the best of all you speak clearly and that makes it very easy to follow your instructions.
@@lrn2diywoodworking usually but there are exceptions. I have Made in USA and Made in Japan Makita tools and the Japanese manufactured stuff is noticeably nicer. The American stuff does have an American flag on it though. Still don't help any. It's like silk vs burlap.
I have three channels because the audiences tend to be different from one to the other. With this channel (woodworking) I hope to cater to an audience who doesn't mind spending a bit of money to do woodworking, whereas on LRN2DIY, I look for some of the most affordable options for home improvement. This particular video could work for either channel but others won't.
Very technical measurement of bow. Well thought out test. You earned a new subscriber. Thanks for taking time to test the clamps we consider. $7 for the HF clamps and if it breaks, there's a lifetime warranty. No receipt required.
I have some of the Bessey 300# clamps and never have an issue with releasing. The release mechanism is fairly well protected in its location in the stationary handle, which keeps it out of the way and avoids accidental release quite well for me. That said, the slideability of those clamps plummeted in all of mine so they went from being my favorite to the ones I grab only if I have two free hands to slide them open and closed. Maybe I'll try wiping them down like suggested in the video.
I have some of the Bessey 300# clamps and when they were new they were my favorite clamp. After getting some use on them, they quickly fell out of favor because their slideability became almost non-existent which to me is a big deal on a one handed clamp because I most often was trying to use them with only one free hand. After watching this, I think my next clamp purchase will be the Jorgensen clamps. I like that they interlock and they have the same release style of the Bessey clamps (and they're orange). Since this is a woodworking channel and most uses of clamps will be for glue drying, I would be curious to see a comparison of how well they hold pressure. Not at max pressure, but somewhere in the range of a typical glue up. It would also be nice to see it clamped in without looking at the readout but just by feel of how much you would typically use when glueing and see how the pressures compare.
I'm a woodworker & have had the same issue you describe with Irwin clamps 300# & the smaller 12" clamps they make. I found that keeping glue off the bars does help with slideability (plus oiling the bar helps movement with the added feature of allowing glue to more easily be removed in my experience). Regarding the oil: every woodworker I know, including myself, cringes at the thought of an oily clamp staining the wood or causing fisheye in the finish. I've found (light coatings) of 3-in-1 oil does not interfere with finishes, even water based finishes. Also, you may be aware, but Lie Nielsen sells a plant-based oil called Jojoba oil that's more wood "friendly". I haven't tried yet, but am curious about using canola, peanut or mineral oil & how well or even if they would work as well or better. Sorry for the long-winded comment, I love woodworking & talking about woodworking.
I have used several of the HF clamps for projects I needed to leave outdoors as the price makes them relatively expendable. You weren't able to test the release on them, but I find it to be very difficult.
I just back out of a bit using the threaded handle. It seems to work well. It can be tough from a straight release under pressure. That kind of stuff I look at and think, first world problems. I've never had a problem with mine and I don't think I'll ever pay an extra 20-60 bucks per clamp for things I'll never need.
Nicely done! Keep it up and you'll be up there with Project Farm! Is that a game show (Hollywood Squares) format you started with? LOL. I presently own 4 Dewalt clamps but if I were to add more (likely) my takeaway would be to go for the Irwin. Thanks for posting this.
I could only imagine seeing the success that Project Farm sees but maybe one day. Thanks for watching and good luck with the Irwins if that's what you end up with.
Really good video.
Ideally deflection should be tested at 300 lbs for all of them rather than deflection at whatever max force you obtain.
I would really like to know how squarely each applies the force.
the amount of squeezes actually should be higher scored for more squeezes as it allows more variation in pressure. Also, you should have done a clamp overnight as the harbor freights have come unclamped many times in my experience, I have sold them all at garage sales for a $1, they are complete crap and they break.
The squeeze distance is directly related to strength because of mechanism leverage, so for me the shorter distance would be preferred if I want a greater pressure. If my need was just to quickly clamp at low pressure then I'd want the long squeeze distance. I would reverse the squeeze chart to have green on the short stroke and red on the long stroke.
Totally agree. Also, for this type of measurement, squeeze 10 times and measure that distance to get more accurate data.
Makes sense, Michael. That's why I wanted to show all of the data so you could see what works best for your scenario. I think a lot of people would prefer the shorter distance squeeze just like you. Thanks for watching!
Good point on the 10 squeeze method - I'll keep that in mind for future videos. Thanks!
Watching your tests, I was wondering if there was space for another two tests?
#1-A test to see how long a clamp can keep its "clamp" at its rated capacity. Sometimes we will clamp something over night. A clamp isnt good if it loses this compression after a short while.
#2-An additional test of "squeezes per inch". I took a guess that some clamps took quite a number of squeezes to reach 24" because they increment in small measures on purpose. If you take two clamps, one moves in 1/2 inch increments, the other in 1/64 inch increments, placed against the items to be clamped, the smaller incements will provide a larger final force because you can "inch" towards the max force more easily. Thus its possible to apply a larger force more easily.
#2a-Ease to reach final max clamp. The smaller incrememts might lead to a larger final clamp because of the smaller incremental movement of the clamp heads.
Thanks for your work. Im gonna check out your site soon after this, and make a budget for a couple of new clamps.
As someone who has managed joinery shops of over 40 joiners. A point that’s hard to touch on with a simple one time review is durability. The Irwin clamps definitely fail quicker after daily usage. The internals are quite weak wear out quite quickly resulting in next to no clamping force. The dewalt do the same but lasted a bit longer. I’m about to buy the Bessey as have got 2 friends in the industry who’s besseys have outlived many of the Irwin and dewalts I’ve had. Great review by the way.
I have the same concern about the durability of these clamps. I can’t figure out what is actually wearing out on these Irwin clamps. I’d like to know so I can fix or replace the worn out internal?
Hey, Was hoping you’d give a quick update on your Bessey Clamps if you have Tried them yet.
Thanks!
Well done comparison! I loved the thought behind the info graphics and appreciate the work that went into this video. I personally have some of these Clamps and agree with your results. I have noticed after a while certain plastic like pads slip/ fall off, which is annoying. I'll say, I love my Jorgensen the best for power, releasability, slidability and it's expansion feature!
Thanks for watching, Pete. I hadn't owned Jorgensens until recently (got them on sale for $12.50 each!) and they don't look like anything special but they're great performers!
This is exactly what I needed when I searched for "best trigger clamp". Keep up the good work.
Noticing how they slip, I think an important feature to test would be clamping force loss after 15 minutes or so. My guess is they probably settle down since you're nearing their max, but it would be good to see if some hold better than others.
Good Idea, I was thinking/wondering the same thing.
That’s what I came here to comment. It’s pretty disappointing. He missed out on measuring the most important real life factor.
600 irwin the Germans have buckets o them, great 4 framing, its what the kool kids were using 2 x 24 n 2x16"
Good lord! You put some TIME into this video, and it paid off. Earned a sub from me. Keep up the great, objective content! Thank you so much!
Great video. I threw all my HF quick clamps away after several of them broke. The unreliability is a deal breaker for me.
Yeah, they were the only ones that broke. I think that in my case I probably have overtightened them more often than not since it’s hard to tell how much force to apply.
@@lrn2diywoodworking I also have had HF clamps break in my hand while squeezing. Thanks for this.
I'm curious to those have broken the HF clamps. Were they the old black ones with orange pads, slightly less old pittsburgh ones with gray pads, or the new Bremens? I havent purchased trigger clamps in over a decade, so I only have used the old orange pad ones. I was thinking about trying a few of the new Bremen branded ones
@@ckmoore101 I bought the new Harbor Freight Blue Bremen Label. I really like them. I’m a retiree casual woodworking. I think their great. Very reasonably priced been holding up like a champ. I’m not a professional or in commercial production business so these are great. HF opened a store near me and I noticed some of their products have really improved. I’d give them a serious look even if your not budget mined….
I don't throw broken tools away if I can fix them. I have fixed the end of Quick Grip clamps too. Real Vise Grip Quick Grips. I make a whole new head out of steel. That doesn't break.
Extremely detailed and thorough. Thanks!
The only issue I had with your method was that the use of another clamp to squeeze could have stacked the deck against the two that broke. Not sure if you agree, just my observation. Very nice comparison on so many different clamps. The little Harbor Freight guy might be a good choice for me. I don't need 400lbs of squeeze and I could buy a whole bunch at that price!
One feature I really like about the DeWalt (and possibly others) is you can remove the fixed stop and put it at the other end of the bar, thereby making this a spreader or jack of sorts. It works great for lifting heavy objects when there's nobody else around to help!
The Irwins do this. So do the nice ones (not the Pittsburg) from Harbor Freight.
Bonus features for the Bremen and Pittsburgh is that they are also spreaders. Also I don’t think the releasability scores should be factored in when you are clamping it beyond its maximum capacity. You should see how they do at around 300 pounds instead of almost 450, because if you’re testing it at those pressures, you’re clamping your work too hard anyways. Great vid!
WTF! Stop fk'ing with the clamp! I wanna know how much pressure the clamp will SUSTAIN, not how strong your grip strength is. "Clamping force" isnt a peak number when the force continuously fluctuates downward.
Once I bought my Bessey 300 pound clamps, I don't think I can go back. They are so nice to use, and they feel incredibly strong. I still have some older 100 pound Irwin / Quick-Grip clamps for smaller jobs. I owned a couple of those Pittsburg clamps before, they were terrible. Mine felt weaker than the 100 lb clamps, they would just slip. I don't care if they're cheap, they just work terribly. Dollars per pound of clamping force is not a useful metric. A cheap clamp seems like a good idea until you think about usability, the cheap clamps are terrible to work with. I'm sold on Bessey, strongly recommend them to anyone.
Jorgensen due to the ability to link them. Or the Wood River, at least it's made in Taiwan, not Commie China.
11:04 The releasability jumped from an 8 right back down to a 5, eh? Great video overall, though!
Holy crap that was interesting and informative. It had some of everything. Suspense, comedy, danger and knowledge.
I started watching this video to decide between Irwin and Bessey 600. But it is obvious to the naked eye that you are biased against HFT and deliberately break them. Why haven't you done the same with other brands? I mean using another clamp for stretching. This is very unfair. And if you add to this the ridiculous prices of HFT products, then it is doubly unfair. Treat the samples you test as if their brand was not written on them. Thanks for the review!
You missed a bigger drawback of the $6 HF clamp: it leaves oily pad prints on your wood. And you can’t wash it out of the plastic pads, it seems to be impregnated so they will always leave oily footprints no matter what.
I would have been interested for those over performers to know what the bar deflection was at their "rated" load
All the tests where you gripped the clamp with another clamp are meaningless (which includes the two catastrophic failures. The ratings should reflect only what can be achieved with normal bare-handed power, because that's how they're used. All you've proved is that it's dumb and dangerous to do it that way. It makes the comfort rating meaningless as well., since that will affect how hard you can close it by hand.
I think you are looking at the amount of squeezes the wrong way. The smaller movement may produce more torque/pressure.
hey come back and make more videos !!!!!!
I wish I saw this before so I could support Jorgensen's cool innovative design :)
I have several of the HF 14” camps and they work just fine and for about $4.99 hard to beat. No I don’t try to max them out. None have broken.
I never expect too much clamping force out of one handed clamps. Generally I use them just to hold stuff until I can get other clamps on.
Love your content! Although I think you probably could benefit from moving this video (and the others) back onto the main channel. It's sad to see such a laboriously crafted video get only 3.7k views where your main channel would get more traction on it.
That's a great point and one that I have thought about several times. I'm considering releasing a condensed version on LRN2DIY to see how it does there and yes - it was a ton of work to make this so I'd love to get it in front of more people. Thanks so much for the suggestion and for watching!
Those transitions at the clamp hanging section are bloody awful
Jorgenson for the ability to connect them
Those for 6 are better than beast and dealt easy.
the dewalt does have a bonus feature that you can switch the head around and use it as jack/spreader i use mine to install upper kitchen cabinets
All of them do that
6 pounds of wrist power is above average lol
Great video Nils! I can see a lot of time and thought went into this video.
Thanks, Michael. Definitely time consuming but it was a fun comparison to make. Are you partial to any particular clamp brand?
@@lrn2diywoodworking I’m mostly a DeWALT kind of guy.
Nils, the quality and usefulness of this video and your related blog post just flabbergast me! I've been in the market for some new pistol grip clamps and though I've watched and enjoyed several of your videos, for some reason I wasn't subscribed. (I've since resolved that!) Anyway, this was awesome! I was already sold on the Jorgensen E-Z Hold clamps and this video makes me wonder if you've ever considered doing a deeper dive into the entire range of their clamps. I was just at Lowes and was surprised to see that they have them in several clamping capacities and even have one with aluminum components that put me to mind of the "Six Million Dollar Man". Anyway, I couldn't just let this one go by without a comment. Well done. Scott
Oh, now I see, this isn't your LRN2DIY channel! I'm a slow learner.
Hey Scott, I really appreciate the comment and kind words. Yes, this channel is somewhat abandoned at the moment but I do plan on resurrecting it soon to re-harness my woodworking hobby. I agree that Jorgensen clamps are pretty great and I might just do some further comparisons down the road. After all, you can never have enough clamps :)
@@lrn2diywoodworking Ain’t that the truth! By the way, your mini split video really helped me out last summer! I look forward to more woodworking content, Scott
WHERE IS WOLFCRAFT BRAND THEY ARE THE BEST I'VE HAD THEM 20+YEARS BEEN THROUGH THE WARS STILL SERVING ME WELL
I"VE NEVER HEARD OF WOLFCRAFT WHERE DO YOU GET THEM
Very good. But I think squeezes per 24" isn't showing what it appears to be showing. Go go say 20", you slide the handle toward the end and only squeeze the last 1/2" or so. No one does a 20" squeeze play until they butt up.
If you want maximum load, you need more squeezes per inch. Think in terms of energy per inch. Your hand can only exert a limited amount of force. Applying that force over a smaller distance means you can gain more strain on the bar and less on your hand. So you WANT a high squeeze count.
You're clamping force as a percentage of claimed force is completely ridiculous when your scale Maxes out before the clamp does. And then you arbitrarily just decide you've put enough force into a couple of them (without even stressing them) - and then use a clamp to squeeze the handle on another until it breaks.
In the market for new trigger clamps. I lost it last night, after 10+ years of struggling with Bessey's DuoKlamps, I finally snapped and slammed them all on the floor of my shop until it looked like Pete Townsend had been over with a poorly setup Gibson guitar that tweaked him out. From the first week I got them (brand new) only 1 of about 8 worked close to properly, the rest would refuse to ratchet, just slip and stay frozen in place. I lost count around the 1,000th time they caught me in an awkward/dangerous situation and simply refused to function. I have Bessey strap, pipe, C and K-body clamps and, honestly, after using them in a pro 40+ hour/week shop for over a decade I have to say they are 90% hype. The only products of theirs that I haven't had overt major issues with are so heavy and difficult to place smoothly that I dread using them. As I said initially, I'm in the market for new clamps and Bessey is totally out of consideration now. Never again. I so wish the Mitt Romney-fication hadn't happened and left Craftsman a shell of a company playing the whack-a-mole of which Chinese sweatshop can produce all the clamps but make ours look better racket. Ugh. Good video.
I appreciate hearing your experience on the Besseys. I've had good luck with mind so far but not in all ways and I'm sure I'm using mine a lot less than you are. I'd love to hear what you settle on and how it goes.
@@lrn2diywoodworking Yeah, I'll definitely get back with you on it. Yesterday I picked up a couple of Jorgensen 12'' 1,000lb bar clamps. I haven't gotten their trigger clamps yet as covid slowdowns have made sourcing them first-hand near impossible, in-store stock is apparently non-existent. Whenever I can I prefer to sort through groups of such things and pick out the ones that don't have obvious flaws, that's just not possible on Amazon or eBay, as I'm sure you know. In my looking, including your video here, the Jorgensens seem to be the best bet and their mechanism looks to me to be superior (saw the internals on another UA-cam vid). Also, the company/distributor seems to be a lot more responsive than most other brands. I've tried to deal with so many seemingly large corporations' customer service only to find out they are now shells just drop-shipping product and contracting phone reps who work for multiple ''brands''. In the end, we'll probably all have to move to China to get what was once in the USA a decent sense of connection with and concern from manufacturers. Either way, forward from here is all we got, it's either splat into it or plow through it lol.
"As with all Sears products, Craftsman tools were not manufactured by Sears during that company's ownership, but made under contract by various other companies." -- Wikipedia
The Craftsman brand is now owned by Stanley Black & Decker
@@agimasoschandir That wikipedia entry goes on to say that Craftsman tools were manufactured, pre-K-Mart, by New Britain, Moore Drop Forging, Stanley, Easco Hand Tools and Danaher Corporation - which were all US manufacturers before 2010. Stanley has always done a lot of production in England but only a handful of Craftsman were Stanleys. Dave Warren's (ECE rep in Crystal Lake, Illinois) father was Stanley's top USA rep from the 1940s-1970s when Dave took over (as he was writing articles and doing seminars for Fine Woodworking and other woodworking related magazines). I spent a day with him back in December 2006 going over all the history of it, he even took me on a tour through his house, workshop and apothecary building he built and sold tools out of.
I bought Craftsman tools from when I started acquiring them back in the 1980s, used my dad's in the 1970s which he acquired in the 1950s-1970s and NONE of them were made outside of the USA except for a couple that were Stanleys marked ''Made in England''. That all changed after 2009 when Sears merged with K-Mart and they started parting out their operations to Chinese dropshippers to compete with eBay and Amazon. I've known people who worked in the Chicago and Rockford shops for Greenlee and other brands pre and post WWII and they all had up and down times due to distribution issues. Craftsman was a kind of consortium which Sears evened the distribution out for, without that flow of production to sales it would have been the insane patchwork of hardware store ''rackjobs'' that existed into the 1950s which was literally dependent upon hoards of salesmen driving all over the country to replenish stock and rebrand small groupings of tools with local names like ''Bob's Hardware'' on runs as small as a few dozen items (it was insane).
If you weren't around in those years then there is no way you can comprehend how far quality has dropped and how much more annoying it now is to deal with replacements under warranty since 2009. If you enjoy everything being dropshipped from warehouses importing Chinese and Taiwanese tools by people who know absolutely nothing about them - good for you. I've bought Stubai tools while I was in Tirol, Austria and Paraboni tools while I was in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil at below half the price of what they would be in the USA - both manufacturers still make excellent quality tools but their distribution here can't happen because the Mitt Romneys don't like selling tools that LAST, they make more money on repeat sales of trash items at their dropshipper Big Box stores. I'm not new to this.
G’day mate, I just wanted to say that you have a good channel and that you make some good videos. I believe that if you change the name of your channel to something else , eg another word in front of woodworking you will probably have more people find it. Hope this helps. Cheers 🍻 🍻
Tell ya what Bremen has won me over lol... parallel clamps are better in some ways if not just as good as bessy...everyone likes them and no questions life time warranty....super fare comparison, nice job man...
I know the ones I started using first (300) are the ones I reach for most often. They don’t hold the best but I know how they are going to work. in my hands how it is slides and how to whip them open with one hand it just the one I used the most. I wish I had started with a better clamp so they feel as comfortable but back then thats all I could afford or was available. Now I own most of the ones you tested and they definitely work better for most jobs but my old ones are familiar and I just find myself reaching for them because it’s just what I’m used to. Like a broke pair of jeans or your favorite work boots.
You only used a clamp to clamp the Harbor Freight clamps. Seems you should have tested them equally. Flawed!
I've had several of the Pittsburg black and grey clamps and none of them work anymore, I am looking forward to trying the Bremen ones though.
you did the harbor freight clamps dirty... I didn't see you using a clamp to squeeze on any other clamps
My Roughneck spreader one handed clamp is perfect for me & others here in UK Looks most like the Bessey & Jorgensen with same release and rubber comfort handles.
Good comparison! I think you would have done better to assess the ease of release and deflection at the rated tension, then clamp a 2nd time to determine max tension.
Good point. As I was editing I thought that would be a good idea for next time, so I agree.
I get the DeWalts when they are on sale at Home Depot. For the bigger things I have a bunch of Tay Tools parallel's that they no longer have. Wish I had bought twice as many of those.
The clamps are not designed to be tightened with a clamp
Thanks for doing this video. I was just shopping for clamps and this video helped me a ton!
I buy all my clamps at Harbor Freight. I've used them for years with no problems.
I have a lot of old Harbor Freight knock off one handed clamps and a lot of them the pins in the handles have blown out on me. But it's a relatively easy fix to drill those plastic pins out and pass a screw through the handle. I haven't had a screw break on me either. Apparently metal is a lot stronger than plastic is.
@@1pcfred I had that in the past. They used to have plastic pins in the triggers of the squeeze clamps. The latest ones I have bought have been really strong. The black and grey ones, not the red and black.
@@cabman86 those are the pins that break. Easy to fix though.
Good video. Both the Irwin and the Bremen (Harbor Freight) you can slip the end pieces off and put on the other end to make spreaders. Dunno about any of the others.
Were you the kid that enjoyed jack in the boxes and haunted houses? 😝 Really great comparison.
I’m confused you said the Dewalt was easiest to release, but then you gave it average releasability at 5 and then the harbor freight was harder to release but then you gave it a higher rating for releasability at 6
Great sense of humor but most importantly *great data*. I am looking for a clamp to cinch deck boards together after watching DrDecks' videos on the topic. Unfortunately the Irwin attachment to convert their clamps for this purpose is unobtanium, so I decided to search for a clamp with adequate clamping force that has the jaws shaped in a way that would allow a bit of grinding to allow them to get in between boards. Looks like the Jorgensen and (possibly) the HF Bremen might fit the bill. I appreciate the time you put into this, best of luck with your channel!
I have about a hundred clamps and none of them is store bought. I get them cheaply at garage- and estate sales. Once I get really good ones the not so good ones have to go and I usually sell them for more than I paid.
Which one is the best for a 68 yr old woman who just does projects around the house?
Love the Tootsie pop, how long does it take to get to the center reference. You seem far too young to know that reference. 😆
excellent review..note that the Werth durability of clamping clutch plate assembly is critical factor in squeeze clamps. You can predict that somewhat by: removing covers, count clutch plates, test hardness of plates, inspect and/or caliper accuracy of punched bar hole whilst seeing condition of hole edges. Sometimes the stamping dies are not top notch/ worn which rolls the entrance to hole. If that side faces bar in clamp mode it can slip. As with pipe clamps try flipping plates over .
I like the Rockler aluminum clamps that aren't really trigger clamps, but look like one, and work great.
Very nice. Great info thanks for sharing
I’m impressed your welds actually held over 600lbs. Makes me a lot more confident in my own. Im guessing you use a 110 flux core machine?
Exactly, yes. Just a cheap Harbor Freight setup.
Very very good, informative video. Thanks.
I will buy Bessey... 😁just made by germany‼
Awesome video. Thanks for sharing this information. 👍🏾
That jorg extension trick is neat. I’ve had this bessy clamp for years and it is excellent. I bought one of the cheap harbor freight this year and it came apart within a few uses.
I jumped online to see if I could find a head to head review like this to help me decide which clamps I will purchase. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Don't skip the leg "year" :). Great test and presentation! Cheers.
Use another clamp on the clamp trigger to max it out
Awesome content. You deserve much more new subs than just mine... Still subscribed of course.
That’s very kind of you, Duane. Thank you!
I think the weight varied and then settled back because of the elasticity of the pads.
Love the info graphics. Looks like I can safely stick to the HF cheap clamps.
Thanks, Ben. Yeah, I'm actually really liking the Bremen clamps, especially since they refuse to explode. :)
If you’re okay with replacing them when they break. I think I bought a half dozen to supplement my old Irwin’s. The HF have all broken while the Irwin are still going strong.
@@johnlee7085 I've never met a broken clamp that I couldn't fix. I have a lot of the really old clamps Harbor Freight had and the pivot pins in the handles would blow out in those. So I'd drill them out and put 1/4"x20 screws in there. I haven't had a screw break on me yet. I have a genuine Quick Grip that lost it's head. I made a metal head for it. Metal is a lot stronger than plastic is. Who knew?
Paul - Congratulations in being skilled and interested enough to fix the broken clamps.
Personally, I don’t buy tools to fix them when they break. I buy them to build. IMO, time spent fixing tools, is time that could be used building; AKA wasted time.
@@johnlee7085 Personally, I do acquire broken tools with an aim to fix them. This is an 00556 Quick Grip clamp. It had to be repaired. For posterity! It's an OG quick clamp. The one that spawned all the ones you see today. The real deal. My fix certainly did it justice too. It's a chef's kiss! I was inspired by my 5906 welding model. It has a metal head.
Thorough, informative, entertaining, a bit long.
Thanks for the feedback and for watching!
Good job on the comparisons. like the date pics on them. i use some of those clamps so its nice to see how they hold up.
Отличная работа 👌🏻👏🏻. Всё ясно.
terrible welds!
I think I will have to stock up on the Jorgensen. Great video and yeah, those welds...lol. But somehow they held up so you could have done worse. Keep up the great content.
A decent weld is a minimum of 60,000 PSI So even a poor weld is going to be pretty strong compared to the forces going on here. That was some popcorn on them beads. But the kernels stuck. Needs more trigger time. Practice makes better.
I'll stick with HF
IRWIN
Good video.
Are there some robust full metal fast clamps?
Vise Grip Quick Grips used to make a welding clamp that was metal. That was how many years ago now? Then there's a product called Supergrips. Which is like Vise Grips with an F clamp head in them. The Vise Grip mechanism is rated for one ton of clamping force. But I think Supergrips only come with about a one foot bar? It should close up those joints that are a bit too tight though.
Even now when I look for a new tool I may need I look at the side or bottom hoping for a small American flag saying "Made In America". It saves me a lot of money. I haven't bought a new tool in 12 years. I like your humor and the best of all you speak clearly and that makes it very easy to follow your instructions.
Thanks so much. Yeah, seeing American made products usually makes me feel a lot more confident about it too. Thanks for watching!
@@lrn2diywoodworking usually but there are exceptions. I have Made in USA and Made in Japan Makita tools and the Japanese manufactured stuff is noticeably nicer. The American stuff does have an American flag on it though. Still don't help any. It's like silk vs burlap.
So which one is it?
I like your content. Why are you starting new channels?
I have three channels because the audiences tend to be different from one to the other. With this channel (woodworking) I hope to cater to an audience who doesn't mind spending a bit of money to do woodworking, whereas on LRN2DIY, I look for some of the most affordable options for home improvement. This particular video could work for either channel but others won't.
data driven analysis, love it
Which one has the best pressure .
Not sure what you mean by that? I take pressure to mean ability to squeeze, which is what I was measuring, but maybe I'm misunderstanding.
Very technical measurement of bow. Well thought out test. You earned a new subscriber. Thanks for taking time to test the clamps we consider. $7 for the HF clamps and if it breaks, there's a lifetime warranty. No receipt required.
So why no pressure test to fail on the other clamps
I only didn't go to failure on the others because I physically couldn't. I squeezed as hard as I could and couldn't get these any tighter.
Great video. I worry that they Bessey 300 might be too easy to release under normal pressures. Is there any truth to that?
I have some of the Bessey 300# clamps and never have an issue with releasing. The release mechanism is fairly well protected in its location in the stationary handle, which keeps it out of the way and avoids accidental release quite well for me. That said, the slideability of those clamps plummeted in all of mine so they went from being my favorite to the ones I grab only if I have two free hands to slide them open and closed. Maybe I'll try wiping them down like suggested in the video.
@@IceMonkey82 Which ones do you prefer (ones that maintained slideability)?
I have some of the Bessey 300# clamps and when they were new they were my favorite clamp. After getting some use on them, they quickly fell out of favor because their slideability became almost non-existent which to me is a big deal on a one handed clamp because I most often was trying to use them with only one free hand. After watching this, I think my next clamp purchase will be the Jorgensen clamps. I like that they interlock and they have the same release style of the Bessey clamps (and they're orange).
Since this is a woodworking channel and most uses of clamps will be for glue drying, I would be curious to see a comparison of how well they hold pressure. Not at max pressure, but somewhere in the range of a typical glue up. It would also be nice to see it clamped in without looking at the readout but just by feel of how much you would typically use when glueing and see how the pressures compare.
I'm a woodworker & have had the same issue you describe with Irwin clamps 300# & the smaller 12" clamps they make. I found that keeping glue off the bars does help with slideability (plus oiling the bar helps movement with the added feature of allowing glue to more easily be removed in my experience).
Regarding the oil: every woodworker I know, including myself, cringes at the thought of an oily clamp staining the wood or causing fisheye in the finish. I've found (light coatings) of 3-in-1 oil does not interfere with finishes, even water based finishes. Also, you may be aware, but Lie Nielsen sells a plant-based oil called Jojoba oil that's more wood "friendly". I haven't tried yet, but am curious about using canola, peanut or mineral oil & how well or even if they would work as well or better.
Sorry for the long-winded comment, I love woodworking & talking about woodworking.
I have used several of the HF clamps for projects I needed to leave outdoors as the price makes them relatively expendable. You weren't able to test the release on them, but I find it to be very difficult.
I just back out of a bit using the threaded handle. It seems to work well. It can be tough from a straight release under pressure. That kind of stuff I look at and think, first world problems. I've never had a problem with mine and I don't think I'll ever pay an extra 20-60 bucks per clamp for things I'll never need.
Such an awesome comparison. Just what I needed for coming projects!
Nicely done! Keep it up and you'll be up there with Project Farm! Is that a game show (Hollywood Squares) format you started with? LOL. I presently own 4 Dewalt clamps but if I were to add more (likely) my takeaway would be to go for the Irwin. Thanks for posting this.
I could only imagine seeing the success that Project Farm sees but maybe one day. Thanks for watching and good luck with the Irwins if that's what you end up with.
Nice safety glasses.