What trades still use C-clamps?

[Bill Houghton]

I confess to being a mild c-clamp junkie.  As with so many of my tool gatherings, I get them because they're cheap, and now have enough that I'm just getting interesting ones (this has not stopped me from getting too many for the available space in my shop...maybe I need to limit myself to getting gold-plated ones, or something).

I'm trying to clean up the shop, and was sorting out that corner tonight.  One of the Adjustable Clamp Company clamps I'd forgotten I picked up, a very heavy duty 6" clamp, sent me to Adjustable's website (now Pony/Jorgensen - they've stopped using the fine old "Adjustable" name), where I found out that this probably $1 find is still in production and would go for $37 retail; a good find.  In continued wandering around the site, I found they're still producing ten different varieties of clamps from light duty clamps (they still make some on which the screws are tightened with little knurled knobs, and others with thumbscrews!) to heavy-duty clamps (they claim them only to be medium-duty) with screws of 13/16" diameter.

Most woodworkers these days are using light-duty bar clamps for this kind of clamping.  In my brief life as an auto mechanic, I don't recall any occasion to use a c-clamp, other than the temporary repair I made on the exhaust manifold of my Studebaker pickup (lasted five years before I was able to locate the replacement part), and when I've seen mechanics doing structural steel fabrication, they've tended to use faster-acting clamps like the Vise-Grip welding clamps.  So who's using c-clamps enough that Adjustable still finds it profitable to make ten different varieties?

[Branson]

Let's see... The last time I used C clamps was... two weeks ago.  I built a tiny oak  clamp rack for a set of four miniature brass bar clamps (1/4 by 12 inch brass bars) that I've had and used for over 30 years now.  This is the first time they've had a real home.  Lots of glue ups in building the rack.  Luckily I had enough 1" and 1 1/2" C clamps for the job. 

I use C clamps all the time.  Yeah, I finally broke down and bought quick clamps with 12" bars, but C clamps are often the best solution.  It's a lot easier to clamp a glue up and move it  out of the way while you work on something else -- any bar clamp (except for the tinies mentioned above) is just too clunky to be convenient.  Mine run from 1" to 8" not a few with thumb screws, a couple with those knurled knobs, and range in age from late 1800s to the late 1900s.

People are starting to list them on eBay for some pretty chunks of change.  Don't know if they get their price, but they aren't shy about asking it.

[mikeswrenches]

Guys building wooden boats still use them....lots of them, and in many different sizes.

Mike

[scottg]

There never was a clamp without a use.
 I have a large volume of clamps of every description.
 Every time I think I have enough, I run out on some project or other. 
 
 C clamps run from 1 to 10" around my place.  I love the tiny ones but I use the big ones too sometimes. Forged clamps are dynamite but I have to admit I do like the fancier cast clamps.
 C clamps can bring more pressure to the party than most other kinds. Lots of other clamps are faster, but nobody brings the heat like C clamps. That's why they are still around
    yours Scott
 
 

[Chillylulu]

Metal work of all kinds needs clamps, and c-clamps are ideal.
They pack a lot of holding power, pound for pound, compared to the long clamps we use for woodwork.  A small face works well when the material is rigid.

Mock-ups, holding material together for welding, and clamping down for drilling are my frequent uses.

I keep a 4" c-clamp with my brake tools.  My Ford needs brake pads every year or so.  I use the c-clamp to compress the brake cylinder before I remove the bolts. The whole thing comes off and goes right back over the rotor very easily every time.  My son ( who does my pads for me now that my hands don't work ) can do my back pads and rotors in about 20 minutes on the ground.

Lots of uses, whereas my bar clamps are mostly for wood, but I use them in odd ways also.

Chilly

BTW - if you find yourself in a big box store, or any place where you can see the steel bsr joist construction, look up. Almost all the pipe, some conduit, and other stuff hanging off the structure is hung with a type of c-clamp (a top beam clamp or simply beam clamp.) Fire sprinklers use a 3/8" up to 4", 1/2", 5/8", 3/4", and even 7/8" rod for bigger / multiple pipes.

[rusty]

You do need someplace to hang them up tho...

[Lostmind]

I would sure like to find that at a yard sale!

[Bill Houghton]

Thanks.  I knew many of us use them - I was curious about what trades use them enough to justify Adjustable Clamp offering ten different lines (11, actually, if you count the edging clamps, but those are both specialized and obvious in their use).

When I get a chance, I'll have to weigh that big Adjustable clamp, a model 126, that started my thoughts on this subject.  The thing must approach ten pounds for a 6" clamp.

[Chillylulu]

The trades (building) that use them regularly are the MEP trades, especially the mechanical (hvac) trade, structural, commercial metal stud framers, equipment installers and the elevator crews use clamps for sure.

Chilly

[bear_man]

Antique restorers use them sometimes, and in bulk isn't out of the question.  I have maybe 50 total and once restored an antique child's crib and used 'em all.  I've also bent sheet metal, like for a box, and used quite a few to clamp a long run of metal in one go.  I have some handy V-shaped spring clamps (dunno the proper name) I very rarely use on wood because I haven't developed a feel for how much pressure is applied — C-clamps are the ticket, for that.  Oh, and in bending sheet metal, a bigger clamp may seem like overkill, but the longer "C" provides a handy grip, especially if one enlists some help.  I've never bought a new one, though, but Someone has to make them and buy them for me to get 'em used.   *he grins*

[OilyRascal]

I keep 3 sizes of c-clamps in the truck box at all times.  You can't always get to framing areas with those bar-clamps.  Use them C's regularly.....draw larger framing lumber together before shooting......tie the choker off to the forks on the Skytrac    ........ holding strapping to rack the top of them taller roofs with heavy equipment     ......   and the tiny one in bulk is very handy for drawing those cheap metal exterior doors back together after being kicked in.  I learned that working the hoods in Nawlins.

[bird]

There never was a clamp without a use.
 I have a large volume of clamps of every description.
 Every time I think I have enough, I run out on some project or other. 
 
 C clamps run from 1 to 10" around my place.  I love the tiny ones but I use the big ones too sometimes. Forged clamps are dynamite but I have to admit I do like the fancier cast clamps.
 C clamps can bring more pressure to the party than most other kinds. Lots of other clamps are faster, but nobody brings the heat like C clamps. That's why they are still around
    yours Scott
 
you can NEVER have too many clamps!!!!


I just built a new clamp rack (not this one!)  I must have over 100 clamps. In fact, one year I didn't ask for a clamp for my birthday..... Dad wrapped one up anyway...... said it couldn't be a birthday without a clamp!!!  As far as C clamps go, I agree with you! They're as strong as you get.  Let's see, the last ones I used are holding up a fishing rod in the car, and holding up a window box full of basil on the back deck! No wonder I run out of them!
cheers,
bird
 

[Chillylulu]

T and holding up a window box full of basil on the back deck! No wonder I run out of them!
cheers,
bird
 

Where did you put the rest of him?  (Basil)