While many love them and swear by them, some like me swear at them and a few novices haven’t seen them… pipe clamps.
Much as I’m not an avid fan of pipe clamps, Ihave to admit to hanging around with some of them,
and believe they may have a place in the workshop… and even in mine,
They have an advantage to most other clamps in that you can virtually have whatever length you like depending on the length of the pipe,
refer to the pipe at the back. If it’s not long enough, you can extend the clamp with threaded couplers to whatever length your heart desires… though that would be limited by the gauge of steel pipe you use. Too thin, and it’ll flex like a bow, too thick, and it’ll weigh a ton… this latter is what may have put me off them (even my 1m set requires an exoskeleton to pick them up)… and people think the Bessey K-Body are muscle developers.
My pipes are ¾”… maybe that’s why I dislike them (imperial, not metric) and perhaps ½” would be better suited for many.
While far from my favourite, I do share affection with my Jet long reach clamps,
compared to my Irwin quick-grip pipes,
Their reach is way superior the the Irwin,
which have the “standard” reach of most traditional pipe clamps.
While setting up for some pictures for this blog, I found 4 of these blocks designed for pipe clamps,
similar to these blocks for parallel clamps,
While looking for a brand name and supplier of the pipe blocks, I came across this box,
Can’t give any recommendations, as the pristine boxed set ( sealed ), that I probably bought over 15 years ago, speaks for itself… nothing wrong with the blocks… but my affinity to pipe clamps.
Now that I have at least mentioned pipe clamps, yazall (Pottz) can’t accuse me of neglect.
well late but ya made it to the party. now i speak for the poor woodworkers that arn't funded by NASA ! aint nothing wrong with pipe clamps. as the duck said, they are very versatile. for less than 4' ill go 1/2" pipe and 3/4" for anything longer to avoid flexing. ive used em for my entire woodworking life and still do. you wont find one high dollar bessey clamp in my shop and ive done a pretty wide range of projects in my time. now duckie i thank you for showing those jet long reach clamps which i was oblivious too ! i will probably get some soon. thanks for the review, even though tainted with prejudice !!!! 😁 i still luv though 😍
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
All I can find is bessey and pony, not as much reach. Where did u get yours?
I bought mine in Aussielandover 15 years ago... I did a search on "jet long reach pipe clamp" and the best I could do was the following, But a tad too far to drive/swim/row... to Aussieland (Yagoona).
Don't let the name McJing fool ya... it's 100% Chinese owned and run... but good Aussie Chinese!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
