Home Depot’s Bessey clamp set offer seems like a good deal, where you get 2x 12″ bar clamps and 2x 6″ bar clamps for $21.97 per set.
These are light to medium duty clamps that can deliver up to 600 lbs of clamping pressure.
The lowest price I can find on the same individual clamps is $10 each for the 6″ clamps via Amazon, and $11 each for the 12″ clamps. $22 for the 4pc set seems like a good price.
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It’s often said that a woodworker can never have enough clamps. I would argue that one can never have enough good clamps. I think these Besseys are pretty decent and a great value.
The clamps feature a 3.5″ throat depth, cast iron fixed and sliding jaws, hardwood handle, nickel-plated rails, and non-marring protective pads.
Price: $21.97
Amazon has a similar deal, but they’re backordered into mid-January.
Here are some more clamp deals that are live right now:
Dewalt 6pc Clamp Set – $34.97 at Home Depot
Dewalt Better 6pc Clamp Set – $41.65 at Home Depot
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Bessey 12″ 1000 lb Bar Clamp at Amazon
Jorgensen 24″ Parallel Clamp 2-Pack at Amazon
Jorgesen 36″ Parallel Clamp 2-Pack – $75.99 at Amazon
JET Parallel Clamp 4pc Set – $199.99 at Acme Tools w/ free shipping
Bessey K Body Revo 2x 24″ and 2×50″ Parallel Clamp Set with Blocks – $213.99 at Amazon
Vards Uzvards
Lowe’s has rather good prices on three sizes of Jorgensen parallel clamps, too.
Dustin
The 12,18, and 30 inch are all $15 bucks right now
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Jorgensen-30-in-Parallel-Jaw-Clamp/5001993119
Derek
Those are great clamps. I’ve bought a few sets over the years.
Rockler has the Bessey parallel clamps set one sale for a better price than Amazon. They also have a couple of sizes of individual clamps on sale.
Scott K
I bought this set a long time ago and they’ve held up well. I may pick up another – although I would also like some trigger style quick clamps.
John E
My favorite one-handed quick clamps are the Jorgensens. They are just so easy to operate. The can be used as spreaders too and doubled up will turn 2 – 12″ clamps into one 30″ clamp, albeit with lower clamping strength.
MM
Yes, Rockler has the Bessey K-Body Revo set with the extenders on sale for $195.
They also have a promo deal showing for me that is 20% off any one not-on-sale item + free shipping over $49. There are some exclusions but it does appear to apply to the other K-Body Revo set with the blocks, which would come in at $185 with the deal.
John E
I think the correct adage is “a woodworker can never have “too many” clamps”. That being said, I picked up a boatload of Bessey clamps years ago when Lowe’s clearanced everything out – as they are wont to do – for .25¢ on the dollar, so am probably the exception to that rule. A lot, I recall, were stamped “Made in Germany” but I think those days are gone too.
James
How many clamps does every woodworking project require? “One more than you have.”
fred
Until you decide to build something like a laminated-strip canoe. Then you need more than the local HD has in stock.
moe
anyone have experience with the hf clamp
PW
I have a couple iterations of the HF counterpart to these F-clamps. The HF clamps are markedly inferior – the bar portion is thinner and more prone to warping. It’s also not chromed, and rusts more easily. The pads and handles are different material.
The Bessey clamps are worth the extra scratch, especially on sale.
SecretSquirrel
Sorry but these clamps suck.
I only buy the German made Bessey (if I can find them) or the 1000 lb Jorgensen.
Chris
What problems have you had with them?
SecretSquirrel
The smooth wood handles are hard to grip, and get the clamp tight on your work.
I have had the cams slip so the clamp wont tighten, and the cast iron frame of the clamp has cracked.
Honestly the new Chinese made Bessey and Jorgensen have decreased greatly in quality, yet the price goes up…
Josh
While functional and useful for many tasks around the shop, I agree that these clamps are not “real” Bessey clamps as they are made in China and not Germany.
The Chinese-made Bessy F-clamps are functionally equivalent to Harbor Freight F-clamps of this size/style and not worth the money that Bessey charges for them. I would strongly recommend just buying the Harbor Freight version of these clamps which frequently go on sale for about $2.50 each. Some folks might like the rubberized grip on the HF clamps more than the slippery, small-diameter wood handle of these Besseys. At a minimum, you will have an easier time with warranty replacement if one fails (or you abuse it to the point of breakage) as they both have a lifetime warranty, but you can just walk in to a HF store and swap out a broken one without a receipt (I’ve never dealt with a warranty claim for Bessey).
A lot of folks like to modify the HF F-clamps into welding table fixture clamps by cutting off the fixed jaw and welding on a small cylindrical post to engage the fixture table.
German-made Bessey F-clamps are high quality, but expensive. They also don’t have the clutch plates, so it’s easy to tell at a glance whether an individual Bessey clamp is a cheap Chinese import or an expensive German import.
One feature that I like about German made Bessey F-clamps is that they have a setscrew which allows you to adjust for wear on the sliding head which happens over years of use. This keeps the two arms closer to parallel as the clamps wear. I have vintage German-made woodworking clamps of this type (without the setscrew) and after decades of use the jaws are significantly out of parallel. I might try welding or brazing a “shim” to fix them someday, but probably won’t ever get around to it.
MM
If anyone needs stronger versions of this type of clamp Piher makes some very good ones but alas they are not cheap.
Another option is to use the welding type F-clamps, I use mine for woodworking just as often as welding. They are available in a huge variety of sizes and tend to have much higher load ratings than the woodworking type. I like the Strong Hand 4-in-1 ones a lot. These are especially good to repurpose for woodworking because of that threaded hole in the stationary jaw. In addition to the standard accessories you can easily secure cauls to the stationary jaw using a short screw. Or if you are building a jig you can install short pins where you want the clamps to go and then place the clamps over the pins when installing them.
fred
There are “stronger” and then even much stronger clamps. In our metal fabrication business, we sometimes needed “bridge” clamps:
https://www.zoro.com/williams-williams-heavy-service-c-clamp-0-to-12-38-cc-12laaw/i/G6521475/?q=G6521475
MM
If one needs the highest possible clamping force nothing will beat a rigid frame clamp. I like the 100-series Wiltons a lot. But here I’m impressed that F-style sliding bar camps can get pretty darn serious. Piher has models up to 5000lb if I recall correctly and those are in the traditional woodworking style. Bessey makes the welding style in a bunch of ratings including 7700 and 8500lb. The 7700lb ones manage that with an 8″ throat depth as well, that is quite impressive.
SecretSquirrel
I agree, if you want cheap clamps, get the harbor freight, they are similar quality to these Chinese Bessey’s.
TN Trench
I have both the HF and these Bessey clamps. While they are not the same quality as the older Bessey they are much much better then the HF clamps.
Mr B
Dropping this here, can’t find an email.
Fein has the Multimaster 500 Ampshare kit with a 2 ah battery and bag for $149 at various retailers. The 700 AMM kit is $299 with a 4 ah battery. Various other holiday promotions on their website.
Happy Thanksgiving all!
Stuart
Thanks! Will look into this – I’ve seen a couple of Fein deals, but not on the new cordless OMTs.
fred
Burns Power Tools (online and MA Store) has a Fein deal going on.
https://www.burnstools.com/core18v-multimaster-500-plus-kit-2-0ah
Tdot77
Stuart I just wanted to mention another sale that’s going on right now for you to share with the masses. I received an email from Tekton which states their ‘Clearance’ section of tools that are discontinued or have small manufacturing defects or ‘scratch & dent’ tools are marked an extra 20% off of their already lowered prices(discount shows up in ‘cart’). There are 15+ ‘pages’ of items, many of which are just simply not made anymore because they updated them with a new model, or have small defects(machine marks, extra plastic, mis-lined picks, etc) so they’re getting rid of old stock by marking them down. They state they they will still honor the lifetime warranty on these items or ship you replacement repair parts if necessary for free. It’s a good way to replace any items that you may have lost or damaged in the past creating holes in your full sets\cases. They have many ratcheting wrench versions, offset angle wrenches, crows feet ‘wrenches’, screwdrivers, nut drivers, etc, etc. The 20% additional discount is good til Dec 1st(iirc). Thanks for all your help in finding the cheapest way to buy ALL the tools we may or may not need, but buy anyways! ;-)
NoahG
The best deal ever was the couple years they offered a six pack of the 6” clamps. Bought dozens of clamps then.
Uncle Ralph
I agree with some of the comments, I have purchased the small version of those Bessey clamps and a good number of them slipped and therefore didn’t actually clamp anything. Which is the entire purpose of clamps! I won’t waste my money on these any longer. I have more luck with the ones from Harbor Freight. I tend to buy the small Jorgensen clamps now, haven’t had any issues with those.
I do want to thank you for all of your hard work and all of the research and testing you do. Happy holidays to all!
MotoJ
After reading the comments on HF vs. Bessey I pulled the trigger on these Bessey ones. Used also an earlier link for the Milwaukee LED headlamp, I really need one more and the hard hat clips are a nice addition.
Happy thanksgiving to all!