Clamp Suggestion

[MidwestMan]

I agree with Bill Wilson's response entirely and I am in the same situation as he describes. I use pipe clamps when the bessey's are to short (anything over 48" for me). Otherwise, I use bessey's all the time, I sure justified the expense of them because I have used them a LOT.

[Joe Connors]

Depends on the scale of work, the joint and your precision in doing it.

I have pipe clamps, parallel jaw clamps, I-beam clamps and sash clamps as well as a motley collection of F-clamps in various sizes, C-clamps, band clamps, spring clamps, pinch dogs, handscrews, face frame clamps, blue tape, wedges for making oddly shaped clamps on the fly, piles of clamping cauls (that look suspiciously like scrap wood)...  It gets a little silly after a while.

Anywho, for making panels in the size of work I usually do (things smaller than a dining table) I find that using sash clamps works best for me.  Light weight and so if you put 3 or 5 on a panel, it doesn't suddenly weigh 60#.  And do a good job jointing the boards and you should only need 3.  And maybe a couple of handscrews at the ends to help with alignment.

Pipe clamps are good for doing damage to a joint.  Force it to fit!  If you need that kind of pressure, maybe reconsider how well the joint has been tuned up or the open time of the adhesive.

Parallel jaw clamps are nice for larger assemblies and pulling together multiple M&T joints simultaneously because the give me a combination of reasonably high force combined with a large clamp head to spread it out a bit.

I agree entirely! The joints need to mate well to begin with. Forcing them together with great pressure is asking for trouble. That said I am glad that I have my old pipe clamps for those times when the Besseys are not the best option!

[Bob Vaughan]

If the adhesive is water thin like plastic resin then maybe the light weight clamps will do, but its hard to bead the Hargrave 640 or versatility.  Tibetbond (or other PVA) glues are viscous and require a fair amount of pressure to squeeze down to an invisible joint when joining panels.

   

   

   

   

   

[Bob Vaughan]

Then there are times when a lightweight aluminum bodied clamp is perfect for just a little pressure to help along with some strap clamps.

   

Confirming the point others have made that a variety of clamp types is best.  you never know what's going to be needed next.

[Stwood_]

Bob I'll take those Hargroves from ya.
  They will be nice mates to my half dozen 5 footers.

[Bob Vaughan]

For long lengths, the I-beam (AKA bar type) clamps like the Hargraves  (or Jorgensens) will deflect the least under load.  The below photo shows using the only four Hargraves I had.  I had to make up the rest out other clamps I had laying around.  My experience with pipe clamps is that for a 3/4" pipe, 30" length is about maximum before distortion of the pipe under load occurs.  Naturally its easy to make a long length pipe clamp and sometimes that's all you've got to go a certain length so you just work around the predictable deflection.  

   

Casework assembly often doesn't require the same pressure as glue-ups, so often lesser lightweight clamps are perfectly satisfactory if not preferable.

[Gentleman Jim]

I like the old style Jorgensen I bar clamps. Several of mine have been in use for more than 40 years and still work perfectly.

[BigD]

I agree with Bill Wilson's response entirely and I am in the same situation as he describes. I use pipe clamps when the bessey's are to short (anything over 48" for me). Otherwise, I use bessey's all the time, I sure justified the expense of them because I have used them a LOT.

Have you considered joining two Besseys together for a longer unit? They sell these (I think they call them "extenders", but I just made my own.