This Old Workshop

I have heard it a thousand times at least and so have you. One can never have enough clamps in the old workshop. I can tell you this for sure: I never throw away a clamp. When I first started woodworking, I went in for the cheapest clamps. I could be found making wedge clamps and inner tubes for strap clamps. I soon evolved to Chinese Pipe clamps and they filled the rack. High quality pipe clamps followed these. Then one day, I was given a gift certificate to Home Depot. I surfed the isles of the tool corral and soon spotted them: the bright red Bessey K-Body Clamps.

The 60" models were right at $50 each and this was what I thought was a lot to spend on a clamp. But now I will point out why I no longer believe this to be true. First, I will point out that a high quality pipe clamp will run you $12-$18 and pads are from $8 to $12, plus $8-$12 dollars for a heavy-duty pipe. This makes your total pipe clamp cost between $28-$36 for a 60" unit. The fact that the K-body clamp is superior in clamping panel's doors, cases, drawers and more is a great bonus for $15. I find the K-body clamp great for flat panels since the glue up can be stood on the end of the clamp (See illustration) and set aside out of the way. A woodworker can do many glue-ups if they have enough of these clamps. The large K-Body jaws are exceptionally engineered to distribute level pressure across the entire surface of your work to stop bowing, rotating, and lifting while under pressure. The K-body's no-mar jaws are always square at 90° to the rail, guaranteeing that all of your assemblies glue up square. This easily helps you recover the cost difference quickly. And when used with Besseys KP Blocks, you can reduce set-up costs and it provides the perfect square when making doors, frames, etc. It is first-rate for entrance doors, raised panel doors, window frames, picture frames and cabinets.
The blocks can be used with all K Body clamps (12"-98"). I wont say these are the only clamps I own but I will tell you they are my favorite. Try a pair or two. I am confidant they will be your favorite, too.

Features Include

• All steel jaws encased in glue resistant, high impact no-mar material
• Sliding arm braking system ensures parallel clamping without slipping
• Heavy I-beam bar, bright finished, minimizes bending
• Eight sizes, 12" to 98"
• Up to 1100 lbs. pressure

Unfortunately the classic K-Body clamp is not available anywhere I could find. The new design clamps look like decent clamps. We will review these new clamps as soom as we can. The new clamps are available from Rockler (See the link below), and from Woodcraft.

Bessey Revo K-Body Clamps For high pressure clamping, 90 degree clamping, or powerful spreading, the new K Body REVO is an ideal choice. Its large, parallel jaws are uniquely designed to distribute even pressure across the ent.. Bessey Revo K-Body Clamps