Woodworking Clamps | Top 10 clamping tips
Woodworking Clamps | Top 10 clamping tips
Woodworking Clamps. In this video Rob Cosman reveals his top 10 woodworking clamping tips to help you do a perfect woodworking clamp job.
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Thanks for sharing those tips.
Your Exit sign fell down
Great tips, Rob~! You’re right on about it taking a while to accumulate a decent amount of clamps. I’d be afraid to figure up how much I’ve spent over the years. And YES, buy good quality clamps~! Also, Black Friday shopping has saved me a lot of money.
As you mentioned, clamps are expensive. When gluing panels, I like to use a spring-jointed caul. One clamp in the middle of the glue up is all it takes. Now, with your idea, I will rout a round over on each side of my caul to send the force down the middle. Eureeka! Thanks Mr. Cosman.
Thanks!!!
Good video Rob. Where do you find those "light duty" clamps, or what are they called? I like the mechanism, and I’d like to try them but can’t seem to fin them anywhere
Your vedios are a woodworking school for me Rob. Excellent
Galvanized 1/2 inch pipe for pipe clamps. In my area the galvanized pipe is nearly the same price as the black pipe. The galvanized pipe will not turn your glue squeeze out areas black, and the glue seems a little easier to clean off.
The half round sticks is just perfect!
I’ve been using the ‘quick grip’ medium duty jorgensen clamps recently. They seem to be quite effective, easy one handed operation when needed. Before that I had a stack of Bessey F clamps but in certain operations especially where I only had one free hand they become a pain to use.
Wonderful lesson, thank-you!
Thanks for this video, different than all these video about the greatness about the parallel clamps. Your video clearly show you can live without them
I remember when you put ahmeds tape to the test, nice time saver!
Rob, there’s not one video you’ve produced that I haven’t learned something from. Outstanding.
Very good video. I need a wood vice. You make things look so easy.
Thanks for the video, Rob. Some lesser known but very useful tips here. Question: On tip #10, what is the advantage of the automotive painter’s tape as opposed to regular blue painter’s tape?
Rob, do you ever use parallel clamps say from Bessy or Jet? They seem to work well with panel glue ups.
It’s always good to go back and review some basics. It’s the little things that make the biggest difference.
Ok to me personally this was super helpful. I needed to learn all of these. Only thing I knew was to alternate them.
When I started woodworking I had no idea the strength of glue and didn’t trust it. Even hearing Rob say it’s stronger than the wood itself just didn’t sink in till I used it. That caused me to clamp down till my hands were purple. It the joint is good the glue will do the work with a little pressure.
Rob, thankyou for this presentation, I benefitted from this . . . Chris . . . Norwich, England
Great tips!
I was waiting for you to solve the problem of a clamp always being 1" too short.
Any suggestions for edge gluing thin boards, like for an acoustic guitar top or bottom? I’M referring to the two book matched pieces that are jointed and the glued together for top and back of the guitar. By the way, thanks for the great information as always.
The dowel trick is worth the price of admission. I am using that for sure.
I use mainly parallel clamps top and bottom. You didn’t mention those. I would never set a glue up directly on my table like that.
The way you describe the advantage of using the half dowels seems strange. Yes, you get the force in the center of the board edge, but the angle of the force is not helped by the dowels, if the jaws tilts under pressure, the force will be just as angled as without the dowels. So, the dowels doesn’t eliminate the need for altering the clamps. Or?
When I started, I bought a bunch of large Bessey clamps in a sale. I used them when building my first table out of oak and they certainly worked well. However, over the years I’ve found them increasingly useless due to the fact that they are so heavy and the force they apply too great for anything I’d need. This is largely down to the fact I am much better at planing and generally always being square. My first table was probably squeezed to within an inch of its life, now I just bring the surfaces together like you did in the video. I’ve still got my Bessey clamps and they’re the only thing big enough for the wider glue ups I somtimes do, and it’s noticeable how much more stressful they make the process due to their weight. I really must sell them and buy some medium weight clamps instead!
Pura vida Rob great information about clamping technique pura vida
If you liked this video cehck out Rob’s wideopn on edge jointing at https://youtu.be/tD1gSAYMTYQ
The half dowel trick is excellent!
I’ve only been woodworking about 3 or 4 years, but I have 4 bessey F clamps and i think 6 of the harbor freight ones, and honestly they work exactly the same as long as you take care of them and provide some lubrication. I don’t have bar clamps yet, and when I needed to glue up something larger, I bought a couple of the extruded aluminum bar style clamps as well. These ones I regret buying. Maybe not regret, as they did a job I couldn’t have done otherwise, but they’re not great. Especially when I make cutting boards, the screw end of the clamp doesnt stay parallel to the bar, when you tighten it down the top leans back which makes the wood want to bow up in the middle. Cauls help, but I really need to get something better lol
Coffee, breakfast, and another great tutorial from Rob! Any better way to start my day? I mean for real though.
Alot of good info thanks
Do you want to sell your pipe clamps. Lol
You should do a video with comparing or recommending a face-vise or any vise for a budget, $150.00 and under or something like that! Kinda how you do videos on other plane brands and seeing how they stack up with others! Love your videos by the way! I’ve learned so much from you and the guys, I re watch videos all the time in case I missed something!
Great tips Rob.
Rob, beautifully explained.
Great surface quality illustration with the piece of pencil lead in tip #8 ! That was cool.
Thanks Rob, good tips I use have to remember. Question; did you reserve your bench top, looks like New!
MAN you are a good teacher. Putting a little dip in the middle of the board edges is new to me. Thank you for this video and for the always-substantive content.
Top of the muffin to ya
Very good tips, unfortunately, tip #9 came up a little bit too late, I learned it the hard way.
Rob, how do you clamp thin pieces flat to the bench for cutting rabbets, dados or groves? I have a 3/4" part I’d like to cut a groove in, but the fence of the plane is higher than 3/4". Obviously I need to raise the piece onto a board, but what is your recommendation for doing this so that it clamps securely? There must be a jig or something you use. Thx
Better clamps, better joints, better glue ups, papa John’s. …. wait that’s not right..
I’m new to woodworking. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I checked the show notes in the description and saw a reference to the store, but there’s no reference to specific tool you used for planing. I do not own a plane yet, but the pencil lead demonstration wants me to give planing a try. If I’m only going to buy one plane, or if I’m going to specifically buy one plane for getting a smooth edge on the board before clamping the glue-up, which brand/model plane do you recommend?
With F clamps you can also use plastic soda pop lids
RC tips are nearly always ‘this is the best practice’. As in… If you’re not using these tips you’re not getting the best glueup results. (compared to so many tips from others that are cute or even kinda clever but are typically more for show or for filling out the need to have a video this week rather than being truly useful)
I don’t like your work – I LOVE it! Always so practical and doable. Thanks for what you do for the woodworking community Rob!
Excellent video! Unfortunately, not all painter’s / masking tape is manufactured to the same standard. Can you share the name of the brand(s) you use and recommend? Thanks in advance.
Is there a reason Rob took all of the caps off of the Bessy clamps? Did he just lose them over time, or was it intentional? I’m always worried that the metal could dent the the wood. Also, could Rob do a section of a video some time about how to get squeeze out out of tight corners. I often end up with small little spaces, especially internally, where the interior finish won’t take because I couldn’t get the squeeze out removed without spreading it, due to the small, tight, generally corner space.