How many clamps do i need

They will also help protect the surface of your project. Bar clamps are easily my most used clamps. They are simply that useful. I use bar clamps for everything. From gluing just about anything, to holding stop blocks, to just providing a third hand. Lastly, and this might seem an unusual pick, but I consider a strap clamp essential.

Any time I need to glue up something with four sides…say a box or a picture frame, a strap clamp is the best way to square everything up. Those are my recommendations for essential clamps. If you are a beginning woodworker, these will serve you fine for years. Bottom line: 4 bar clamps, 4 pipe clamps and a strap clamp. You actually may not ever really need anymore. C Clamps will give you more clamping power than the trigger clamps from above. The drawback to using them over the trigger clamps is the quickness of getting them set.

With the trigger clamps, you squeeze the handle, adjust the clamp and you are done. The C clamp requires you to adjust the tightness of the clamp by turning a handle which can be time consuming. One of the drawbacks to using a C Clamp on a woodworking project comes with over tightening. The layout of the handle and screw allow users to apply additional torque which can easily lead to over tightening. Most C clamps do no have pads on the jaws.

If you are clamping a softwood, it is very easy to put a dent in the piece by tightening it too far. For someone just starting to build up the tools in the shop, a set of c clamps is nice to have.

From my experience, these are not high priority. Harbor Freight might be a good option for you to pick up a few of these for a low price. Pipe bar clamps are probably the most heavy-duty clamps that you can buy for your shop. What I like about them is that they are strong and sturdy, but not horribly expensive for what you get.

Typically, the first part that you purchase is the clamping mechanism, and when looking at them, they look rather unimpressive and small. However, this mechanism, is only the first part of your purchase. The nice thing about these clamps is that they are interchangeable. Once you have the clamps, you can purchase multiple lengths of pipe and take the clamps off and move them to set with the length you desire.

One negative to these clamps is the fact that the throat can be rather short. The throat is the distance between the jaw and the inside mount of the clamp. If you are gluing up some table tops or cutting boards, a set of pipe bar clamps is the best route to go. These are easily the clamps that I reach for the most in my shop. I use these for everything. These clamps function much like the pipe clamps that we discussed earlier, but are much smaller in scale.

As I said, bar clamps function much like a pipe clamp in that there is a level on the bottom that lets you quickly move the lower jaw up or down to get it close to your project. Then, in order to tighten it, you begin turning a knob that will move the lower jaw closer to your project which then begins applying pressure. According to the article in fine woodworking on gluing up joints: The formula for number of clamps required is square inches of glued joint x PSI for the wood in question divided by PSI of the clamp you are using.

Improve this question. GGizmos GGizmos 2 2 bronze badges. Can you post a link to the article? Something seems very fishy in your calculation — mmathis. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. WhatEvil WhatEvil 3, 12 12 silver badges 29 29 bronze badges.

Igor Katkov Igor Katkov 1 1 bronze badge. Pipe clamps are quite pricey. This is as cheap as it gets. In terms of their recommendations in this article you can usefully extrapolate out from this: Source: How to Glue-Up Joints: The right number of clamps on Fine Woodworking. Graphus Graphus Keep in mind, you can always add more clamps to your toolbox later on.

But, if you keep reading, you will learn why these 3 particular all-purpose clamps are all you need. This post may contain affiliate links to products that we receive a commission for at no additional cost to you. Learn more here. The flexible strap means that this will be your go-to-clamp whenever you have awkwardly shaped objects to hold in place.

You will only need the one strap clamp, especially if you get one that comes with a long-length strap. They are what they say in their title; a specifically designed clamp for holding round piping in place.

And with this particular all-star clamp, you can get incredible grip — as these clamps can apply up to lbs of clamping pressure.