Dubuque Alum. Bar Clamps, first impression

Re: Dubuque Alum. Bar Clamps, first impression

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

"I am wondering if I should have bought some longer ones?"

I occasionally use my 4' clamps for case glue up. I rarely use my 6' clamps, again for case work. I think some pipe clamps could suffice for this rare need.

"I am considering waxing them to help keep the glue from sticking. "

I have not had problems with sticking glue. It seems to flake off, but waxing would not hurt.

You will come to appreciate being able to grab 3 clamps in one hand or position them on a case piece by holding just one end.

Re: Dubuque Alum. Bar Clamps, first impression

Barry Irby

Thanks again Bill.

After I placed the order I was wondering if I should have gotten 2' and 4' instead of 2' and 3'. Obviously that depends on what I make, but I have no real pattern. I build everything from houses to jewelry boxes. Had it sunk in how truly light these are I might have opted for the longer ones.

Have you padded the jaws on yours? Do you apply pads between the clamps and the work?

I installed pads on the jaws of my pipe clamps and it was a marvelous thing. I made them out of 1/2" Baltic birch and fixed them so they served as feet to let the clamps sit upright and tall enough so I could put some on from the top and they would also stand in place.

I will keep them to serve as longer clamps until I decide to order more.

Re: Dubuque Alum. Bar Clamps, first impression

Roy

Paul Sellers, over on Youtube, showed putting wood inside the body of these clamps to stiffen them up so they wouldn't bend when you clamped something up. He may have been using longer clamps.

Roy

never had one bend

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I have never had a clamp bend and I have been using them for many years

Re: Dubuque Alum. Bar Clamps, first impression *LINK*

David Bassett

Several recent blogs & articles about making lesser clamps work better. Joel @TFWW recently blog'd about the trend:


Joel's Clamp vs Clamp

Industrial clamp vs hobbiest clamp

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

The Dubuque clamp was originally designed and manufactured by the Universal Clamp Company. I knew the family that ran this company. You never saw them in consumer woodworking stores because they were marketed to professional shops and factories and made robust enough to hold up in these environments.

An unmentioned welcome feature that becomes apparent to the experienced woodworker using them is the means of tightening, and retracting. After use I always store the clamps with the screw fully retracted. One can flick the thumb screw with a smart rap of the finger and the jaw will spin back. A few raps and the jaw has fully retracted with no need to wind it back half a revolution at a time. Same for initial tightening. The screw can be easily spun to rapidly achieve an initial snug.

Re: Dubuque Alum. Bar Clamps, first impression

Jay Lombardo

The ones Paul was retrofitting were definatley Harbor Freight quality. They did not appear near as robust as the Dubuque ones.

HF Alum. Bar Clamps, final impression

Henry (Raleigh NC)

I too tried 2 of the HF aluminum clamps; thankfully I only bought 2. I tired of the slider portion popping off the track. This of course only happened when I used them; clamps don't tend to fail in storage. After a few cases of the slider popping off and giving way in the middle of the glue up, I just destroyed them. These just did not hold up to my usage. I did not see the video on how to enhance these HF clamps, but I consider that my shop is better off without them; I do have a range of other clamps.

- The only HF clamps that were worse than the HF Al bar clamps were the quick-grip '1-handed' ones. They almost did fail in storage. Immediate trash; these could hardly exert any force at all, unless assisted by gravity!

- The only HF clamps that I consider worth buying are the F clamps - if you treat them well and don't expect too much from them.

If I need more clamps the Dubuque ones are one my list now.

Henry

Re: HF Alum. Bar Clamps, final impression *LINK*

Jim Dillon

Henry, I have been a long-time user of the Universal/Dubuque aluminum clamps and love them. I use the the 24 and 36-inch lengths the most. I also have several 48-inch and 72-inch lengths. I have seen the 72-inch length (fully extended) bend just bit (maybe 1/8-1/4-inch) but that has not impacted things and the clamp immediately straightens when clamping pressure is released. Often I over-pressure to draw the joint snug, then relax the clamping pressure a bit.

Years ago, I purchased my clamps from the link below. I have not kept up on pricing but at the time, this web site had competitive pricing. Give the Universal/Dubuque clamps a try. Jim


Aluminum Bar Clamps