Repairing quick Grip Clamp question

Re: Repairing quick Grip Clamp question

Larry Rupprecht

Go to Irwin.com/tools and click on the support tab. I've lost springs on clamps and they sent a package of springs immediately. Good customer service.

Re: Repairing quick Grip Clamp question

del schisler

take clamp apart , the piece that now hold's the bar from sliking out now turn that around and put clamp back togother and it should be fine , had to do couple of mine , or i guess could file the piece down to square again ? good luck

Re: Repairing "squeegee" Clamp

William Duffield

I get rust and glue on the bars of mine which messes up their functioning. I just take it off with extra fine sand paper, and put a little oil on them. They work better after this treatment. Taking them apart is not a good idea. Once the plastic cover is removed, the pieces of the gripping mechanism tend to spread out sideways, and they don't grip well at all when misaligned.

Amazing....

Barry Irby

Went on YouTube and looked up repairing these clamps.

One guy said to sand the bar on all sides with 60 grit sand paper.

Another guy said to leave them outside in the rain and wait for them to rust.

Yet another guy said to beat on the edge of the bar with the corner of a file.

Somebody commented that if Irwin though the bar should be rough, they would have made it that way.

I have decided to take a whack and swapping some of the parts around to see if that works. Based on the idea you can't break something that is already broken, this can't hurt.

Went to both Lowe's and Home Depot to check on trading them in under the li=fe time warranty. Nether would do it because they have no way of knowing they were warranted for life, and neither carries them anymore. (That's can't be good

for Irwin.)

In the meantime I looked on Amazon. A four pack is $19.98. A 2 pack is $45.50. Decipher that for me. (It really is an 8 pack but it still makes no sense.)

After the weekend I will talk to Irwin and see if they will send me parts and I may buy a few more, I like them. Another thing is they appear to have change the design and as a official old timer I don't like change.

Re: Amazing....

Joe shelton

Really?

I just bought another 12" two days ago at Lowes, and their display had a number of them.

How do you break them?

Re: Amazing....& I fixed them...Joe

Barry Irby

Joe, Based on someone saying they had a lifetime guarantee and that I could return them to Lowe's I tried. After lot's of calling around the store and checking they said they did not think they were guaranteed and they did not carry them anymore. I did not go look for myself. I am not a "use it and return it" guy but I have bought tens of thousands of dollars worth stuff at Lowe's over the last few years, including some clamps, so I did not feel I was abusing them. Not sure, but I think they carry Bessey locally.

Stopped by Home Depot and looked at their clamps and they were Dewalt and Bessey. No Irwin.

After I got home I drifted the pin out of the bar and removed the head. Took the side panel off and reversed the two plates, (trigger and plate), reinstalled the head, side plate and pin. Took about as much time as to type this message. They seem to be as good as new.

I probably wore them out by over tightening them. Cranked down too hard too many times. I am not complaining about the quality of the clamps. I have had them for more than ten years and used them hard at times.

In looking at Amazon it appears they have completely redesigned them and the 1 star reviews indicate they are not nearly as good in quality as they were. I will look at some of the local Lowe's stores. I hope yours are as good as my older ones. I would like to have a few more but the appearance and pricing structure on Amazon was so goofy I could not bring myself to push the button.

Let me know what you think of your new one.

Lifetime guarantee is just a marketing term

Dick Coers

My lifetime Stanley collapsing hose has to be shipped to Stanley to be evaluated if it really does split. So if I spend $15 to ship it to them, they may replace it. No thanks.

my  mom's comeback

paul in AZ

When in her 70s some kid tried selling my mom something with a 'lifetime guarantee'.

She asked "whose life? Yours or mine?" She then kicked him out.

Re: Lifetime guarantee is just a marketing term

Pat Evans

Lifetime guarantee means guaranteed for the life of the product.

Re: Correct. When it breaks, it's life is over.

not my experience

John K Jordan

In 2004 I bought a $600+ Grohe faucet for our kitchen sink. It came with a lifetime warranty. It is a fantastic faucet.

At least 5 times since then I've called them about various problems, some minor like a finish degrading, some major like a leak in a flexible hose. Each time they helped analyze to confirm the problem and immediately sent out parts, no questions asked, no parts needed to be returned, no charges, even expedited shipping with no cost. The last time I had three different parts replaced and they said pretty soon I was going to to have an entirely new faucet.

I've also bought other things advertised with a lifetime warranty, but usually simple mechanical things with little chance of failure. Never had to test one of those warranties.

JKJ

Re: Amazing....

AZ in Colorado Springs

I have a couple of the newer style Irwin clamps. I like the older ones better. Sleeker design to my eye. The newer 6" clamps work ok, but the redesigned 18" clamps I think don't grip as well.

Not my experience, eirher

AZ in Colorado Springs

I drove a CJ-7 for 13 years. After a while the choke quit opening on the carburetor. So I got a new one at the auto parts store. Had a two year warranty. After about 18 months the choke quit working again. Returned the carburetor under the warranty. To account for the replacement and the core of the one being replaced there was a blizzard of paperwork. During that blizzard I got a new receipt. So the two year warranty restarted. I got five carburetors (each time because the choke quit working) before I sold the Jeep. So a two year warranty turned into a lifetime warranty of sorts. (Sometimes it works out in your favor!)

Re: Bessy Lifetime guarantee

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

I have several Bessy clamps of various sizes. I have a couple that have cracks in the plastic (square end that holds the wood), I reported it to Bessy and they not only honored the warranty by sending two new clamps - they said to keep the ones that cracked. The crack does not really affect function so I ended up with more usable clamps. I really like the Bessy's!

Re: Amazing....& I fixed them...Joe

Joe shelton

The new one seems fine, but hasn't much track record yet. I use these clamps to bend gun stocks more than for any other purpose. They are easy to apply at an angle, and that helps in my bending fixture. They also apply considerable pressure in an easily controlled, gradual way.

I'll certainly remember your technique of refurbishing them. Thanks.