Customer Reviews

Bessey K3.540 K-Body 40-Inch Parallel Jaw Bar Clamp

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These are absolutely the best gluing clamps I have ever used! I will not even consider touching the 3/4" pipe clamps, or any other cluing clamps I already own if I have a K-body that will do the job. K-body clamps are TOP notch clamps and worth every penny!

These are great clamps, but they were several dollars cheaper at the local Home Depot store.

These Bessey clamps take top honors in strength, weight, and ease of use. Definitely a top quality product. Every show including Norm, Woodworks, etc. all sport Bessey clamps. They are the best! Now let's get into the Nitty Gritty.
Even though I like these best out of all of the bar clamps, there is a limitation in bar clamps, in that the bar will bend when under pressure. Under normal gluing pressure, which is slight enough to mate the two surfaces firmly, but not enough so as to squeeze the glue out, their isn't a problem. Even if you need to exert more pressure to mate the surfaces, your final pressure should be slight. Why am I concerned about this? Well I first bought these clamps thinking they would create a perfectly flat bed to lay your project in. If you are using the longer version, this becomes especially apparent. When under more pressure, the bar of the clamp is no longer straight. They all do that, it is inherent in the design of a bar clamp. An I beam shape would solve it, but is impractical, even on a tiny scale.
Some ways back, when I was just getting back into woodworking, I bought a boatload of clamps that were so cheap, and made in China. The clamping mechanism is sometimes a hassle to deal with, which is not what you want, when glue is setting up. These Bessey's are hassle free and reliable. The cheap clamps are made with a square tube the clamp rides along. Consequently they take a great deal of pressure without showing any signs of bending. The limitation to them is that they only have a 1 3/4" throat depth, whereas the Bessey's have 3 1/2".
Then I looked at the Jorgensen's. They have their Cabinet Master Parallel steel line, which is aimed at competing with the Bessey K-Clamps. They have a wider face on them, so you can lay a clamp on its side, and get a longer clamping surface. With the Bessey's that is possible, albeit a slightly narrower surface. Myself, I choose to use a couple of inch thick straight oak piece as a wedge, giving me all the clamping surface I need.
I like Jorgensen clamps, I have several sets of their bar clamps, and their lighter standard clamps as well. All in all, the Bessey's are made out of more steel, and are more heavy duty. The Jorgensen?s you have a third bracket-clip that enables you to convert it into a spreader, and acts as a support, to prevent it from tipping, when using the clamp for a far smaller piece of material than the clamp was designed for. A great idea, but the Bessey's can easily solve the tilting problem, with a small piece of stock to support them. Better yet, having the proper size clamp eliminates the problem altogether. Pertaining to the spreader capacity, that is great, but I do have several of the Tru-Grip quick clamps, which have the spreader capability, which I rarely if ever have to use.
I guess I am getting wordy. Bessey's rock. They are stronger, (heard a crunching sound when I tightened one up against the edge of some fresh glued melamine, so go gently) heavier duty, precise (unless you over tighten and temporarily warp the bar, which causes a miniscule off angle. I know I am getting critical here.) And they look cool sitting on the rack.
I bought the Incra TSIII-32 table saw fence, installed it on my 10" old, circa 1950's cast iron table saw, and was amazed at getting instant accuracy to .002". A whole new world opened up to me, and I was amazed at how easy it was to automatically measure and cut without any slight off angles binding the wood. Put the first project together using this system, then I came to the glue up, and the cheap clamps did not do the job. All that perfection, so easily, and while under the gun of set up time, the clamps failed me, and I have a less than perfect edge. The dry fitted pieces fitted perfectly. Now I have to go back with a sander, and true up the pieces. That is what drove me to buy a bunch of these Bessey clamps. Smooth, easy mechanicals, great surface area that is flat, and if you get the knack of clamping them at the right pressure, they create a flat platform on the base of your project. All in all definitely 5 stars, I know I will be adding more to the collection. Highly recommended. Bite the bullet, and start or add onto your collection. They are worth it.

These clamps are expensive, but there are some advantages that I feel outweight the cost.

They have long all steel jaws enclosed in a polymer/plastic non marking/glue resistant covering. The long jaws spread the clamping pressure across a wider area.

They help to square the work since they maintain square even pressure. They don't roll or twist. You can apply a great deal of pressure.

If you have a wide straight surface to rest the clamps on they sit straight up on their square backs.

The clamps slide and lock solidly into position. They're easy to handle and quick to get into position more so than any other clamp I've used.

I'd get 6 - 8 of these initially in the 40"-50" size to do most of the work and maybe augment these with some other sizes, perhaps some 24" aluminum bar clamps and 4 extra long bar clamps. Or just pick up more Besseys 1 every month or so to help round out the sizes if need be.

All in all I find them a joy to use.

For making square pieces (doors, frame panels, boxes, etc) these clamps are the best. The jaw faces stay parallel to each other, which helps keep everything lined-up and the plastic does not mar the wood.

Any wood glue that squeezes out of the joints does not stick to the plastic nor the metal.

These clamps will stand on the floor on their back without any other support. You can also clamp up panels and stand them up and the clamps are stable that way too!

They are a few dollars more, but definitely worth it. They are heavy, so get some small ones too.

These are simply the best clamps you can buy. My only complaint is that Amazon shipped the individual clamps (as opposed to the cabinet door kit) in what amounted to a corrugated envelope. Mine happened to arrive in resonable condition. They did push through the end of the packaging, so they weren't protected for the entire trip. They also could have easily been bent.

Just make sure you inspect any individually ordered clamps immediately to make sure they're fine.

After watching Norm Abrams use these clamps on the New Yankee Workshop for years, I finally put my pipe clamps away and ordered a whole bunch of the K-Body clamps from Bessey. The clamps are of superb quality, very easy to open and close, and with the nice unexpected bonus of making my joints very square. I built a simple roll-around box for my portable compressor with biscuit joints and was surprised to find the corners are all 90.0 degrees. I expect to be spending much less time measuring diagonals and varying clamping pressures to square a cabinet in the days to come. One more note -- buy the body blocks. It makes it much easier to put the clamps under the cabinet without tipping the clamps over on the side.

WHY YOU SHOULD BUY THEM: These are best clamps for squaring up a cabinet side/face frame ever. They work great standing up on a workbench. I consider them an invaluable part of my woodworking shop.

THE OTHER STUFF: These are not the end all. I still use my jorgenson clamps a lot. They apply point pressure (versus even pressure across the face of the clamp) which can be useful for truing up some jobs and clamping some irregular surfaces. The Bessey clamps are pretty heavy which can be ackward when clamping with one hand (and using the other hand to hold the project together).

THE BOTTOM LINE: You can never have too many clamps. I would not have less than a pair of the Bessey clamps in my shop. Four are better.

The Bessey K-Body clamps are the best, no question. However, they are pricey. The current Amazon price for the 40 inch model blew me away. $30 each, and free shipping -- wow!

Heavy Duty clamps that get the job done. Large parallel surfaces allow easy clamping. Big enough to take one most jobs.