Customer Reviews

Bessey K3.550 K-Body 50-Inch Parallel Jaw Bar Clamp

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These claps are perfect for cabinet and furniture assembly. They usually need no clamping blocks, unless you are clamping a very soft wood or a profiled edge. Although they only have a knob for a tightening handle, one can get a good amount of clamping pressure. Glue is easy to remove from the jaws as well as the bars once it has dried. All in all, these are a good value, even at their fairly high price.

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.

Norm says, "You can never have too many clamps." After investing about a grand in clamps over the years, I think he is right. The K-Bodies are great for just about any application. The are study, solid, strong and provide a wide clamping surface with even pressure - what more can you ask for in a clamp? They are pricey, but you get what you pay for.

Good clamp. Good: Faces stay square. Heavy bar which won't deflect. Fast and easy to tighten. Square backs allow them to stay straight up on a bench. Bad: Clamps are heavier than you might think which can make them cumbersome... especially if you want to clamp a 12" board with a 50" clamp. the face of the clamp only tightens about 1-1/4" before you hit the end of the screw. This is about one half as much screw length as a pipe clamp.

Overall: a wonderful clamp. much nicer to use than conventional bar or pipe clamps, but get some smaller sizes.

When I read some of the other reviews about how poorly Amazon packaged these clamps for shipment, I thought they were exaggerated, but alas I was wrong. I ordered 2 each 50" long and two each 60" long clamps. The four clamps were shipped on four different shipments in four individual packages. One of the clamps was just wrapped in a bunch of plasttic wrapping and tape with no protection for the clamp included. Amazingly there was very little damage to the clamp, so I will keep it. Two of the clamps were packed in a home made box which might have been OK, except that the boxes were oversized and there was no packing material in the box to keep the clamps from shifting around. Each of the two boxes had a hole on one end where the end of the clamp had punched through. As before, it was very lucky that the clamps were not badly damaged, or even worse, they could have slid completely out of the end of the box. The fourth clamp has not arrived.

Amazon obviously does not read the feedback with regards to packaging of these clamps for shipment. It is truly pathetic.

Having said that, I must say that these clamps are the greatest. More clamping force than I will ever need, and the joints are dead on square. Makes my woodworking a lot easier.

Get with it Amazon and do a better job on packaging.

As a home woodworker I have always chafed at the price of high quality clamps such as these because I was under the delusion that something this expensive should either have a motor on it or be a tool pretty enough to show off in a display case when not in use. Thus, I have a considerable collection of pipe clamps, cheap/thin bar clamps, and all sorts of fad clamping products. Recently, when Bessey finally decided to lower their prices I took the plunge (we probably have the new Jet clamps to thank for that).

As for these clamps, they are absolutely a joy to use. The clamp faces are wonderfully non-marring and resistant to glue sticking. They also will stand up by themselves and don't easily rack and fall over as I slide boards across them. Once a panel is in the clamps, the whole piece can be stood on the end of the clamps in a corner while the glue dries.

And beyond all of these features lies the best of all - clamp jaw parallelism. You can always rest easy knowing that these clamps are not bowing the panel or whatever it is that you are clamping, because the jaws always always stay parallel to each other.

I cannot say that I am yet ready to sink hundreds of dollars into new clamps, nor will I throw away my trusty Pony pipe clamps, but my starter set of these Besseys will get A LOT of use around my shop in the years to come. I highly recommend that you try these for yourself!

My only complaint is the price, but you get your money's worth. I plan to pick up a few more of these sometime in the future. The faces give you square pressure against the stock, which I find really important for edge gluing and cabinet building. I keep a little pressure on the heads for storage. The one time I did not I rotated the clamp head vertically and the clamp body slid down pinching my hand on the way down.

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. At 50" they are great for large pieces.

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.

Bessey clamps are number one in my shop for glue-ups. The new support foot is a nice addition. I bought a pair of these so that I no longer have to use pipe clamps for bigger projects. I'd love to replace all my pipe clamps with Besseys!

I was concerned about the comments on shipping, but mine arrived fine. Each clamp was individually wrapped and shipped in a heavy corrugated cardboard. The package isn't box shaped; it's really like a folded piece of cardboard. The inside of the cardboard has a gummy, sticky surface which seals it together and prevents the clamp from sliding around. And the wrapping is much larger than the clamp. It ends up being almost like a blister pack.

The head of the clamp is heavy, and I can see where shipping mistreatment could still damage it, but all in all, it seems like they're trying to find a better package for it. I had pictured a long carboard box with the clamp slamming back and forth inside, but happily it wasn't that.

Worth every penny and I saved tons of them when I went Bessey crazy last year (Amazon had huge sales). I picked up two 48" cabinet door sets, several large ones including 50", 60" and a bunch of additional 24" ones.

If you gave the woodworker in your life 1 or more Bessey K-Body clamps they would be really pleased. Any size it doesn't matter. Woodworkers never have enough clamps!!!!

Jet makes a similar clamp that is also very good.