Customer Reviews

Bessey KBM1 K-Body Maxis VarioPivot Clamping System

5 star:		(2)
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I regret that I bought this item and left it in the box for almost a year before opening it and using it, because now I use it all the time! This is the handiest thing I've found in a long time. It is great for use when biscuit jointing... It always seems that I make my biscuiting marks too close to one end of the board to reach with the center mark on the biscuit jointer when I clamp with normal clamps (then you spend a lot of time moving the clamps around). This clamping system is good enough to hold a board from end-to-end! Think about the possibilities there! It's as wide as the biggest Bessey K-Body clamp you own. You can clamp a 5' long board by it's ends, and biscuit-join all down the edge of it without ever moving your clamps -- even if the "end biscuits" are only a couple of inches from each end of the board. Amazing versatility!

Also, these things are great for edge work with a router... using the same end-to-end clamping scheme. If my shop were destroyed and I had to start over, I'd buy this early-on and I'd wait and see if I really even needed a standard bench vise. I can't imagine a lot of tasks where a bench vise is better than this configuration... and the Vario-Pivot is so much more versatile!

Highly recommended!

I tried writing a review for this long ago but it was grouped with the K-Body clamps I reviewed and thus didn't go through. In any case this ingenious innovation from Bessey gives you amazing versatility and increased options. If you don't have a regular bench vise and bench dog system, this can act as one. Although perhaps not as good as a purpose built bench vise, it gets darn close. It is perfect for belt or random orbit sanding, routing, biscuiting, planing, etc. Among the many great things about this thing is that it can hold a work piece at an angle. You are really only limited by the size of the bench you clamp this to since your K-Body clamps are held by Maxis VarioPivot. Indeed, it will also hold pipe clamps, but using it with the K-Body is really the best way to go. I'm extremely glad I purchased this when I did. Made in Germany.