Customer Reviews

Jorgensen 7224 24-Inch I-Bar Clamp

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

 

 

If you need a tremendous amount of pressure, this is the clamp. The tightening handle is no-nonsense. I dropped one of these clamps, and put a nice big chip in the concrete floor.

I have one beef with these beefy clamps. The jaw on the clutch side is not parallel to the jaw on the screw side. It becomes parallel as you tighten the screw. I love to use these clamps on butcher block glue-ups. The problem is that sometimes the jaw on the clutch side causes your boards to slip when you are tightening. I usually use a couple speed or F clamps first, then get the jaws of death on it.

We all love parallel-type clamps (K-body, in my case), but they are fragile and can be outmatched in rare situations. At that time, nothing -- and I mean absolutely nothing -- can match the 72xx series I-beam bar clamps. I've been using these somewhat infrequently over the last 22 years and, while they are not as all-around useful as the parallels, they can come to the rescue on super-stubborn situations, usually involving existing structures or supertight multi-dado glue-ups or, lets admit it, a complex, super-strong design which has gone wrong and is curing fast! Whaling away at these situations would be futile and throwing on more parallels takes away your control: Just set up a couple of pulling cauls and clamp each end with a 72xx series clamp. I've also used them to pull tough 4-1/2" tropical hardwood flooring into place (unruly and cruel ultra-dense woods). Nothing else offers 1,500 lbs of clamp pressure -- no better than half as much, in fact (750 lbs on a K-body or Jorgensen or Gross Stabil parallel, which risks damaging them and would cause a frightening flex to their bars, taking away their parallel attribute at anything above 200 lbs). I only need these 72xx clamps less than 1% of the time, but that has been enough to make me very, very glad to own a set, the same way I feel about spare tires.

I'd love to gush about these clamps, but I can't. Yes in the old days they were pretty good. (some of the jaws are slipping now.) I have 30-40 of them. The newest ones we bought in 2005 were poorly finished. The jaw surfaces were not ground flat leaving a ridge on the clamping surface, and the jaws are not parallel. I came close to sending them back. They will be the last I buy. The Bessey's are a lot better.