Some clamps work fine and others don’t. Generally, once I
realize a clamp isn’t working out, I regulate it to a secondary
status. The box in my tool drawer for my clamps can actually
hold a lot more than I have, so there is no incentive to toss
out those clamps that don’t work. As long as I can quickly
find the clamp I want, the secondary ones get to stay for a
while longer.
The brass bar clamps, as sold by Micro-Mark and shown in
(7), work as intended. These clamps might work well if you
build laser-cut wood structures and need to hold side/end
assemblies in place while the wood glue dries. To use one of
these clamps, you need to set the sliding jaw slightly wider
than the object being clamped before gluing the joints
together, but with the sliding jaw unlocked. Once the parts
are assembled, you can hold the assembly with one hand
7: Here are 3½" and 6" brass bar clamps. The wing head
thumb screw on top of the sliding jaw allows the jaw to be
locked in place, with final clamping provided by tightening the
end wing-head thumb screw.
7
