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I could not get on well without them. If you do woodworking, these little grips are a must. I have used mine for many years to hold a great many things. Easy one handed operation with a strong grip. excellent.
As with so many of my reviews, I have to say that this is a superior product but only an "ok" price. I use them as a spreader when I am finished dry-fitting a snug mortise and tenon joint. Try it and you'll be amazed how much you use these "extra hands". So often it seems that I am standing on my head while balancing two awkward pieces that I need to do something to, and I just don't have enough hands to clamp it all down securely and accurately. I do not like thse clamps for glue ups as they do not have the clamping pressure of traditional bar or pipe clamps.As for the price, I found a holiday sale where I got 2 for $15. Thats where these clamps shine. For a woodworker who works alone, these clamps are the next best thing to a paid assistant. I keep several of these clamped to my workbench legs so that I will always have one in easy reach.
I use them to hold work to my bench while I sand/drill/saw/route. I use them to hold work to my drill press table. Because this is how I use these clamps, I have found the 6" and 4" to be the most useful sizes. Normally thet are about $15 each at Menards, Lowe's etc.
They are fast enough to be used for almost any application. Enables you to maintain a professional flow to your work. They require two hands. Securing it with two of them, and it is super tied down. For example if I was using a large bit on the drill press, and drilling into metal, I would clamp it with something more.
Having these clamps in a few different sizes is beneficial as well. Something not needed very often, but difficult to achieve without one of these. Small ones are more frequently used, and don't get in the way. As a safety measure, these clamp sufficiently for most operations, but a threaded bar clamp, is stronger. Additionally the macro clamps give you deeper jaws for a farther reach, enabling you to use them for securing work, to your radial arm saw table for example. The big advantage of quick grip clamps, is that they handle wood beautifully, even for glue up operations. One note is that these have built in rubber pads, that completely cover the metal internal end. You could use a spring clamp to hold it together, then get another clamp to give it a final hold, but the quick grip saves you from having to do that.
If it slips while clamping, it is still a one handed tool to release it, and reclamp it again. That and the fact that you can squeeze these with one hand, creates a mechanism that is easy to use, but not something that you would want to use for strength clamping. While holding a piece of work, lined up, in one hand, you use these quick grips in the other hand to secure the work. That is an advantage when you do not want to mar the wood.
The 33 1/2" is great when you need to hold larger projects together, and you can't effectively use two smaller ones to substitute. A couple squeezes and they are on, and one squeeze and they pop off. After getting the smaller ones, and using them, I immediately order two of the 33 1/2" for larger projects, and for tie downs on equipment, including the drill press, and occasionally the radial arm saw. The big benefit to these is that you get true mobility out of them. So for those operations where extreme strength is needed, these are not the clamps to use. You sacrifice mountain holding strength for the ease of use. Even the slightest movement in an operation like that, could cause a snag, sending the piece into movement. If you are using just one of them, at the end of a 24" board, and decide to rout the other end, it will move on you.
Hold workpieces more than securely to do the job in most applications, and are so handy that they deserve more than 5 stars. I feel awkward when using regular clamps in comparison. I would feel lost without them. Sometimes I use them to secure work when sanding with a power sander. Their is a small rubber stopper, which you can readily remove, in order to reverse the end, and make it a spreader as well. You get my drift. It is another tool in the must have category.
6" is usually too small for the projects I use clamps for. This clamp uses the ingenius trigger grip design for unbelievable ease of use. This size has been great for small projects, however. This makes the clamp unbelievably easy to tighten using one hand. A few warnings about this particular product, however: (1)Be sure the size is correct. I think the 18" size is a better all-around size.(2)The plastic construction makes the clamps best for holding items "approximately" in place. If you need total clamping for cutting precision, look elsewhere.All in all, a good product if it is the right size, and used for the right purpose.
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