Essential Clamps for Woodworking
If you’re going to do woodworking you’re going to need clamps, lots of clamps. Or do you?
For sure, having more clamps is better than having fewer clamps but I find I get by with fewer clamps than a lot of woodworkers. This could be for several reasons; I use pocket holes extensively, my small shop doesn’t lend itself to needing a million clamps, I don’t do the types of projects that require a plethora of clamps, I found a great set up for clamps that works really well.
What are the first clamps you should buy for woodworking?
Pipe Clamps.
Pipe clamps are cheap, they can be make a variety of sizes, they’re indestructible, and they work.
Pipe clamps come in two main sizes 1/2” and 3/4 inch. I have only 1/2” because… that’s just what I ended up with… I haven’t giving it much thought.
What is a pipe clamp exactly? So you buy the ends, like these, and then have your local hardware or box store cut and thread some black iron pipe for you. Attach the hardware to the pipe and boom you’ve got yourself a pipe clamp.
What sizes of pipe clamps do you need? Again, it depends on what you’re building but all of mine are 5 feet. Why 5 feet? Because I bought a 10ft pipe and cut it in half. Besides that I rarely glue up a table top that’s wider than four feet.
I mounted my pipe clamps to the wall and call it my wall mounted planel clamp. I glue up all my table tops and even put small glue ups in it. This way all of my glue ups are out of my way while they’re drying.
How many pipe clamps do you need? I have six. I find this is enough to glue up an 8ft long table top.
2. Small F-style Clamps (Specifically MicroJig Match-fit Dovetail Clamps)
Outside of glue-ups (which my pipe clamps handle) I need to hold work in-place on my workbench. For this I use and love MircroJig’s Match-fit dovetail clamps. Yes, they are pricey, but worth every penny (That’s just the way good tools work).
I use these for all sorts of things. Holding face frames together for assembly, holding a work-piece in place on my bench while I use the router or sander, attaching jigs to my table saw, as a stop block for my miter saw, all kinds of things.
Not only do this clamps work in standard 3/4 dog holes you can route a 1/2 Dovetail groove in almost any surface for a track for the clamps to ride in. With these you’re limited by only your imagination.
3. A Couple of Kreg Clamps
Numbers one and two are what I would call essential. Kreg’s clamps for pocket hole joinery just make things a little easier. Stay away from Kreg’s Automaxx clamps. They are garbage, I can never get them to work consistently.
The clamps I’d tell you buy are Right Angle or corner clamp and the face-frame clamp (You can get by without the face-frame clamp if you have the dovetail clamps but sometimes you just need to hold something in a weird spot. The corner clamp however gets used all the time in my shop. It makes box assembly a lot easier.
4. Wedges
If you get creative you can make almost any clamping solution you need with a few pieces of wood and some wedges. I have to give credit for this simple but genius idea to the great Izzy Swan. He’s created a lot of clamping solutions that cost nothing but your time to set up.
Here is a solution I tried for glueing up table tops.
I hope this helps you in your woodworking journey. Thanks for reading.
