Fact: You Can Never Have Enough Clamps!

After you have been working in the wood shop for awhile you will notice pretty quickly that you could use a few more hands! In fact there are some times when you will wish you had ten more hands. Because that is almost always impractical to have five more people in the workshop lending you their hands, you will need to invest in some clamps for your shop.

There are a lot of different clamps that you will find very handy in your woodworking projects and you will want to build up a healthy supply of all of them. Some of the most popular clamps for your shop are C-Clamps. Most people will tell you to buy these big. In fact, do not think of getting anything smaller that 3”. These clamps will hold together a wide variety of projects in glue up phase, and it is important that you buy a quality clamp, because you do not want it breaking on you in a critical point.

A great clamp to have in your arsenal is a band clamp, which is also sometimes known as a web clamp. These clamps are made with nylon mesh straps and they utilize a mechanical ratchet to cinch them up tight. These are indispensable clamps when you are trying to clamp up odd shapes or sizes and they are great for corners as well.

Corner clamps are also a great addition. These clamps mount to your work bench and they are used to hold two pieces of material in a perfect 90 degree angle for glue up or other purposes. They are perfect for making picture frames, of course, but also for door frames, drawers and a wide variety of other projects.

Pipe clamps are also great for any wood shop. They are what their name implies, they utilize a bar or a pipe in order to clamp up the project. You can choose pipes of different lengths depending on the project you are working on.

Clamps are an absolutely essential tool for any wood shop, and most wood workers will say that you can never have too many clamps. However, clamps can get expensive so it is probably a good idea to build up your supply slowly. But on the other hand, the first time you're in the middle of a project and you find yourself short on clamps you will make sure in the future that will never happen again! So watch for clamp sales and stock up for as the saying goes: You can never have too many clamps!