On 2/7/2017 3:23 PM, Leon wrote:
For many years I have had clamps that began to perform poorly.
I learned by experience and through the advise of the manufacturers of
how to over come the problems.

My wooden double handle screw clamps would loosen on their own. I would
tighten both handles and could immediately watch the handles turn and
loosen.

The solution, provided by Jorgenson, use a stiff wire brush to
thoroughly clean the threads of the screws. Problem Solved.

Another issue that I learned to remedy by myself was that which affected
my Bessy K-body style, Cabinet Master K-body clone, and fresh out of the
box Jet K-body clone bar clamps.


The symptom. It seemed that when tightening the clamp handles that
there was no lubrication. The motion felt dry and I felt that the screw
was providing more resistance than the actual material that I was
clamping. I will restate for clarity that all 6 of my Jet clamps felt
this way straight out of the box.
The Cabinet Masters over several years developed this feel as did the
Bessy clamps. Oh, and so did my aluminum bar clamps with the butter fly
style screw handles.

For years I cleaned the threads and sprayed a dry lube on the screw with
very mixed results with most results being only slightly better.

Jorgensons answer and solution was to send me a free replacement screw
head. That worked for a few years but......

Then through divine intervention the fix/answer came to me.

If any of you have witnessed this problem with any of your screw clamps
this may be your fix.

I discovered that there is truly friction and resistance in tightening
the clamp. As mentioned above it would seem obvious to clean and
lubricate the threads of the screw.

I discovered one more spot to lubricate and doing so immediately made
all of my brands of clamps operate closer to silky smooth than prior to
locating his spot.

Starting to sound like one of those commercials, huh?


On most all of these K-body style clamps and the clones the part you
need to apply oil is partially hidden and out of site.

You also need to oil the end of the screw where it is riveted onto the
steel washer that delivers all of the clamping force. There is
tremendous friction at that connection and a drop or two of oil
instantly decreases the effort needed to tighten the clamp.



I use carburetor cleaner to keep my clamps working properly. The
Carburetor cleaner has to beneficial properties. It being basically a
light oil, keep the tool from rusting. Most importantly is is also a
solvent that will remove the glue that always gets in the threads of my
clamps. The clamps I use most are the perimeter clamps that I use to
make picture frames.