If you never use them for anything else, Bill … they make superb ‘adjustable spanners’

MichaelG.

As a retired toolmaker I have three diferent sizes of toolmakers clamps. They are invaluable holding parts to angle plates, Clamping flat plates for drilling and other holding jobs.

David

In my case I have several because they are ideal for holding things together while waiting for a more permanent joint to be made.

The reason I have several is because there are several such assemblies lying on my bench waiting for the permanent joining and so every so often I run out and have to buy more!

I have only ever used mine to loosely hold small pieces for drilling, It enables the drill to “self find” the punch mark.

With my skill set ,this is as close as I will ever get to a toolmaker!

The various comments give some clues as to the apprenticed men and the rest ! As an apprentice you had to make your own by hand and by the time you had you would find lots of jobs for them ! Noel, the apprentice !

I’m with Andrew, I have close to 20, from 1″ to 6″ and I don’t know how I would get along without them. They get used all the time for clamping for drilling, or to angle plates, extra security while milling some jobs, holding items on the surface plate for marking out or measuring. I find the uses are endless.

John

One of my uses is as a vice stop because, since I have some, I don’t need to make a vice stop. They grip nicely on the top edge of a milling vice.

Martin C

I most often use mine to hold small square or rectangular pieces in my bandsaw’s vice – pieces that are too short to hold in the vice itself. This actually seems to be more common with me than cutting something long enough to go in the vice.  It’s easy to get the piece you want to cut reasonably square if you use the jaws of the clamp as reference surfaces when loading the piece into the clamp and if you add a second “foot” (like in the picture*) with the same projection as the captive thumbscrew on the fixed jaw.

Very small round pieces sometimes also get held in toolmaker’s clamps for cutting in the bandsaw, but if they are long enough to be held safely in an ER collet I put them in either an ER20 or ER32 straight-shanked collet chuck with a flatted side held in the vice.

*Ah well, the forum won’t let me upload it, even though it is a valid jpg file and only 383 KB.

“I must try to use my clamps more, like everyone I do frequently need a clamp of some description which is usually mole grips, G clamps and the like. I have a large range of G clamps which I find invaluable.”

I agree with you Bill. I find G-clamps much more convenient and less ‘fiddly’ than toolmakers clamps. They provide a more reliable hold too, IMO. I am not a time-served man either, although I did once have a craft apprenticeship with BREL in Doncaster which I was young and stupid enough to abandon before completion. A decision I have regretted for the rest of my life but at least it gave me the basic turning and fitting skills.

On 11 February 2024 at 12:23 Chris Crew Said:

 

I find G-clamps much more convenient and less ‘fiddly’ than toolmakers clamps.

A lot will depend on what type of work you do, I also use G-clamps but for larger items as they would be far too bulky to try and holed say a strip of 1/8″ half round beading to the edge of a tender but fine to hold a bit of 50mm sq section or a big casting to an angle plate.

Same with moles, ok on a bit of black bar but I would not want to use them to hold a finished aluminium part due to marking the surface and if you introduce packing to protect the part then they become more fiddly.

Personally, in my opinion, I was never a fan of the clamps. No offence to the devotees, I prefer (drum roll) Kant Twist clamps. I got used to them during my apprenticeship in the machine repair trades. A toolmaker in the department showed me his toolmakers clamps he had made during his apprenticeship. I was totally blown away and completely underwhelmed by their appearance and grip strength. Needless to say, he really did not appreciate my opinion. I’ve been retired now for the last 11 years after 39 years in the trade. I still don’t own any of the clamps and my life has been pleasant without them. Thank you very much!

On 14 February 2024 at 06:48 Joseph Skonieczny Said:

Personally, in my opinion, I was never a fan of the clamps. No offence to the devotees, I prefer (drum roll) Kant Twist clamps. I got used to them during my apprenticeship in the machine repair trades. A toolmaker in the department showed me his toolmakers clamps he had made during his apprenticeship. I was totally blown away and completely underwhelmed by their appearance and grip strength. Needless to say, he really did not appreciate my opinion. I’ve been retired now for the last 11 years after 39 years in the trade. I still don’t own any of the clamps and my life has been pleasant without them. Thank you very much!

 

 

 

There’s a multitude of differences between the designs and potential applications of toolmaker’s clamps on the one hand and Kant-Twist clamps on the other. The primary one, for my purposes, is that Kant-Twist clamps are not amenable to being clamped in machine vices, whereas toolmaker’s clamps are.