You Should Know About Lever Clamps

I have been doing woodworking for a really long time, and I have seen a huge variety of clamps come across my workbench. And recently, I'm loving the levers. Lever clamps are relatively new to me, and they offer a lot of advantages, and they're really finding a great home here in my shop. So I wanna tell you about 'em so that you're also aware of them, and see how they can fit into your woodworking too. So let's back the truck up a little bit. Parallel-jaw clamps, F-style clamps. What these have in common is the manner in which we tighten. We've got a threaded mechanism, we turn the handle, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, and that's how we apply pressure. So the difference when we get to lever clamps is, this is the lever. This is where our pressure is gonna come from. So it's a little bit, kinda think of a ratchet strap-type approach. As I pull this up, and it clicks through those gears, that's what's applying tension down here. So when we're clamping, just let it rest. And that's what's locking that in place. So a couple things are cool about this. One, I don't have much trouble with my hands. In other words, I'm not suffering from carpal tunnel or anything like that, but if you're in a scenario where twisting is difficult for your hand or your wrist or your arm, look at the pressure that we're getting here outta that lever clamp, by simply doing that. And of course, the more clicks I do, the more pressure I'm putting on that lever clamp. So obviously that's a significant bite. That head on the end floats. So, it has the ability to adjust depending on how you're clamping it, adjust to parallel or not to the other face, depending on what you're doing with it. So, it's important to know when you're looking at these, that there's a lot of different stuff going on here. Heavier-duty lever clamps, like I was just showing you. Lighter-weight stuff here. The other thing that's nice about this is in an application where, we need to hold, approach with a clamp, and then squeeze. So, one-handed operation here. Again, I'm holding the material, coming in with the clamp, little bit of pressure there. And then the lever does the rest. So it gives you a nice one-handed option to get that tension on, and plenty of tension for what we're trying to do. One of my favorite applications for this is a lever clamp where, it dogs into this 3/4 inch hole that I have in my workbench. And then when I wanna secure stuff to the benchtop, similar to what I showed you earlier, we can apply pressure. And again, we're just following those cogs. And as it clicks through, that's what's getting tension and pressure on that. So it's something where, one of the things I really like doing is finding different tools, of course, 'cause I'm a bit of a tool junkie. And the other thing is, I really enjoy the opportunity to show you what those tools are about and increase your awareness so that you can find, like I said earlier, where they fit into your woodworking, where they fit into your shop, and don't limit these lever clamps to woodworking. I do a fair bit of welding, and I have found these are also a great tool for me to have in my welding applications for all of the reasons that we talked about here. So again, explore that whole lever clamp category, and I think you're gonna find 'em just as useful in your shop as I have in mine.