PONYJorgensen 3712-HD 12-Inch Heavy-Duty Steel Bar Clamp, Orange

The clamp is absolutely satisfied me. I'm a hobbyist woodworker and for my small projects these clamps are just the right choice. It's provides very strong clamping, no deformations, no slipping. The handle is very comfortable, doesn't slips in hands and very light in use. You don't need much effort to clamp any part and it has quick release lever. I have 3 of them, definitely will buy another couple.

Jorgensen has long been my favorite F style clamp. I was upset when they closed their factory near Chicago and I thought for sure the quality would go down after it was purchased by a different company. However, they seem to have kept the quality up and the price is about the same, if my memory serves. The ones I have purchased since the “reopening“ have been on par with the quality of the old ones. I am hoping they stay that way.

I live in a downtown loft studio and needed a way to get my bike up and out of the way. I'd purchased this Bike Hoist but REALLY didn't want to drill into the concrete ceiling and beams, plus they were quite the right distance anyhow. I know the load limit rating is for clamping pressure and not "outward" pulling force, but I figured the 1,000 pound load limit should be enough to hold my bike!I did have to remove the protective caps because they kept sliding off. But again, this is due to my own "non-tradition" use of these bar clamps more than any sort of issue with the clamps themselves. I'm just as happy as cam be!

Great little clamp that will last forever. These guys make a high quality product and I will be buying their other sizes. The jaw slides easily up the bar to get you in the right ball park then you use a nice wood handle to slowly tighten the clamps. They will not back off over time like some of the cheaper pump style clamps. These are made of all metal (other than the handle which is wood and the rubber protective ends) so these will outlast me. Very easy to leave set up for the night while glue is drying or the week until I have time to get back to my project.e

First off, I am a professional woodworker. I own hundreds of clamps and use them every day including 40+ of the original Jorgensen 3712-HD f clamps and a few hundred other Jorgensen clamps. I bought 4 of this new version to compare to my originals before deciding whether or not to buy more. After using the new clamps side by side with the old ones for 6 months, this is what I have determined.The Good:1. The thread pitch and diameter are exactly the same as the originals although the new ones look smaller because they have a black anti corrosion coating instead of the zinc coating on the originals. This is very important. The thread pitch determines how much pressure you can apply with the clamp and is one of the primary reasons I don't like other manufacturers clamps. Most manufacturers use less threads per inch which reduces how much pressure can be applied with a given clamp. Bessey in particular uses less thread per inch and tend to have alot of friction on the thread.2. The handle is much easier to use. My first impression was that the handle was cheap and that I would probably replace them with wood handles at some point. After using the clamps for awhile, it is easily noticeable that the plastic and rubber handles are much easier to grip and much less fatiguing to use. They don't seem to be flimsy and show no signs of failing after 6 months of use.The Bad:1. The clamp pads aren't made to the same tolerances or with quite the same material as before. The clamp pad is a friction fit design which worked fine with the old version, but the new version is to loose and isn't as elastic so they have a tendency to fall off. I haven't done it yet, but I will probably glue the clamp pads on with some regular woodworking PVA glue. It won't permanently bond them, but will probably keep them from falling off so frequently. The pad itself is very good at protecting the workpiece from damage and much prefer it to most other clamp pads, I just wish it would stay on.2. They put detents in the bar. I have one comment regarding this... Why?! The clutch makes the clamp head infinitely adjustable and never has problems slipping. The detents make the clutch a little bit harder to release and in some clamp applications can cause indents in the wood if the bar is pressed up against the wood when pressure is applied causing the bar to bend. It also makes it more difficult to clean glue off the bars. It's totally unnecessary and causes problems.3. While the bar is the exact same dimensions as the original version, it bends more, though not much. I think it might not be as good of a steel as before. Which is not to say it is bad, just not quite as good as it was before.4. This is the big one and it took me a little while to figure out what was happening. The clamp does not clamp parallel at all. Clamping force can end up being applied at as much as a 10-12 degree angle. This can make precision alignment difficult to impossible because the clamp angle is not only pushing together but to the side. The increased clamping angle is being caused by the opening in the sliding head where the bar goes through being too big, particularly on the backside. The clamp head tilts back past parallel instead of stopping at parallel. The detents also make this slightly worse. I think I can fix it by putting in a shim between the bar and the head, but I shouldn't have too.While the angled clamp pressure can be a problem, I have found that these are still fine for high pressure clamping such as laminating. I have gotten away from using these HD clamps for precision clamping anyway because you generally don't need a 1000lbs of clamping pressure when doing precision work. I use Jorgensen's quick grip clamps for more precise work most of the time. They have 300lbs of clamping pressure and have very nice parallel jaws and are the best quick grip type clamps I have every found. I refused to use quick grip type clamps for years until I gave those a try.Conclusion:Overall a decent clamp. It is best used for high pressure applications. I would still choose it over pretty much any other f clamp being manufactured today, though they really need to fix the problems with the sliding clamphead casting and the clamp pad material.Good luck and happy woodworking!

I'd never seen these clamps in the big box store before, so I was a little surprised at just how heavy duty they are. They are more suited for large glue ups rather than the task of pinning things together temporarily that I had intended. They are easier to deal with than pipe clamps though and are a good alternative to breaking out such heavy clamps for gluing up panels. So far I've not had the problem with the pads staining wood others have mentioned, but I've also yet to glue up any oak with them which tends to stain worse in my opinion.

Almost like clamps used to be. The bar thickness, though little thin for longer clamps, are great for theses 12". I do think the screw is a little thin but so far I've used them daily and with force in a full time cabinet shop and they always work as intended. Will buy again.

I used these to build a chicken coop and chicken run for my wife, had never used wood clamps for much in the past. These wood clamps are amazing. They feel absolutely bomb proof. Way nicer than my dad's old sets. He took one look at mine and put these on his Christmas list.