D'oh! Fell for cheap tools... again!

[custard]

A little while ago there was a post on this forum from a chap who was extolling the virtue of some dirt cheap Chinese toggle cramps that he'd found.

Decent toggle cramps, like these Braer or Bessey ones, cost in the region of £25 each

Where as the Chinese ones were something unbelievable, like £5 for five. So despite years of bitter experience to the effect that cheap tools are just money down the toilet, I went with his recommendation and ordered some.

Today I found myself running short of toggle cramps for a jig, so rather than cannibalise previous jigs I dug out the Chinese versions and attached one. It's the little red handled jobbie in the foreground,

What a piece of crepe! No matter how you set the adjustment it just refuses to lock off. So I replaced it with another of the Chinese ones...same thing. And another...still no joy.

They were all so badly made and engineered that none of them would work. More fool me for even thinking that a fully functioning £1 toggle cramp could possibly ever be a thing.

 

[transatlantic]

But this is the annoying thing, there is never anything inbetween! .. it's cheap dung, or overpriced stuff that works.

Why isn't there a 'thing that works well and is reasonably priced'

I'm not gonna say it, but pineapple it, I'm gonna say it. Squares fall into this category. It's either cheap dung that is no where near square, or very expensive stuff that is more accurate than you'll ever need (for woodworking).

 

[Just4Fun]

So despite years of bitter experience to the effect that cheap tools are just money down the toilet, I went with his recommendation and ordered some.

I have done the same, thinking "they will come in useful sometime". I haven't tried using them yet. Maybe I'll try them just to see if mine are as bad as yours.

 

[ScaredyCat]

Look identical to the ones (Haobase from amazon) I have on my edge jointing jig which work fine. They cost me £8 for 3 though.


I know it'll be like "teaching your grandmother to suck eggs" but are you adjusting the nuts ?


.

 

[Ttrees]

I know you have better things to do with your time Custard, but could these be modified to work?
A welder could be bought for a pair of those fancy ones.
I'd nearly buy one to figure the design out, or at least to find out why they don't work in future if I need some.
Thanks
Tom

 

[sunnybob]

No one can argue that I complain loud and long about chinese stuff, but I have to (amazingly) stick up for some little toggle clamps i bought at least two years ago for a lot less than a quid each.
They were a lot smaller than I expected (due to some creative macro photography on ebay) but i put two onto a large hand sanding block to clamp foot long pieces of sanding material, and they are still going strong, after literally hundreds of operations.
I cant think of anything else cheap that worked as advertised though.

 

[Ttrees]

I recently got a bucket of 600mm f-clamps for cheap which have been good(ish)
Close your eyes Mr Sunnybob as I am about to offend your mind
What brand you ask.......SILVERLINE
Yes a foot has broken off one allready, but an offcut block o wood makes a OK pad

Beats the hell of what Homebase were offering
Looking at a Irwin marples sash clamp with tiny threads for an absolute fortune which would have the capicity I was looking for.

 

[sunnybob]

just make sure nothing will fall on you when one of them snaps.
If I can break a 4" engineers vice with my bare hands, god help you if theres a window frame in the balance. (hammer) (hammer)

 

[Ttrees]

I bought a 15 quid wood vise, and the threads have stripped from little use...
Infact, I may have to use the SIlverline clamps to rig up stuff in this vise sometime

Sometimes, you cant see the forest through the trees

 

[clanger]

I recently got a bucket of 600mm f-clamps for cheap which have been good(ish)
Close your eyes Mr Sunnybob as I am about to offend your mind
What brand you ask.......SILVERLINE
Yes a foot has broken off one allready,

Must confess, I had to read that twice - when you said that a foot had broken off, I was thinking that it is now only a foot long. Must be the sunshine and a Friday afternoon #-o

 

[OscarG]

I bought these recently for a cross cut sled > https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

Bit fiddly to adjust but they work fine, pretty happy with them.

 

[transatlantic]

I think these things are the way to go instead of toggle clamps. No messing with height adjusments, they slide for a wide range of sizes. But I refuse to pay the extortionate price they're asking.

 

[custard]

Much about tool buying comes down to confidence. Does a particular tool inspire total confidence, or is there a niggling shred of doubt left to unsettle you?

This particular jig wasn't particularly challenging. A leg tapering jig that utilises the sliding table on a saw. A strip of hardwood is sized so it's a precise, interference fit in the slot of the sliding table. Then that strip is attached to the underside of a piece of ply,

The ply gets run through the saw once on each side, so you've then got a precise reference. Anything overhanging the edges of the ply will get cut off. The workpiece gets fastened in at an angle with stop blocks and toggle cramps,

And is then run through the saw,

The main force from the saw blade is being exerted downwards, so in this particular case there's not a huge amount of work for the toggle cramps to do.

But contrast that with other applications.

Here for example is a jig that's running against a ring fence on a spindle moulder.

Not only is more material being removed, there's also the fact that the curved shape of the workpiece means the lateral pressure isn't being transferred directly to a stop block at the end of the workpiece. So in this case the toggle cramps are being asked to do a lot more work. If they fail the workpiece could be flung violently across the workshop, or it could be dragged into the cutter block where it would go off like a grenade (I've seen it happen and you never want to see that a second time).

So it comes back to this question of confidence.

If a toggle cramp doesn't snap closed with complete conviction, or leaves you thinking it might spring apart under vibration, or that the engineering or choice of metal makes you think it might possibly fail; well then I'm just not comfortable putting my trust in it.