Bessey KR Body Clamps - Problems with not being square

[OvalJason]

Hi all

I wanted to feedback on my experience of Bessey KR125 body clamps and problems I've been having with both the product and after-sales service.

I've read tons of glowing reports about these clamps so it was a real surprise to find that the fixed jaw end is not perfectly square. I purchased two KR125s from D&M tools and on both clamps the jaw is about 88 - 89 degrees. You can see the problem on the attached pic.

The moveable jaw tightens up to be perfectly 90 degrees, but having only one jaw perfectly square really slows things down.

At first I thought I just had defective stock. D&M tools couldn't tell me whether the angle was intentionally not square or not. Then followed 48 hours of totally third-rate service from Gedore UK (the agent) and Bessey in Germany. In the end I blew a fuse and wrote to the MD of Bessey Germany.

Unfortunately, Bessey's response simply confirms that there is a problem that they need to fix. They wrote (excuse the English as it was a German employee writing):

I have to tell you that the fixed jaw never was exactly 90°.
It is absolutely necessary for us to fix this jaw with an about 0.5° smaller angle. [I am sure it's at least 1 -2 degrees personally]"

Bessey then go on to describe various complex workarounds using multiple clamps to prevent "unperfect" [their words] results.

All in all, it is a real downer to find that such expensive clamps are made like this. Especially as they make such a big noise about them being perfectly parallel.

If anyone can recommend body/parallel clamps that are perfectly square, it would be much appreciated.

 

[Chems]

Why do you need this level of accuracy is my only question really? 1/2 degrees doesn't sound much.

Still its not what you expect from the very expensive clamps. The dakota knock off ones I got are parallel if that helps in your search, I haven't measured them but they close parallel together and pull up joints nicely.

 

[OvalJason]

Hi there. I know 1 degree doesn't sound much but over a 1 metre length (my cabinets are 110cm) even a 1 degree difference creates a surprising variance of 17.5mm at the other end.

The solution is to glue up all four sides simultaneously. But that means buying at least another two clamps and at my skill level (quite average) I personally find it quite fiddly to work on all four sides simultaneously.

What I've ended up doing is only joining two panels at a time using just the one "good" square jaw. Very slow.

I was really hoping the Bessey clamps would allow me to create perfectly square joints every time without messing around. I could understand it if it was the moveable jaw that was out, but to knowingly sell clamps with the fixed jaw out of square seems really amateur.

Thanks for the tip on the dakotas. I'll do a search. Appreciated.

 

[Chems]

Perhaps for the time been to get buy just cut a few 1degree wedges to use against the wonky head.

What sort of joints are in use on these cabinets and how much pressure are you applying?

 

[OvalJason]

I'm using butt joints and - for the first time - pocket joints using the Kreg pocket jig. I'm loving the pocket joints. Very neat and very fast.

Overnight, somebody from Bessey Germany emailed me and wants to telephone me today to explain further. I guess I'm quite impressed they're taking it seriously now.

Here's my project by the way: