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.
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.