Rutlands Aluminium sash clamps

[Mrs C]

Can anyone comment on Rutlands Ali sash clamps, good or bad? They are on offer, but dont want to waste £70 if they are no more use than spaghetti!

Thanks

 

[John15]

I think all this type of aluminium clamp are of a similar design. Most of my sash clamps are this type and I find they work well . The longer ones (eg 1500mm) will flex under load but this can be overcome by inserting a baton into the hollow section. You can check if the price is OK by comparing them with those on Ebay.
Hope that helps.

John

 

[AJB Temple]

It depends what you want them for. For example, I have recently put an oak roof on a timber framed building and I used sash cramps to pull up some joints prior to fixing. My son got the cramps out of the main workshop and put them on. This is pulling a 4" oak rafter against an 8" tie beam. Bent the cramp before the oak shifted/ Swapped them for some old (ex ebay) heavy duty steel Record sash cramps, and the joints pulled up tight with no problem.

Horses for courses. Light duty only I would say. (whereas heavy duty cramps will do everything).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Of course if you need several cramps you could use heavy ones to pull your joints up then lightweight ones to hold them.

 

[powertools]

The clamps are fine for general woodworking but don't expect them to help erect an Oak framed building.

 

[AJB Temple]

Indeed! My son is still at the learner stage and when I asked him to get the sash cramps out, the aluminium ones were not what I had in mind. I got them as part of an eBay job lot which had some good stuff in it, but would not actually buy the Rutland ones (or similar) personally. They are of course a lot lighter and suit some work, which is why I kept them.

 

[RobCee]

The can be made to work much better and do provide an inexpensive way to obtain clamps, but they need a bit of effort to get the best out of them.

Paul Sellers has a good video showing how to improve them significantly.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Axminster has up to 30% off them today.

 

[transatlantic]

I have some from ebay and I find them rather limiting due to the small throat size.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

The can be made to work much better and do provide an inexpensive way to obtain clamps, but they need a bit of effort to get the best out of them.

Paul Sellers has a good video showing how to improve them significantly.

A simple and effective mod which I'll do when mine are delivered. Thanks for pointing out Paul's video.

Obi Wan

 

[bawdseymatt]

I've got 6x of the Rutlands 54" ones they've been fine.
Used to make boxes and set panels and had no problems.

 

[johnnyb]

I have found Ali sash cramps to Superior to steel in 95 per cent of situations tbh they are light and fairly strong and also quick to adjust. Timber frame clamping aside you won't be disappointed! Steel can be very unwieldy. But if your planning on making joinery Windows doors etc I guesssteel sash cramps rule. Also the longer the thing you clamp the less Ali cramps are ideal. At 600mm or even 1200 they are great. 1500 still work but if your squeezing big joints together go fo steel( then swap to Ali!)