Bessey SuperGrips
By Benjamen Johnson
Riddle time: What do you get when you cross a set of vice-grips with a clamp? Answer: A clamp that strips the hell out of your workpiece — well, maybe if you don’t use the optional protective pads. But no, you get a kick-ass fast-action clamp with a throat depth of 2-1/2″ that can provide 660 lbs of clamping force.
Not only can Bessey’s SuperGrips supply a lot of force, they can repeatedly deliver the same amount of force. You control the clamping pressure with a set screw and lock nut, so squeezing the handles together only locks the jaws. To clamp tampered objects you can change the jaw angle up to seven degrees by adjusting a second screw and lock nut on the end of the handles.
The upper jaw slides on a cold-drawn, profiled steel rail, and a special recess machined into the lower jaw allows it to hold round stock. Bessey makes the jaws from hardened chrome-vanadium steel, but if you need to protect the finish of your work you can slip protective pads over the serrated jaws. As a final touch, they nickel-plate all metal surfaces.
The SuperGrips come with jaws that open either 4″ or 8″ wide, and Bessey sells them with or without protective pads. Expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $75 for a pair.
SuperGrips [Bessey]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
4″ Jaw Via Amazon(B000JLSMXM) [What’s This?] [What's This?]
8″ Jaw Via Amazon(B0002FSISY) [What’s This?] [What's This?]
July 7th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
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July 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
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July 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
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July 7th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
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July 7th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Isn’t this what Norm uses on his show?
Fairly certain I don’t understand the significance of the first four replies.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Bessey makes a number of clamps of similar style - all high quality German (so far no Chinese knock-offs) products.
We do a lot of pipe fabrication and like the SG24-PC
http://www.amazon.com/Bessey-SG24-PC-2-Inch-Capacity-Gripping/dp/B00018A1LE
July 8th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Hank,
The first four comments are pingbacks, if you want an explaination about what pingbacks and trackbacks are read this:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging#Trackbacks
The short answer is that the comment is a notification to Toolmonger that someone has linked to this post on their own blog.
July 8th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Hank, I just finished re-watching The New Yankee Workshop — Router 101.
Indeed, Norm is using Bessey SuperGrips!
July 8th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Benjamen:
Many thanks for the info about trackbacks and pingbacks. I had no idea… but, there are many things of which I have no clue.
Thanks for the confirm on the Norm issue. He sells them on his site for a fairly good price, actually.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Buyer beware! Some of the stuff with the brand “Bessey” is actually coming out of China… I was disappointed when I bought some Bessey clamps on clearance lately. I didn’t think to look where they were made until I got them home…
July 10th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
[...] Bessey SuperGrips The SuperGrip clamp is what you get when you cross a set of vice-grips with a clamp. It’s a kick-ass, fast-action clamp with a throat depth of 2-1/2″ that can provide 660 lbs of clamping force. The clamping force is controlled with a set screw and lock nut and squeezing the handles together locks the jaws. [...]