Ontique

When I ordered this, I thought I was getting a heavy duty set of clamps and spreaders. They ended up being flimsier than they look. I’m sure for smaller jobs they will be fine, but for a heavy duty job I believe they will end up bending and not getting the job done. We’ll have to see.
Rating: 2 / 5

I received this kit as an Amazon Vine reviewer, which means that this review is my payment for the item being reviewed. With disclosure out of the way, let’s get on with the review.

I am a woodworking hobbyist. I have made many bookcases, tables, desks, filing cabinets, and other smaller items that all have the common element of needing clamps for assembly. My clamp assortment consists of the classic Jorgensen pipe clamps in various sizes, a collection of “C” clamps, wooden hand clamps and the Irwin “Quick-Grip” clamps that are the logical comparison product to the KR tools set being reviewed here.

My executive summary is that the smaller clamps in this set are more flexible (flimsy?) than I like and are barely adequate for anything but holding pieces together as opposed to pressing or squeezing them together. When pressure is applied, the micro clamps bend enough that the jaws quickly go out of parallel and tend to let go of what you put in them. This is not an issue if you have perfectly milled parts and just need to lightly hold them while the glue dries. I did not feel comfortable while using them as they always feel like I’m about to break them. Now in fairness, they did’t actually break, but I think this was largely because I treated them a bit gingerly.

The larger clamps are, relatively speaking, a lot better. They do not flex as easily and are able to generate enough force to be useful. They do not, however, generate as much force as my like-sized Quick-Grips (QG) clamps. For one thing, the lever that closes the KR clamp is not a comfortable thing to apply hard pressure against. Once again, I didn’t break it, but I felt like I could break it if I applied as much pressure as I would on my QG. Still, works well enough to be useful – it’s not a throw away.

One of the features of the KR product is that all sizes (even the micro) can be used as spreaders. It was easy to convert them and you just have to be careful to avoid dropping the small nut that is part of the retaining structure for the removable end-piece. In fact, the operating lever of the clamp is set up to (in my opinion) be of more use in spreading than it is in clamping. If you look at the product picture, you can see that while clamping your forearm has to reach across the object to be clamped. This is not the case while operating it in spreader mode. If you take a look at the following link to the QG clamps [. . . ], you can see that the two products have their lever oriented opposite of each other. I suggest that if you use this more as a clamp than a spreader (this is really likely, actually) then you will not be too happy with the ergonomics of the KR clamp.

I strange issue with the KR is that the bar length is not very indicative of the space between the jaws. The product reviewed has a bar length of almost 20″but the jaw space is only 12. 5″ in clamp mode. In contrast, my QG 18″ bar clamps have 12. 25″ of capacity. I bring this up because the jaw capacity is not listed on the product page and also because in small shops, space is precious. If you have dozens of clamps, almost 3: of ineffectiveness per clamp can become an issue.

I suppose if you are still reading, you might ask, “Why would i ever buy these, if they have so many issues?” It comes down to price. This whole set costs about as much as one 24″ QG on Amazon. If you needed to get 30-40 clamps to do a project (e. g. trim application on a large cabinet job) and you don’t do woodworking for a living (that is, these may just get used once) this is a very economical set. Or, if you just don’t have the money, you could carefully use these and just make sure your milling process does not require big pressure on the pieces. Actually, that’s the way you’re supposed to mill parts, but let’s be honest, we’ve all crushed a part of two into place using our clamps before. If you need to do some crushing, these won’t cut it. If you are a reasonably precise woodworker, you can get by with these for a lot less money. Just keep in mind, it’s less for less.

Summary

These will work, but are not comfortable to use nor do they seem durable (although I haven’t broken them yet). If it was me, I would spend more money and get a better clamp, but if you don’t have the money, just get these and be careful.
Rating: 3 / 5