Tools
Clamps and Vices: A Woodworker's Buying Guide for Small Workshops
You can own a beautiful dovetail saw and still ruin a simple box if the joints creep while the glue dries. Clamping is the unglamorous half of woodworking, and in a small workshop it is usually the half that causes the most frustration: too few clamps, the wrong length, or a bench vice bolted into the last bit of clear space. What follows is a straight look at what earns its keep in a modest UK workshop, and what you can leave on the shelf.
Start With the Jobs, Not the Tools
Before spending anything, list the four things you clamp most often. Most hobbyists are doing some version of these:
- Glue-ups — frames, boxes, carcasses and edge-jointed panels, where pressure needs to be even and stay on for half an hour.
- Holding small parts — a rail on the bench while you saw, chisel or drill it.
- Holding jigs and fences — stop blocks, shooting boards, guides, all of which need securing without denting the bench.
- Heavy work at the bench edge — planing, mortising and sawing, where the work wants to move.
Each of those wants a different tool. Buying a set of one type and hoping it covers the rest is how workshops fill up with clamps that never get used.
F-Clamps: Buy Them by the Half-Dozen
F-clamps are the everyday clamp. A fixed jaw at one end, a sliding jaw with a screw handle, and a bar between them: simple, cheap and endlessly useful. A dozen around 150mm and half a dozen at 300mm will cover more work than you would expect.
Throat depth matters as much as bar length. A long clamp with a shallow throat will not reach across a carcass side, and a deep-throated clamp on a short bar is often more useful than a long, weedy one. Look for cast jaws rather than pressed steel, a bar that does not flex when you tighten it, and a handle you can grip properly with the heel of your hand.
Two small habits make cheap F-clamps behave. Run a fine file over the ends of the bar and any sharp casting edges before first use. Then keep a few offcuts of ply or MDF in the clamp drawer: a scrap under each jaw spreads the pressure and stops the marks that show up under finish.
Sash Clamps: Length Is Not the Only Number That Matters
Sash clamps — sash cramps, if you learned this from an older joiner — are the long ones: two heads on a steel bar, one fixed, one sliding with a screw. They are what you reach for on doors, frames, table tops and anything wider than an F-clamp will span.
Buy them in pairs at minimum, and think in millimetres: 600mm, 900mm and 1200mm cover most furniture work. When you compare them, ignore the headline length and check three things instead. The bar should be a stout T-section, not a flat strip that bows under load. The heads should be cast rather than folded sheet. And the screw should turn freely through its full travel without the sliding head drifting when you lock it off.
On a frame or carcase, alternate clamps above and below the work. Two clamps pulling from the same side will bend the job before they close the joint, and no amount of extra pressure will fix a frame that has been pulled out of flat.
Quick-Grip Clamps: Handy, But Know Their Limits
One-handed trigger clamps — the sort you squeeze shut with your palm — are genuinely useful and genuinely oversold. They will hold a jig in place, act as a second pair of hands while you drive screws, or pin a workpiece down for routing. What they will not do is pull a stubborn joint closed or hold a stressed glue-up while you walk away.
Treat them as holding tools, not clamping tools. Buy a handful in mixed lengths, favour the ones with rubber-padded jaws, and keep them away from anything that needs real pressure. Many have reversible heads so they can spread as well as squeeze, which is more useful than it sounds when you are easing a tight drawer or lifting a frame apart.
Bench Vices: The Purchase Worth Taking Slowly
A vice is bolted down, permanent and used every session, so it is the wrong place to save money. A woodworking vice with wooden cheeks, a quick-release lever and a jaw width somewhere between 150mm and 230mm suits most benches. Check the jaw opening before you buy: if it barely clears 100mm it will feel cramped within a month.
Which type
A quick-release woodworking vice is the default choice. An engineers' vice is a separate tool for metal — keep it on another edge of the bench, because filings and oil have no place on a vice you use for timber. If you do a lot of dovetailing, a Moxon-style vice that sits on top of the bench and lifts off afterwards is worth considering in a tight space.
Fitting it well
Bolt through the bench apron, not just the top, using substantial bolts and washers. Set the vice so the jaws sit flush with the bench edge or just behind it, so a long board can hang down the front while you work its end. Line the jaws with hardwood, leather or cork, and use a packing piece whenever you clamp something you care about.
A Starter Kit That Earns Its Space
If you are starting from nothing and the bench is small, this set will carry you a long way:
- Eight to twelve F-clamps, mostly 150mm, with a few at 300mm.
- Two sash clamps at 900mm, with a third at 1200mm when the budget allows.
- Four one-handed trigger clamps for holding work and jigs.
- One good woodworking vice, bolted down properly.
- A box of hardwood offcuts, ply scraps and leather pads for protecting work.
Buying Well and Living With Them
Second-hand is where the value is in the UK. Old cast-iron vices and sash clamps turn up at car boot sales, tool fairs and auction houses, and a well-made vice from decades past will often outlast anything new at the same money. Check castings for cracks, the slide for bends and the screw for chewed threads.
Store clamps on a wall rack or in a shallow drawer where you can see the sizes at a glance; a clamp you have to dig for is a clamp you will not use. And when in doubt, buy the next size up. You will not regret the extra reach, and you will not have to buy twice.
Photo: jarmoluk / Pixabay
