Sunday, February 26, 2012

Kregg Heavy_Duty Bench Klamp

So I went to Rockler this weekend for their Brown Bag sale and finally broke down and purchased this bad boy with some of my bday funds! After having done several dust frames for a recent commissioned chest of drawers I realized I needed a nice flat clamp/plate combo plus I knew this will look sweet routed and mounted into into my bench. The packaging is simple which is good it's just a plate and clamp no frills needed. The plate seems dead flat upon inspection. The clamp itself has the same quality you'd expect from the rest of the Kreg clamp products which is good. You would think that where the clamp mounts to the plate would be sorta like a key hole cut with a recess underneath for the bolt to slip into. Instead it's a straight non-recessed key hole which means that you will need to route or drill a larger area under the keyhole to slip the clamps plate mounting bolt. I think not recessing the underside of the key hole so I don't have to route a second hole is the one oversight of this product. I'll admit I'm becoming more and more impressed with the Kreg line of tools. While I don't necessarily think pocket holes should be used for any type of that's visible I do think it's great for quick strong joinery that will be hidden. Some of you may argue that I could always plug the pocket holes with the available plugs but I think by the time you glue,plane,and sand those flush you might as well have used a biscuit or a variety of quick to make joint types plus you'll avoid that weird non-matching wood look you see when people do use those plugs. Oh the plate itself generally runs $50-$70 with the clamp included in that price I picked it up for about $53 at Rockler using their 15% off "brown bag" event. I'll try to post pics of installation and final look when i get it in the bench!

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