IRWIN QUICK-GRIP Bar Clamp, One-Handed, Heavy-Duty, 50-Inch (1964716), Blue

I'm a hardcore woodworker. I've used these heavy duty clamps for about 20 years. The only thing better than one of these clamps is several of them. With a little practice you can routinely reach for one of these clamps with one hand (while the other hand is holding a couple pieces of wood together), flip the clamp upside down, press the release trigger, and gravity will slam it shut. Then you can torque it as tight as you want with the big trigger. These clamps can squeeze as hard as a screw clamp, but they're 10 times faster and don't mar the wood. A friend of mine at work said he wouldn't buy these because the jaws are plastic. He is a fool who will never know what he's missing. These clamps are incredible tools. I recommend, and I'm certain you won't regret your purchase.

Works good

I needed a clamp because I was re-gluing laminate on the keyboard drawer of my office desk. This was EXTREMELY handy because I was able to do the clamping 1-handed even with a large clamp like this. Didn't even need a helper to get my job done.I experimented with some woodworking many years ago and used a couple of pipe clamps, but this is the most convenient clamp I can imagine. It's big enough to be useful on a lot of different jobs. Slides easily, releases easily, and ratchets down easily.Almost makes me wish I had more projects to do that need a clamp!

I’ve got several small Irwin quick clamps but my favorite are the medium 300lb 24” model. I needed more length so bought the heavy duty 600lb 36” model, they are too heavy for one hand use and they don’t slide as well as the medium 300lb models BUT once in position they apply a lot of clamping force. I want to say I don’t like them but I can’t, use both hands to get them into position and the clamping force wins you over..Thanks Amazon for shipping them individually in way oversized boxes. 10 would fit in each box but you packaged them 1 per box, yep I love breaking down cardboard and filling up my recycle bin. Amazon for the win!

Initial use was for work-holding while finishing drilling, chopping, and routing mortises and other holes while building my bench. My son, who is a woodworker also, recommended the Irwin Quick-Grip clamps with two articulating jaws as you can use that articulation to coax misaligned pieces into alignment by slightly skewing the clamp so the clamping pressure isn't perpendicular to the glue joint -- tighten the clamp to nudge the pieces into alignment, then grab another clamp to apply appropriate pressure while the glue sets.I don't have as many clamps here as my son has at his shop, so the extra power of the heavy duty clamps came in quite useful as we were gluing the timber frame together and attaching the bench top. However, the tradeoff is that they're less quick to get clamped down, and the quick release didn't slide as smoothly as the medium-duty version did out of the box. It may settled down over time, but at least initially there's a noticeable difference. And we're pretty sure these take more strokes of the clamping action to close the jaws as they are applying more leverage, so move slower.If you need the power, pick these clamps. If you need a bit faster speed when using them, and at a smaller price-point, more clamps, go for the medium-duty version. And definitely pick these over the fixed-jaw options you find at the big-box home improvement stores.

I ended up with eight of these for a very involved roofing project. The 2x6x16 lumber used was from a big box store, poorly dried and warped horribly when left out while building the lean to roof. Used these to 'straighten' the rafters using both clamp and spreader configuations during sheathing installation, fix the rafter bird mouth cut to the 4x6 header while fastening with screws to maintain a tight joint. These work wetted by the rain as well as they do dry, although I did blow them down with compressed air after removal. These clamp TIGHT with little to no flex of the bar between the ends. Impressive quality!

Good for woodworking

Love this clamp. Works well, easy to use. I have several Irwin clamps and this one was just the latest addition.