# Irwin clamps on sale at Canadian Tire



## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Guys I had no idea CT even sold Irwin clamps , but as I was in there looking for aluminium stock I happened to see Irwin clamps on sale . There on for $26 a piece for the 24" heavy duty version , a little less for the lighter duty ones . Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up as I think that's a pretty good deal


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Sounds pricey.
Magnum...
https://www.kmstools.com/24-ratcheting-clamp-spreader-102915

Irwin...
https://www.kmstools.com/irwin-24-quick-grip-bar-clamp-5324

I've got the Magnums, and I have absolutely no complaints with them. They squeeze stuff perfectly adequately.


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

DaninVan said:


> Sounds pricey.
> Magnum...
> https://www.kmstools.com/24-ratcheting-clamp-spreader-102915
> 
> ...


Wow those Magnams are much cheaper alright .


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

The Irwins appear to be a little better quality but I don't know if they are $16 better quality. Those type are very light duty which is fine some of the time but what they excel at is being able to use one hand to clamp something well enough that you can let go and put better clamps around it. You should have at least one pair of them.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

I would give the Irwins a medium duty rating Charles...


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

They might be that strong all right. I know a few woodworkers that bought lots of clamps like that and will use a half dozen or so in a clamp-up. This doesn't make good economic sense to me since you can buy 2 decent quality F clamps for the price of one of those. To me the only advantage of using these is the one-handed aspect but that is an important one at times.

You can get this type clamp in every quality/price range there is and the cheapest ones will break if you tighten them as hard as you can. If you just use them to hold something together while you put a better clamp on it then most of them, including the Magnum's that Dan linked to for $10, will work just fine.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

As I said, Charles, I've had _no_ complaints with the Magnums. 
Is there something I'm missing about the Irwins (Rick posted the picture of)?
They certainly don't look any more skookum.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Mainly the bar Dan. The Magnums appear to use a flat bar and the Irwins are an I-beam design. The I-beam should resist torsion better. But if the Magnums are giving you good service there is no reason to spend more. Even the really cheap ones from PA work for me because I don't use them to put much pressure on. We had a thread quite a while back about the HF clamps in the States failing without much load put on them and this brought on a discussion about these clamps. It came out that some users were squeezing on them until they turned red faced and that isn't what they were meant for. The memory of that thread is influencing my comments.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Good point, Chuck! The subject of over-pressuring glue-ups has been brought up many times here. If I want to squeeze the bejabbers out of something, these one hand jobbies aren't my first choice in any case.


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