Fixing those Cheap HF Bar Clamps

[astroracer]

How many of you use these cheap bar clamps from HF? I have a bunch of them, even though they are light duty I use them a lot for woodworking projects as they have a decent clamping force but not strong enough to do any damage like a C-clamp or heavier bar clamps.

After a few years of use the clamps start "popping" the molded hinge pins for the trigger. This renders them useless.
I just broke two of them while working on my bed project this past weekend. This is what you'll have when you pull out the trigger.

After pulling one of them apart. The popped hinge pin.

I had fixed one a while ago that did this and fixed these two in about ten minutes.
The trigger has a molded hole that just fits a #10 machine screw.

Drill through both sides with a 3/16th's drill. Use the molded hinge pins as locators for the drilled hole.

Re-assemble the clamp with the screw in place of the broken hinge pin and it will be ready to go to work.

Both clamps fixed in 10 minutes...

I may do this to all of them just to save the headache of breaking one during a job...
Mark

 

[mrobins297aaa]

thanks for sharing that, i have a few of those worthless clamps maybe they can be fixed after all.

 

[harvey29]

I just fixed mine like this on Saturday but you beat me to the post. Maybe great minds do think alike

 

[Kracin]

i've been doing that for a while.

i was working with my dad to build a fence and he bought a ton of them, and eventually had a pile of them on the ground that didn't work anymore.... i looked at it for a couple minutes and saw why it wasn't working, then drove a deck screw right through the body of it through the hinge in the handle and voila! you could clamp the **** out of them after that, worked perfectly.


never thought to post the fix on here.

 

[trainman1385]

I took mine back to harbor frieght and they swapped them out for new ones

 

[Jagmandave]

I'd see about using a shoulder bolt, the threads on the screws will chew up the hole in the trigger and make it loose. You could also use a roll pin....McMaster Carr has the shoulder bolts.

 

[Danglerb]

I took mine back to harbor frieght and they swapped them out for new ones

+1, I am going to start keeping a return bucket for HD, HF, etc. stuff to return.

 

[diggerrick]

I took mine back to harbor frieght and they swapped them out for new ones

I thought about doing that, but would end up with another broken POS, so I did this same mod. None have broken since, so it's worth the couple minutes to do.

OP, why do you leave the tags on?

 

[BD1]

I thought about doing that, but would end up with another broken POS, so I did this same mod. None have broken since, so it's worth the couple minutes to do.

OP, why do you leave the tags on?

My guess, for the RETURN process.

I have these too. All were FREE when they were on coupons. Light duty for sure but work. I do mostly metal and you get what you pay for. Some of my clamps are 30 to 40 years old and do not fail. Not cheap back then but 3 times the price now.

 

[soloz2]

Pics don't work for me. Anyone else have issues or is it be I'm on my tablet?

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk 4

 

[BFBOB]

. ....McMaster Carr has the shoulder bolts.

and they probably only cost a little bit more than the clamps

 

[fitz11]

Take the broken ones back and swap them for the new style. You want the ones with the all black handle they work much better.

 

[djjsr]

I bought 8 of those. I broke 6 of them. I gave the other 2 away. I think they redesigned those because the ones currently in the stores look a little different.

 

[cheechi]

the curved handle, black or orange, is the newer design. They can still break but not as easily.

I had read this in the reviews on the HF website and done it a few times. The most recent ones I didn't even wait until they broke I got them home and modded them immediately. It makes a huge difference in the amount of clamping force you can apply also, IMO takes them from light to medium duty.