Hart – a TTI company – has come out with a new hand clamp (HRC0201) that they say offers a new way to secure a variety of materials never thought of before by hand clamps. It features a 2-inch max jaw opening, pivoting jaw pads, aggressively toothed inner jaws, a mini carabiner clip, and a rope cleat so that you can attach cords and ropes.
Hart has not specified whether the new clamp is made from plastic or metal construction, but it definitely looks like plastic to me. The clamp can provide 50 pounds of clamping power, which is what you could expect from a clamp this size.
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Price: $10
Model No.: HRC0201
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First Thoughts
The new Hart clamp looks a little busy to me, if you know what I mean. I can appreciate innovative clamps, but I also like stripped-down designs that just work. Often, the fewer “game changing” features, the simpler and stronger the clamp. These clamps do look interesting, but unless they perform better than they look, or you need the rope cleat, you can get Irwin or Bessey 2-inch hand clamps for less money.
I’m also not sure about the purpose of the aggressively toothed inner jaws. They look like they could be sized to dig into 2x and larger wood profiles, but since the jaws are hollow and not solid throughout, there’s not going to be a lot of clamping power when used on plastic or metal pipes and other materials. When used on harder materials, the clamp will likely slip and slide around.
Michael Quinlan says
Several years ago I bought 8 Bessey 2″ hand clamps – I now have 5, since 3 of them failed at the hinge (nut comes off, pin falls out). I don’t recall any mention on the packaging about maximum clamping force, but it now occurs to me that maybe I was over-stressing them a bit.
fred says
A Vise Grip chain wrench or a strap clamp like these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/182-3195322-3392433?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=strap+clamp+&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Astrap+clamp+
– might prove more practical for “clamping” round or irregular shaped objects. The rope cleat (carabineer) doesn’t look like its much more than a light-duty affair – and I would certainly not trust it or the clamp to hold much weight especially if the weight were likely to fall on me or someone else. Even structural clamps can sometimes fail catastrophically as witnessed by the recent tragedy at the Ringling Brothers Circus
Stuart says
I don’t think that the round jaws are for clamping round or irregular shaped objects, but to clamp to such objects.
NCD says
Personally I don’t care for pivoting jaw pads most of the time. They become a problem when clamping an item close to the edge. JMHO.
Chris Fyfe says
Sounds handy for the BDSM market .
Chris