I bought a couple of the new 3/4" pipe clamps made by Irwin, which are similar
to the new Rockler ones in that the crank can still be turned when the clamps
are standing on a surface. The difference is that the Irwin clamps do not
require a threaded pipe. Great concept...if it is done correctly. Instead, they
are totally useless because the clutch plates on the fixed side were installed
upside down so that the long tabs point down instead of up. As a result, the
clamp cannot lay flat, which completely defeats the entire purpose of these
clamps. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of obvious mistake, and a
company with a reputation like Irwin should never, ever have allowed this to
happen. I spent nearly half an hour looking them over closely thinking I was
some kind of idiot for not being able to make them work correctly. Then I
looked them up on Amazon.com and found a reviewer who had precisely the same
problem. I will definitely be returning these and if I ever buy another Irwin
product I will demand that the store allow me to take it out of the package and
test it first. If there are any Irwin reps lurking here, let me tell you that I
did not enjoy having to deal with this problem while the glue was rapidly
drying on my project this evening.
NoNameatAll,
Hey, I am that reviewer from Amazon.com that wrote of the clutch plate
problem. Not only was it posted there I also blasted Irwin's so called
Marketing Manager but of course only thru his voice mail about this piece
of crap clamp. My fix was to remove the plates and reinstall them in their
proper position. I am stuck with these as I have already cut the pipe. Dana
[email protected] (NoNameAtAll) wrote:
>I bought a couple of the new 3/4" pipe clamps made by Irwin, which are similar
>to the new Rockler ones in that the crank can still be turned when the clamps
>are standing on a surface. The difference is that the Irwin clamps do not
>require a threaded pipe. Great concept...if it is done correctly. Instead, they
>are totally useless because the clutch plates on the fixed side were installed
>upside down so that the long tabs point down instead of up. As a result, the
>clamp cannot lay flat, which completely defeats the entire purpose of these
>clamps. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of obvious mistake, and a
>company with a reputation like Irwin should never, ever have allowed this to
>happen. I spent nearly half an hour looking them over closely thinking I was
>some kind of idiot for not being able to make them work correctly. Then I
>looked them up on Amazon.com and found a reviewer who had precisely the same
>problem. I will definitely be returning these and if I ever buy another Irwin
>product I will demand that the store allow me to take it out of the package and
>test it first. If there are any Irwin reps lurking here, let me tell you that I
>did not enjoy having to deal with this problem while the glue was rapidly
>drying on my project this evening.
Up until the last sentence, this sounded like a problem with Irwin
clamps. Hopefully your lesson in the school of hard knocks taught you
something about dry assembly and arranging of clamps before applying
glue.
--
Alex
Make the obvious change in the return address to reply by email.
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
>
> "NoNameAtAll" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > PO'ed Irwin kicking rant snipped>
>
> LOL
>
> I guess that dry fitting before glue ups isn't just for "those other people" anymore...
>
> I'm sorry for your situation, but there a at least two divergent perspectives on this
> one...
>
> Myx
What, you mean that you don't wait until you have glue curing before
you try a new clamp out of the box? Where's your sense of adventure?
:-)
On 15 Feb 2004 03:58:15 GMT, [email protected] (NoNameAtAll)
wrote:
>I bought a couple of the new 3/4" pipe clamps made by Irwin, which are similar
>to the new Rockler ones in that the crank can still be turned when the clamps
>are standing on a surface. The difference is that the Irwin clamps do not
>require a threaded pipe. Great concept...if it is done correctly. Instead, they
>are totally useless because the clutch plates on the fixed side were installed
>upside down so that the long tabs point down instead of up. As a result, the
>clamp cannot lay flat, which completely defeats the entire purpose of these
>clamps.
looking at the picture on the amazon site:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000CCXVO.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
what you describe is not obvious. yes the clutch plates extend down,
but the leg extends down further. from the picture it looks like it
would work fine.
> There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of obvious mistake, and a
>company with a reputation like Irwin should never, ever have allowed this to
>happen. I spent nearly half an hour looking them over closely thinking I was
>some kind of idiot for not being able to make them work correctly. Then I
>looked them up on Amazon.com and found a reviewer who had precisely the same
>problem. I will definitely be returning these and if I ever buy another Irwin
>product I will demand that the store allow me to take it out of the package and
>test it first. If there are any Irwin reps lurking here, let me tell you that I
>did not enjoy having to deal with this problem while the glue was rapidly
>drying on my project this evening.
"NoNameAtAll" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> PO'ed Irwin kicking rant snipped>
LOL
I guess that dry fitting before glue ups isn't just for "those other people" anymore...
I'm sorry for your situation, but there a at least two divergent perspectives on this
one...
Myx