Harbor Freight Reviews

Link: http://HarborFreightReviews.com/HFRreviews.html

Item: 12" Ratchet Bar Clamp/Spreader
Item number: 46807
Retail price: $6.99
Frequent sale price: $1.99 (with coupon)
Target price: $1.99
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Cheaply made but cheaply sold -- a great deal because the product works and because it's sold at the right price. This is the kind of deal we love. There's not much cost that goes into manufacturing this item; its light-duty plastic and metal components are not fabricated from expensive materials nor is there complex machining involved in the manufacturing process. But it does its job and it does it well, and very importantly, Harbor Freight has priced this item (when on-sale which is very frequently) at a correspondingly low price.

The business model of today is to price most items at what the market will bear irregardless of their intrinsic value (e.g., the cost of materials and workmanship). Harbor Freight frequently bucks this trend by pricing their merchandise not only lower than other retailers but at levels consistent with the intrinsic value of the product. This bar clamp is a cheap little item sold at a cheap little price -- bravo Harbor Freight!

For those who don't understand the purpose of this 12" bar clamp (e.g., those who are going to abuse it by over tightening its ratchet mechanism), this is a light-duty item. For those that use it for its intended purpose such as holding wood and similar pieces together while gluing or drilling, this is a medium-duty item that should stand-up well to normal use. (Hum, that theory of relatively keeps popping up yet again in another context, i.e., use for intended purpose vs. abuse of a tool.) Don't get too annoyed when the orange end caps keep falling off; just snap them back on while remembering this is a cheap little tool and you didn't pay much for it.

Buy at least a pair; when you discover a need for holding two bulky pieces together for gluing you don't want to be caught one short for the job. If you need a lot of holding force, this is not the tool: use Harbor Freight's 24" aluminum bar clamp or if you need a lot of pressure, use a C-clamp instead. You might also consider the small, 6" version which is very handy for those extra small items that need to be held while gluing. Watch out or you'll be paying more for the small 6" clamp than for this 12" clamp. The 6" version has occasionally been on sale for 99 cents, but it's not up as often as the larger size.

Bottom line: Buy a pair and even consider the smaller sized clamps. They're another great deal from Harbor Freight when purchased at our target price of $1.99.