Stanley ST083100 Band-Clamp 4.5m/15ft, Yellow/Black

The media could not be loaded. Over the years I have persisted in trying to glue up my mitre joints with a variation of clamping aids, mostly store bought corner clamp types but with the occasional home-made solution thrown into the mix. No matter how well or accurately I cut my angles; I could never get them to sit properly in these types of clamps, and the constant loosening and tightening would drive me to despair.Enter the Stanley Band Clamp. I’ve no idea why over the years I’ve resisted grabbing a set of these, I suppose I had this preconceived notion that they didn’t work or at best would do until something better came along, how wrong could I be. I doubt that this band clamp will be the perfect solution to all my corner clamping problems, but so far this is the best solution I’ve came across to date.The clamp appears to be constructed with a tough ABS material with the screw and clamp holding plates being of an alloyed metal giving it a robust feel in the hand. Although initially I did find the two clamp brakes at either side of the tool for securing the strapping to be very tight, a change in technique soon resolved that problem and I was good to go.It doesn’t take you long to realise that the 4.5 metres of nylon strapping can be a bit of a pain to contain when working with the clamp, however, I found that using a short reusable cable tie will keep the unused lengths tightly under control during a glue-up and storage when finished. (See pics).Part of my latest project and the reason I obtained the Stanley band clamps, was to mitre 45mm x 70mm stock into two rectangles. I genuinely couldn’t believe how easily I was able to achieve this using these band clamps and was delighted with the results.For what it’s worth and I know it goes without saying but to get the best out of these band clamps your joints do need to be accurately cut in the first place, these clamps weren’t designed to correct mistakes in your work and I would guess that over tightening the tool to try and square things up could only result in breakage.

I bought lots of these to help with a job I had come in, I was very happy with the results. I've always used traditional clamps and ratchet straps in place of these, but I wish I'd got some of these sooner. They really are a godsend, and work an absolute treat! They're strong, and put down more than enough clamping force to hold a corner piece together while the glue joint goes off. I'll be buying a few more soon, but honestly can't recommend these enough. Especially at the £12 a piece I paid for them. Bargain!

SUMMARYItem was easy to use and did the job effectively. Would recommend to others!LONG VERSIONI had the need for this clamp as I had a thin C shaped piece of wood that wraps around a ~5inch metal rod that had a split down the side. Using a vice or a G-clamp to hold this is place while wood glue was curing wasn't going to work as it was near impossible to apply the pressure in the correct direction, hence the use of the band clamp.The band-clamp I received was in great condition and everything worked as described. The three plastic joints/clips can be removed from the band if you want to just use the fabric webbing. To use, you open up the clip on the side with the webbing roll and you can feed the webbing through until you have enough room to place your object in the centre. Then you pull the webbing back until you get a snug fit. You then close the clip and then tighten using the grip to get as tight as possible. Unfortunately the square shaped joints/clips don't have rubber contacts so if you don't want your wood to have dents then you should use some cloth to cover the wood. After 24 hours in the clamp, my split wood had sealed pretty tightly. You could no longer separate the split by hand but it does protrude out of the side ever so slightly. I'll put this blame on the nature of this split rather than the clamp itself - there's no way it could apply pressure in this direction.I gave this product 4/5 because I think it would benefit the addition of rubber feet so that it doesn't mark/dent the wood.

This clamp is brilliant. It pulls the joints tight, and you can get good pressure on the clamp for a secure fit. It's light weight, accurate and easy to use.

Very effective at compressing and holding in place wood whether square or irregular shapes

Lovely little tool. Using with picture frames and smaller mouldings. Quality threads and square corner pieces. Might also use on bigger jobs with the Stanley corner clamps. Nice bright colour keeps 'em easy to see around the assembly bench. Good tuff stuff.

Well made and good value. Need to be a bit of an octopus to get it clamped around something as you tighten it while keeping all the corners in place, but works well. Easier to get a helper to position and tighten this with you but does work very well and can clamp with considerable force if required.

Used for repairing a couple of broken picture frames.Worked better than expected and was very easy to use. Pulled the mitres in tightly and didn't twist the frame.