The Test Cut

Accessories

Band Clamps (Strap Clamps)

A band clamp pulling a frame together. One strap and a ratchet apply even pressure to all four corners at once, which is the whole reason it exists.
A band clamp pulling a frame together. One strap and a ratchet apply even pressure to all four corners at once, which is the whole reason it exists.
reclaimednj from New Gretna, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A band clamp (or strap clamp) wraps a woven strap all the way around an assembly and cinches it tight with a ratcheting buckle, pulling pressure inward from every direction at once rather than between two flat jaws. That's the only practical way to clamp a round or hexagonal glue-up, a mitered picture frame, or any other shape a straight bar or pipe clamp simply can't reach across.

Corner blocks or padded corners under the strap keep it from denting a sharp edge or crushing a miter joint's corner as it tightens -- a detail worth getting right, since an unprotected strap under real tension will mark softer wood.

Images

A band clamp pulling a frame together. One strap and a ratchet apply even pressure to all four corners at once, which is the whole reason it exists.

Product: A band clamp pulling a frame together. One strap and a ratchet apply even pressure to all four corners at once, which is the whole reason it exists. — reclaimednj from New Gretna, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons