The Test Cut

Accessories

F-Clamps

F-clamps in two sizes, with a trigger clamp and a spring clamp alongside. The sliding lower jaw is what lets an F-clamp take any width up to its bar length.
F-clamps in two sizes, with a trigger clamp and a spring clamp alongside. The sliding lower jaw is what lets an F-clamp take any width up to its bar length.
Michaelkurek011, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An F-clamp -- named for the rough F shape the fixed foot and sliding jaw trace along the bar -- is the default bar clamp: a foot fixed near one end, a second jaw that slides freely along the bar to get close to the work, then tightens the last distance with a screw handle. That combination of fast coarse positioning and fine screw pressure makes it the general-purpose workhorse for panel glue-ups, case assembly, and anywhere a clamp needs real reach along one axis.

Pipe clamps use the same basic mechanism on plumbing pipe instead of a dedicated bar; parallel clamps refine the same idea further with a rectangular beam and self-squaring jaws.

Images

F-clamps in two sizes, with a trigger clamp and a spring clamp alongside. The sliding lower jaw is what lets an F-clamp take any width up to its bar length.

Product: F-clamps in two sizes, with a trigger clamp and a spring clamp alongside. The sliding lower jaw is what lets an F-clamp take any width up to its bar length. — Michaelkurek011, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons