Bessey KRK2440 K Body REVO Fixed Jaw Parallel Clamp Kit Includes: 2-24-inch, 2-40-inch K Body Clamps and 1 set of KP Blocks

Reviews of Bessey KRK2440 K Body REVO Fixed Jaw Parallel Clamp Kit Includes: 2-24-inch, 2-40-inch K Body Clamps and 1 set of KP Blocks

1.) Love these clamps
Reviewed by: \\//\\//olf Brandon, MS USA
Rating:
I give these 5 stars!! These clamps are awesome -- they sung up easier than the previous generation and they are easy on the hands; they have great grips. The jaws remain parallel to the point I get lazy and often omit the blocking.

Additionally, I like to snug up the clamps before I hang them on my clamp rack so that the movable section doesn't come crashing down on my hand when I remove them; These are the easiest parallel clamps to snug up. I sure wish these weren't so expensive but I love them. More are in my future --

One issue however, is the packing -- when the clamps arrived, the end of the box was destroyed and 2 of the black plastic "retainer" clips were trashed -- not a big deal for me as I remove them anyway - the clamps were otherwise in great shape -- ( I can't imagine too much could happen to these things-- they are tanks)

2.) Packaging still isn't right!
Reviewed by: Daniel J. Neyens
Rating:
Before ordering a couple sets of the Bessey K Body REVO clampsBessey KRK2440 K Body REVO Fixed Jaw Parallel Clamp Kit Includes: 2-24-inch, 2-40-inch K Body Clamps and 1 set of KP Blocks, I read all the reviews here on Amazon. All very very good except a couple had mentioned poor packaging and broken plastic rail end stops. Since that part is not that important to the over all clamping function and assuming the Bessey folks would read such reviews and probably address their packaging problems, I went ahead and ordered two sets. The first shipment arrived and sure enough, I had a couple of broken end stops! Amazon was quick to respond and immediately sent a full replacement set. A day or two later the second set arrived and it too had broken pieces. After I received the original repacement set (it too had broken pieces), I was able to combine the three sets into two good sets and send all the broken ones back to Amazon. A bit of a hassle but I did finally end up with the clamps I wanted and at the best price I could find! Perhaps Bessey will FINALLY get the message that their packaging is poorly designed and will make the nessary improvements. Its a shame that such a quality minded manufacturer places their great products in such pooly deigned packages!




3.) Outstanding
Reviewed by: A Contractor Illinois United States
Rating:
These clamps are the berries for building cabinet doors. They automatically square the doors up. I put off buying them for awhile because of the price but now that I have them, I wonder why I never bought them before. As mentioned on the other reviews, one of the clamps did arrive with a broken tail support. I emailed Bessey and they sent me a new one.

4.) Great Product, Poor Delivery
Reviewed by: Carpenter Maynard, MA USA
Rating:
Have other Bessey clamps and love them all. Price here at Amazon was considerably cheaper than local supply houses and free shipping closed the deal. Read others reviews who had received damaged clamps but ordered anyway and hoped for the best. Package arrived right on time but was damaged. This is my first purchase with Amazon and will continue to use them since customer service answered phone and set up another delivery for 2 days from now!! Hope package arrives undamaged as I will be using and needing them shortly. Anyone looking for great clamps at a great price should consider these. Things happen beyond the control of Amazon and they seemed very willing and able to replace the damaged clamps in short time. Great work!

5.) Great clamps, terrible packaging
Reviewed by: Diver Flourtown, PA USA
Rating:
I am a woodworker and have used Bessey K-Body clamps for years. I would say that the old K-Body clamps were the best on the market. The only minor issues I had with them were the smoothness of the screw handles and occasional trouble getting the clamps to engage when gluing up. It seems that these new REVO clamps have solved those issues. The rubber grip on the handles allow me to easily apply adequate pressure to the work piece and I have no problems getting the clamps to engage immediately. I hope that they stand up to the rigors of a woodworking shop like my old K-Body clamps have.
I like the removable protection pads that slip over the clamp jaws, although I found that some don't fit as snug on the jaws as others. The outer protection pads slip right off the 40" clamp jaws (but fit snug on the 24" jaws). Since I don't do a lot of spreading with my clamps, I just removed them and put them in a drawer. But it is a minor quality control issue. For the price of these clamps, fit and finish should be dead on.
I like the fact that they added the adjustable workpiece contact elements that slide along the clamp bar to protect your workpiece from damage by the serrated bar. But time will tell if they last, as they are plastic and clip on the bar. Upon arrival of my clamps, many of these contact elements were laying in the box forced off the bar due to inadequate packaging.
Okay, now for the negative stuff, and it all has to do with the packaging. I bought a couple of the kits (this one and a kit of 24" and 50" clamps). I had read all the reviews on the poor packaging, took a chance and ordered them anyway. I have to completely agree that Bessey should get it together and improve their packaging of these clamps. It is unacceptable that there is such inadequate protection for such heavy clamps. The kit box, with four clamps had little more than a couple of pieces of bubble wrap and the clamps were jostled around in the box during transport (warehouse and UPS). The boxes were damaged, re-taped at some point and splitting open when I received them. A couple of the plastic end rail caps were shattered, which can easily be replaced. But the big problem was that one of the 24" clamps was damaged beyond repair. The clamp screw had come out of the jaw (there is a ball joint at the end of the screw that is compression fit into the jaw head and would not go back in). I had to send the whole kit back for a replacement set. I am hoping that the replacement fairs better and arrives undamaged. If you do order these clamps from Amazon or other retailer for shipping to you, keep this in mind. If the clamps arrive and some of the plastic end caps, plastic work piece contact elements or jaw face protection pads are damaged, call Bessey first, before sending them back for a refund or replacement. I called them and they were very nice and quite helpful. They offered to send me any of these components that I needed, free of charge. But since one of the clamps itself was damaged, they told me to send the whole kit back to Amazon for a replacement.
Bessey knows that their clamps are sold online and shipped via UPS, Fedex, etc. through multiple distribution warehouses. For such a well-designed and engineered clamp, you would think that they could engineer a box that can stand up to the rigors of transport.
Finally, these clamps, IMO, are the best on the market. They clamp square to the surface, are easy to use, and don't deflect the workpiece. I highly recommend them for any wood shop, professional or hobbyist.
UPDATE: 5/4/09
Amazon was great in expediting sending replacement clamps for the damaged set that I first received. Overnight shipping via UPS. The new clamps arrived in the same flimsy box and was damaged on the outside. I was wary that these clamps might not have survived shipping too. Opened the box, and thankfully, the clamps were unscathed. There were some broken plastic rail end caps and workpiece protection elements, due to the poor packaging. One call to Bessey (call them directly via their toll free number), and they are shipping me replacement these plastic pieces. Seems to me that if they spent a little for better packaging to begin with, they could save a lot of money on having to ship out replacement pieces.
Anyway, I'm glad to have the clamps for my next big project.

6.) Great Clamps, Poor Packaging
Reviewed by: R. C. Bunt Middlebury, VT USA
Rating:
The K Body REVO clamps are Bessey's response to Jet's very popular parallel clamps (that were in turn a response to the popular original Bessey parallel clamps). Both the Jet and Bessey clamps are excellent and have been reviewed quite a bit on woodworking sites (lumberjocks, sawmill creek, etc). I bought this 4-clamp cabinet door set since it was a good value for 4 clamps in the sizes I wanted, and I thought the KP blocks would be useful eventually. They're almost a free add on when compared to the price of the individual clamps.

Either the Bessey or Jet clamps would have worked for me just fine, but a few minor features made me choose the new K Body REVO clamps over the Jet clamps. The REVO clamp heads / faces are slightly wider and shorter (vs. the narrower but taller Jets). I wanted these mostly for panel glue-ups, so I thought that wider would be better than taller. The plastic work piece support clips seemed more useful (to me) than the included bench dogs with the Jet clamps because I don't have dog holes drilled in my workbench. Finally, I thought the black plastic clamp pads would be useful for glue-ups and thus far they have been. I have not had any trouble with them slipping off or with glue sticking to them. I did coat the steel bar with paste wax to prevent glue from sticking to it.

I totally agree with the other reviewers who complained about the packaging. My clamps and all the plastic clips and end pieces arrived safely with no damage, but it might have been luck. Amazon just put a shipping label on the Bessey cardboard box, and one end was ripped slightly open when it arrived. In fairness to Amazon, I'm not sure that putting the Bessey box inside another box with bubble wrap and padding would really help much though. As another reviewer stated, the clamps were just placed loose inside the Bessey box--no internal cardboard, packaging, or plastic ties to hold the clamps in place. So they just rattle and bounce around against each other inside the box during shipping. I'm not surprised that some have arrived damaged and broken. I rated the clamps 4/5 for this reason only.

Overall, I really like the function and utility of these clamps. I will probably buy the set of 4 with the extenders (another feature I like about the REVO vs Jet) next time I need more clamps.



7.) downgrade from the old Bessey K body clamps
Reviewed by: K. carroll SF Bay Area, CA USA
Rating:
I received these clamps and one of the end rail pieces was broken. I asked Amazon to ship me a replacement piece but I guess they are not set up for that so they shipped me two replacement clamps. Oh well.
I took the piece I needed and noticed that one of the replacement clamps had a cracked red plastic head.
So, two clamp shipments, both had broken pieces.
The plastic on the new clamps is thin and cheap versus the sturdy plastic used on the old ones. The black plastic jaw covers keep slipping off also - annoying!
The mechanism works just as well - I'd say it was identical to the old, but all in all these are a downgrade from the K body clamps.

8.) were these clamps air dropped?
Reviewed by: Ron Middaugh Dover, NH USA
Rating:
I just received 2 of these sets of clamps, for a total of 8 clamps. I have to say they came very quickly,less than 3 days. I met the Fed-Ex man in the driveway and wondered why when he handed me each box they rattled like a box of broken dishes. Each one of the 8 clamps had broken plastic pieces. The boxes themselves were not in great shape. Which lead me to believe that perhaps they were air dropped to the local Fed-Ex parking lot and then whisked away in a truck to my house. The Bessy Company has claimed they re-engineered these clamps to make them better. The outside of the box touts "replaceable glue resistant pressure caps". Perhaps a better title would be "breakable glue resistant pressure caps", as only a few survived the air drop. Bessy should re-engineer their packaging.

Features of Bessey KRK2440 K Body REVO Fixed Jaw Parallel Clamp Kit Includes: 2-24-inch, 2-40-inch K Body Clamps and 1 set of KP Blocks

Sets - Woodworking Clamps Type: Parallel Clamp Capacity: 24, 40 Throat Depth: 3-3/4

1.) Fixed jaw includes 2 clamping surfaces to distribute force over broader area;
2.) Chrome plated profile rail with serrations;
3.) Quick action clutch design;
4.) Soft non marring jaw pads included for fixed jaws and spindle pad;
5.) Wood handle and chrome plated steel threaded spindle;

Package Height x Length x Width: 48.5 in. x 48.5 in. x 8.6 in.
Package Weight: 32 lbs.