Band Clamps: The Answer to a Question You Haven't Yet Asked

Pony 1215 Band Clamp

Band clamp in use

Despite the name, band clamps have nothing to do with Sousa marches. They’re different animals from other clamps: while most clamps are rigid metal or metal and wood (or plastic) devices that use levers and screws to force the pieces together, band clamps manage to be both simpler and more complex. 

They’re a lot like the belt you’re wearing, except that instead of 30-some inches of leather, this belt is fifteen feet long and made of nylon webbing an inch or so wide. Instead of a "buckle," there's a gear-and-pulley device, spring-loaded. You use it by looping the band around a work piece, like looping a belt around your waist. Then you use the pulley system to tension the band. Think of someone with a 42” waist buckling a 36” belt, and you see how such clamps can apply great pressure.