I have a bunch of pipe clamps both 1/2 and 3/4. Most of them are the orange 3/4 size (Jorgensen) and they work fine. The 1/2 size are a bit light and should be avoided for all but the lightest gluing jobs, but they work OK. Rockler has a design that is similar to the Jorgensen brand, but with legs, so they don't roll on the bench when you are trying to position them and this may be a good idea, but I had already bought enough of the orange ones before they became available, so I never tried them.
I did try another brand of cheapie pipe clamps and wasn't at all satisfied with them. They weren't Harbor Freight because that place didn't exist at the time, but the quality and price of these was similar to what they sell. These were similar in design to the Jorgensen pipe clamps, but the pipe gripping piece at the tail end of the clamp was a spring loaded barbed piece and not at all like the "angled plate" design of the Jorgensen that always works so great. These barbed pieces failed to properly grab the side of the pipes and would slip whenever I tried to tighten the clamp against a board. The only way to make them work was to file grooves along the pipe for them to grab. This style should be avoided no matter what the price. They were much cheaper than the Jorgensen, but in my opinion, totally worthless.
Galvanized pipes don't leave glue stains on your boards, but hot dipped galvanizing is frequently too thick and too soft, which sometimes causes problems with the clamps not gripping properly. Black iron pipes work great but will leave stains on the boards where the glue touches it. Frequent waxing of the pipes will minimize this, as will pieces of waxed paper or plastic bag material between the pipe and the glue joints. Instead of buying long pipes, all of my pipe clamps are 4' and smaller. For the few times that I've needed longer clamps I bought some pipe couplings and just join pipe from several smaller clamps to make the length that I need.
When the project is finished I re-assemble the pipes into the smaller clamps again. I just don't use long clamps often enough to justify having them.
Charley
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The RIDGID® 915 Roll Groover is a manual roll groover for in-place field applications. The 915 requires only 3 1/2" of clearance to travel around a pipe and a minimum of 2 3/4" of exposed pipe for grooving. With the appropriate roll sets, the 915 can groove from 1 1/4" to 12" pipe, the widest range in its class! The 915&#;s cast-in handle allows for easy transport or chaining the groover down to prevent theft. The 915 is a must for service work crews.
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