Since they have ceased operations in Chicago it was a bit unclear to me whether they would be making clamps any more so I went on another quest.
I've checked my local stores. One has almost no Jorgensen clamps in stock while the other had full racks of them. All but two were the completely made in china versions. I found two that had USA made screws in them and snapped them up.
I went there with the intention of buying as many as my wallet could stand but the ones they had looked like they were made for harbor freight. If they were heavily discounted (50% or more) I might have bought them. Even with the poorly made threads etc the heavy duty clamps are still better. I really like the HD version.
I have some of the 100% made in china clamps and they look fine. How ever the ones they have in stock now are rough. Look closely at the threads and the crimp on the pad. The threads and the crimps are rough and I found several of the crimps that were cracked. I also found some that had obvious flaws in the cast jaws. There may still be some good ones out there but look at them closely.
If Home Depot puts them on clearance someone may get a good deal. I'm going to keep checking my local stores.
- Here is what the made in USA clamps look like. They are also marked made in USA.
- Jorgensen clamp.jpg (102.98 KiB) Viewed 3983 times
- This is one of the made in china clamps. Its hard to tell from this photo but the screw isn;t plated. Some of thes look fine some I would only pay harbor freight prices for.
- Jrogensen Clamp China.jpg (9.65 KiB) Viewed 3983 times