Awesome vid! Another tip: Wipe off the excess glue squeeze out with clean wet rag before the drying process begins. It's a bigger pain later. Thanks!

Matt I really enjoy your video's and the way you go about building.. I have done woodworking for about 30 yrs and of still learning and learned from your video's. I just bought the Merle corner clamps and bought the double set on sale. Must say these are sure made well. And I learned much about them in your video. I am 81 yrs old and get a kick out of your expressions that only older people would understand. Please keep up the good work and may the Lord bless you and your work. Thank you again, Bob

Woooow! What amazing professional products Matt , Honestly I never seen something like these great clamps designed with this easy and effective way , thank you so much Matt, thinking to have them later 😉👍

That was incredible!!! Thanks for helping a novice like me, do a better job on difficult triangle pieces.

Amazing demonstration of the tool. Thanks for the video.

These clamps are really amazing! Great quality and durable for sure. You always do a great job with your demos Matt. Even thought it is for demonstrating the Merle Adjustable Corner Clamp and it’s versatility you go all the way to make sure the joints are all dead-on accurate. Great tip with the straw too! Thanks so much!

Just ordered 2 of them. Excellent product demonstration

I like your intro and music, it's simple and not some horrid LOUD rubbish like so many other channels, Thankyou

Another really great video, Matt; thank you. And the straw trick is next-level genius.

Nice job and a great tool.

That you sell it while not being shy about caveats earned my subscription.

Excellent review.

Well second of your KZfaq videos and I'm learning all the way Brilliant information I have subscribed well done!

This is the first Next Level Carpentry video I've seen. I am absolutely impressed with Matt Jackson's ability to both demonstrate and explain the process and products. I especially like the way he also points out any deficiencies or short comings.Not only did he do a great job, but adds a little humor to the process, giving me a couple good laughs as well. It is the best I've seen!!

Great review also love the tip with the straw for glue cleanup.

Thank you for the demo...

That was a lot of information - even the stress test at the end!

Great video by a very good teacher!

Thank you again! I see how I need a set of those clamps.

Excellent presentation Matt. I was convinced to get one or two clamps before I finished this video. Yesterday's price varied from $140.00 each at WalMart to $29.95 at MLCS. Today, the price at WalMart and Amazon dropped but I had already purchased the Merle Band Clamp ShopMaster Set directly from MLCS for only $134.95 based on your great video and, of course, the great price. Thanks a Million from a new subscriber.

After watching this video I decided to purchase one of these clamps. Finally got the chance to use it making a large mirror frame with mitered corners. I was struggling with some parallel clamps when I remembered the Merle Adjustable Clamp. After lining up the corners and tightening the clamp, the frame was perfectly square. I may get another one. Thanks Matt!!!

Thanks Matt, I was looking for some quality band clamps and of course ran across your video as usual, I just ordered a couple..... Thanks again.

Thank you. Keep up the great work.

Matt I'm making some newly designed doors 2-1/2" Molding strips as Rails & Stiles with a solid panel (Teak), and I was having some difficulty assembling the whole thing. I crudely made up a jig on my workbench to hold the miters together. However after I finished the work, I got some more jobs to do the same type of doors. I decided to check Amazon for some type of clamping device and came across these Merle Adjustable Corner Clamps. To see how well they perform, I decided to check on YT to see if anyone posted videos of them using the tool. Actually that's how I came about finding you with this first found video and boy am I glad to have found this video and how you did everything in real time to the extent as you explain all the pros and cons of the tool. It was here I found your channel. Matt I always believe in simplicity and practical way in doing things. I don't condemn the tech guys but simplicity is my middle name. MLCS has made a customer of me as I will be purchasing the Shopmaster Set @ $134.95 Monday morning bright and early. I don't know if you can get me a discount? (just kidding). I've looked at all type of woodworking on YT and man you're a man after my heart. People who love to criticize negatively (which is good some times) those people see the glass half empty instead of seeing it 3/4 full. I always learn something regardless of the the best the good the bad and the worst when I see a video to interest me. The old saying "The worst written book must have something that will interest you". I hope these few words will continue to encourage you to keep going forward. You're awesome.

Thanks for the demo, I am in the market for some of these and was about to order some more band clamps from bessey (or similar nylon strap design). Glad I saw this, and ordered two through your amazon store. My Harbor Freight ratcheting band clamp has gotten glue on the band one too many times, and would rack significantly.

I've used other clamps (junk), thanx for this info Matt! U da man

Great video! I was in the process of ordering more clamp jaws from MLCS, but could not figure out how to install them, without, like you, taking off one end of the tension clamp and retreading the new jaws. But, first, I opted to look on your (and a couple other’s) channel to see if you had a solution. I believed Mr. Merle HAD to have some easy way to install supplemental jaw clamps between the standard 4 clamps. Thanks for providing that answer - in a well documented and demonstrated way. You never noted why where was so much saw dust between the mock glue-up and the real glue-up both with the triangle piece and the septagon (or, as you call it, the septangular polygon). Did you need to do some edge sanding…? There sure was a lot of saw dust on the table. Anymore now, except for boxes, I do not rely depend on a saw blade (either table saw or miter saw or miter guide - except for using a Dubby sled) to cut 45° angles to assure a true 90° corners. Note, now Woodpeckers and a couple others have their knock-off of the Dubby inspiration and purpose using a single miter sled on a table saw. I rely on a shooter table, with a seeming 45° angles, on the shooter table’s planing backer board. This is made by cutting a perfectly square piece of MDF, Baltic Birch plywood, etc., cutting 5-ways with a sled to assure a perfect square. Then, as best as can be done, cut this in half, from vertex to vertex, i.e., the diagonal. Now, it really does not matter if the resulting angles are 45.6° and 44.4° because the planed miters off these two boards will ALWAYS equal, to produce a 90° corner: complimentary angles… - just make sure you match the 45.6° shooter-planed edge with the 44.4° edge: basic trigonometry (my favorite flavor of mathy stuff; if this was framed as a algebraic story problem, _I_ would have a problem!). In fact, it would not matter if the angles were way off, as long as one is bisecting the 90° angle of the square piece, both halves of the cut square piece will be the complimentary angles of the 90° - the resulting corners of the shooter-planned end pieces will be perfectly 90° when the two planed boards are glued, complimentarily, together. I have been wanting to make an unconventional picture frame with, say, 30° and 60° (or 25.8° and 64.2°, etc.) - just to see how it would look. If I cut my square piece at a diagonal of about 30°±, the other miter cut on my picture frame will, by default, be whatever complimentary angle is needed to cause the corner to be 90°. This is not really practical to do on boxes because of the difficulty in making a true backer board at the height needed to plane something taller (or wider) than the width of a plane’s blade. To go further into the weeds, consider the proposition pose by Bob Rozaieski (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eZtymraaxtiXh6c.html for making a "real" mule's ear) for discussion / thought about whether one is trying to get the inside or outside miters to be imperceptively tight. For boxes, the outside corners / miters must be tight because that is what is obvious, when, for example, one is making craft boxes or long columns (see Insider Carpentry - Spencer Lewis kzfaq.info/get/bejne/obWdmauEmK7YoYE.html). Furthermore, making 4-sided boxes or other stuff with the four corners that are not 90°, such as trapezoid boxes, etc., can be easy, also You can assure precisely fitting angles by whatever saw blade angle or planer angle is set, this will cause the angles on the two ends of the two boards will be complimentary to 180º-the “angle” of a straight board, all done without much math - although the resulting wood grain will not match to each board, i.e., the wood grain would not match or "flow" around the corner without some precise resawing. However, if you are particularly angle about the precise dimensions of each of the side boards, you may need to do some math. However, for the easy way to do the trigonometry calcs, visit Shaun Boyd / Foureyes Furniture at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/at5mdZqh3NLIhqM.html - or grab your ol’ trig textbook. As Boyd notes, this is as simple as knowing what trig function key to hit on a calculator. For more info and demonstration of using the 180° complimentary angles so glue the edges of boards together to make a solid, flat panel, see the Bourbon Moth guy at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eZ-jltOps9fGZGQ.html where he deliberately uses and creates complementary, non-90° angles using his jointer, as well as offering a tip on how to glue boards together based on their grain.

I just ordered up one of those Merle Clamps. As soon as it arrives my super-frustrating Powertek fabric clamps are going in the dirty rag bin to soak in nasty solvents for awhile (torture them), then out to the trash. There’s no way in hell one person could put a fabric band around a five foot frame without losing it and smashing everything in a fit of rage. Besides it would stretch too much and never get tight even if one managed to get it around such a large frame. I really like how you debunked those two Amazon reviews about the imaginary spring. I was wondering about them when I first read them. Thanks for sharing your craftsmanship and awesome vids.

very nice

Grant demonstration Matt. I remember when you had barrowed some from a Friend a while back. I don't think there is a better method to clamp out there.

thank you...nice

The miter joint gaps for the 45 degree joints are caused by the deflection of the wood and using a spreader clamp to counter the inward pressure should close up the gaps.

This video is a must for using this tool. I have a project going on right now and I just took the clamp out of the packaging. Not at all self explanatory how to expand the clamp so I can clamp my material. I can't get the metal band to pull out of the reel.

As an example of what this can do, this is a great video. There is another way for the heptagonal tube, or any tube with a number of facets - use bicycle tire inner tubes. Get some inner tubes, preferably not with sealing goop in them, and cut 3-4 strips from each one. Once you have your tube ready with the painter's tape, begin wrapping your tire strips around the tube. This allows you to put a lot of pressure all the way around the tube with little effort. Each band can be loosened for adjustment and retightening. A 26" inner tube will provide 3-4 strips about 80", unstretched.

hi mat thanks great vid where am i finding the link to purchase these clamps through your channel ?

Excellent, well demonstrated video. You deserve a kick back from Merle!

I bought 2 clamps because of your vid only regret is I only bought 2.

Thanks for introducing this incredible clamp!! Could I know the country of origin of the product? Surely Made in USA ?

Great review and video. Clamps look to be a great addition to any shop. LOL at your duck comment as yesterday I told a co-worker to be a duck: "calm above the surface and paddling like mad below" Great minds think alike. ;-)

Hi Matt, I don't know how you measured the 1/4 degree but you did it. I would like to say congratulations for making your video to the MLCS web site, looks good. The best, Marty

Yes Matt, I first watched it on your channel, then I saw it again on the MLCS email that I received. By the way what is a WAG? (Walking After the Goats)(Working At the Garage)?

Do you have a favorite manufacturer or style for clamps. Son 3 had a table project which called for clamps a bit over four feet. All I had were pipe clamps which left a little to be desired with the 1X2 edge wood he decided to glue up. Thank you.

Wow! Thanks, Matt. Very good information. If you are ever looking for an unpaid intern, let me know. 🙂

Hi Matt. I like the pivoting jaws for doing odd number corners, great idea. Band clamps are brilliant for mitres, like you've shown they automatically true your work up because of the even clamping force. Great demonstration at the end proves how strong the mitred joints are due to the clamping force applied. Does the pressure from the locking handle mark the steel band? great video once again. Enjoyed watching. Tony

Good clamping system but if you want to make it great throw away the bend tightening handle and put a regular hex bolt in it's place. Now you can get everything to lay flat and use a ratcheting box end or open end 9/16" wrench to tighten and loosen the clamp. That's what I did to mine and now a way th keep that handle from springing loose all the time, any suggestions?

Excellent demo Merle. I could see a need for captive swivel clips to prevent launching them around the shop. For the tape lever, a swivel joint can facilitate it being out of the way. Overall, a really versatile clamp.

Matt was the triangular frame at :38 for a flag case? I need to do 4 of them soon.... Do you think two clamps would be enough to glue up D.S.

Is the banding edge a safety issue as far as cutting fingers ???

I am surprised they yet make a such clamps. I purchased mines on the very beginning of 1990s, so more than 25 years ago. They are very convenient and replace a lot of "conventional" clamps. I made lots of cabinetry using them - including very big cabinets for our dorms and raised panel doors... The single not-so-good feature is the steel band turn the clamp handle something nuisance, but you can learn to cope with that... after a couple of decades two of four clamps I originally purchased had the band broken close to the fixing hex nut. Not a great deal to cut that part out and re-screw. I also strongly recommend those clamps. Thanks to bring back them!

Oh snap it's Matt, we think alike Sir.

How do these steel bands hold up? I would assume over time you would get wrinkles in the metal.

.... and a duck... I'm still laughing. Great product! Great review. Better than wedges and many more uses.

Quality

Got to look good at what you doing Master Duck, hahaha!

@Matt: Do they only work for regular shapes? Would they work for an irregular hexagon, for example? I don't think they will work very well for irregular shapes. Disclaimer: WITHOUT one of your mods/jigs. If you come up with a jig, it'd probably work. Hmmm. That might make an interesting video. Or not. Great objective review video, by the way. Fairly exciting to see stuff flying around ... Definitely not your average Apple review video. @No one in particular: Also, it's been 2 years. I wonder if the design has been improved?

WISH i COULD GET THEM IN aUSTRALIA

I have a couple off these and find them to be quite unwieldy. Talk about knuckle rappers.

If you're in contact with the company that makes them, why not suggest they adopt the same mechanism as a tape measure for the reel? Easily pulls out, auto retracts, can lock in extended position and if they mount it to the hilt of the handle where the locking mechanism is now so it can be out of the way and more convenient...

Great review Matt, I rarely do projects big enough to use those band clamps though. Have you heard about the Wingman Clamp? I designed it. Checkout my channel, I'll love to get your feedback on them. Thanks, Cay

Heptagonal ... Ha! Lord Jesus loves the number seven. Peace of Lord Jesus upon you and yours