F- Clamps...warning

[digger303]

Hi all,
I just wanted to say do not buy these plastic f- clamps as sold by Micro-Mark.
http://www.micromark.com/mini-plastic-c ... ,7281.html

I bought the 7" set and went to use them last night only to find the main bar that the adjuster slides on had warped such that it had a bend in it and a twist so when the jaws were wide open they did not align. How can you exert the proper clamping pressure in the normal way...not possible.
They were fine when I opened the packet some months ago, but over time this has occurred and nothing heavy was ever placed on them.
So please don't waste your money buying these . I emailed the seller and told them, but did not ask for a refund because of the amount of time that has passed and when I was forced to do a software upgrade I lost my means of proof.
AND to be fair to Micro-mark they probably have not even read my email yet so . Just wanted to save my fellow modelers some grief.

[ForbesHutton]

Too much heat? Were they like that we you got them and don't notice? Very strange that plastic would warp on it's own.


and....



you know this is coming....




Maybe a Dingo ate your F-clamp!

[digger303]

Too much heat? Were they like that we you got them and don't notice? Very strange that plastic would warp on it's own.


and....
you know this is coming....

Maybe a Dingo ate your F-clamp!

Might as well have, No they were ok when I took them out of the packaging.
Heat could do this, but even though this house can get hot when I'm not here. They were in a drawer the whole time and not exposed directly to sunlight or heat. I think it is just poor quality plastic. If it was ambient temp (43 Celsius) that caused it because they may not have been sitting flat it still comes down to poor quality....should not have happened. Should I have kept my clamps in the fridge ??

[Augustus]

Digger, dunno if you still need clamps or not, and you probably know all this, but HobbyTools Australia does the exact same clamps and cheaper than the US ones, but I have some of their black and orange colour ones which are great and not expensive. Made of coated metal with soft plastic jaws, only bad point is the jaws are not quite the length of the plastic ones. They also do the bigger size but don't have them do can't comment.

[digger303]

email today from micro-tools and have offered a refund....wow after all this time since I bought them. Can't fault that.