I like black iron pipe for pipe clamps. The galvanized pipe has a cleaner look to it, but the galvanize coating (zinc) does flake off and those little flakes can be awfully sharp. Lots of home centers have pipe already threaded on both ends in various lengths. 4 foot lengths is about all I buy and those are common and cheap. As has already been said, you can use a pipe coupler to put 2 of the lengths of pipe together and have a longer clamp. I have found that you will probably want to protect your work from the pipe itself in many cases. I have gotten black marks on stuff from the black iron pipe.
I just got some chinese clamps off ebay. They are 30" clamps ("F" type bar clamps) and while they aren't great clamps, they are "these will do for now" clamps. |