My name is A.J. I’m a clampaholic.

I've been shopping a lot lately for some shop stuff I desperately needed. Nothing I'd run out of, nothing that had to be replaced, nothing I couldn't finish a project without. I needed them nonetheless. I bought more clamps.

I didn't mean to do it, but several clamp bargains popped up and, knowing I'd regret it if it let them pass by, I took advantage of them. All of them.

One of the big catalog suppliers sends me a weekly e-mail, and in one of the latest ones they had some 36" Jet bar clamps at half price, plus free shipping if you ordered online. That was a no-brainer. I was limited to buying only six, so that's what I got.

I log into eBay a few times a week, and happened to check out some auctions from a tool guy I've bought from before. He had five-packs of 18" Quick-Grip clamps, new and in the original shipping boxes. So I bought a box.

Last but not least, one of the big-box stores – can't remember if it was the orange one or the blue one – had a big barrel filled with 4" Bessey bar clamps at the checkout counter. These usually go for $7 or so apiece, but these were all half price. I reached in and grabbed a handful, and didn't even count. Just dumped what I could get in one hand on the counter. There were seven of them.

Those little Besseys went into my clamp bucket with all my other little Besseys, but I have absolutely no place to put those larger ones. My clamp rack is not only filled, but I have clamps clamped onto the rack edges, clamps clamped onto shelves, and clamps clamped on other clamps. What a lovely dilemma.

And I want more. And I'm going to get more.

Thank goodness there's no 12-step program for this.

Till next time,

A.J.