Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Most things in life are sweeter when it was a challenge to acquire it. A well-fought victory makes the rewards all that much better. These clamps are no exception. Your great clamp adventure begins and ends with the industrial strength, tamper-proof packaging in which they arrive. You will need a case cutter, sharp knife, or power tools to get through this packaging and to the clamps that lie, tantalizingly visible, inside. I've experienced difficult packaging before, but this stuff is a whole other level. Usually you can wedge it part way open and then tear the seam apart. That's not happening here unless you work for a fire department and have access to a Jaws of Life. So the only way of getting through it is to cut, which is difficult because of the irregular shape and the toughness of the plastic. Your odds of cutting yourself, either with your knife or with the plastic itself, is virtually 100%. But when you return from the emergency room, hopefully you can finish up the job and pry the clamps free without further injury. The clamps themselves work great. The "mini" size is a bit misleading, as these aren't actually all that small. If you're looking for the really small bar clamps, you want the Irwin "Micro" sized ones.