When Max Wetzler first started tinkering with clamp designs in New York City during the mid-1920s, he could not have forseen that his cast-iron and steel inventions would endure through the rest of the 20th Century and beyond. Yet, Wetzler's famous "Quick Action" clamp design was to become the benchmark of the clamping industry, imitated widely by competitors and revered by knowledgeable woodworkers, patternmakers, cabinetmakers and metalworkers for its simple effectiveness, strength and durability.
Wetzler, together with his wife Hedwig, founded Wetzler Clamp Company in 1928, on the lower east side of Manhattan. Years later, they moved the company to a more spacious facility in Long Island City, NY. After Max passed away in the early 1950s, Hedwig Wetzler continued to run the company, and, in the early 1970s, when she could no longer deal with the fast-paced clamp business, she brought in her brother Ernest J. Seewald to run the family business.
In 1984, the Wetzler family sold the company to an energetic entrepreneur named John Treacy, who they knew would uphold the Wetzler tradition of quality. Treacy moved the entire production facility to the foothills of Pennsylvania, near the Delaware River south of Stroudsburg. He ran the company until he retired in June of 2002, at which point he sold the company to long-time employees Kevin and Joan Steible, who maintain the Wetzler tradition to this day.
still made by hand
As always, every Wetzler clamp is machined and assembled by hand, in the true spirit of American craftsmanship. We grind our castings, drill and tap each hole, and cut every Acme thread on our venerable Oliver turret lathe — all right here in our Pennsylvania facility.
A HISTORY OF INNOVATION
Although Wetzler Clamp Company is best known for its "Quick-Action Clamps," it has made many other significant contributions to clamp design for the woodworking and metalworking trades, notably its bar clamps, several sizes of band clamps, press screws and "cross clamps," designed to work with Quick-Action Clamps for applying edging to surfaces. And, all the while, the company worked with other customers and manufacturers to produce specialty items using Wetzler's superior metalworking technologies.
If you haven't used Wetzler clamps, we encourage you to browse our product pages and order a supply today. You won't be disappointed.
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