The hobbyist needs just as great a variety of pipe clamps as the professional woodworker, but because the hobbyist can afford the time to transfer the heads and tails from one pipe to another, the recommendation is to purchase a small number of head-tail assemblies [Bessey H-Style recommended] and to keep a wide variety of loose black-pipe lengths. Using lengths that are only a little longer than needed makes for a stable platform under glue-ups. What's more, top clamps won't tip a small cabinet, as would clamps with long spans of excess pipe. Instead of keeping an array of rarely used full clamp sets, store only the extra pipes, thus saving precious storage space. In my own shop I keep 6 two-foot pipe clamps always assembled, along with these loose lengths: two 3', ten 4', and two 7'. Likely I will divide two of the 4' lengths to bring the 6 two-footers up to 10, and reduce the four-footers to 8. In this way, the clamps I use frequently (2') are always ready to go whereas the rarely used lengths need to be assembled first. As a hobbyist, the extra set-up time poses no hardship.
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