When you're doing any kind of welding, metal fabrication, or woodworking, a lot of your time is going to be spent clamping your work pieces down, which itself involves a whole lot of winding and unwinding. What you need is a quicker way to secure something to work on it before releasing it afterward, and the Irwin Tools Vise-Grip is it.

I discovered a different version of these (essentially, one without the swivel pads) via Cool Tools:

With this, you can use the adjustment screw to dial in the fit, and then squeeze to lock it in. The adjustment screw also has a hex socket if you really want to squeeze it down tight after locking it in.

Best of all, it releases with just a gentle push. And so long as the material you’re working with is all about the same thickness, you can use the same setting over and over to quickly lock things down and save a lot of time.

Seriously, save yourself a lot of time and trouble by picking up a pair of these clamps. The 6" ones I just linked are available as a $9 Amazon add-on item, while the 11" ones are $25.