2 of my vices

[firebird]

Hi

No not those sort of vices. When I had finished building my new workshop I needed a vice. Machine Mart being local thats where I went. Being on a bit of a budget I bought the red one. Its all steel and advertsied as 'VERTUALLY UNBREAKABLE', it also has a swivel base and at £18.74 sounded like a bargain. Unfortunately they are not very good. The jaws phisically bend when you try to hold something on one side and it is impossible to lock the swivel tight enough to resist the vice being pulled round under the lightest pressure. Lucky for me Santa provided the funds for a decent replacement, the blue one is a Record 1 ton fixed base at £23.44 and is light years away from the other one which will be relegated to the welding bench. You can't beat a good lump of cast iron.

Cheers

 

[BobWarfield]

Yeah, you can see there's a lot less beef in the red vise.

Here's a thought. Knife makers get mileage out of having a vise mounted so the jaws open vertically: sideways mounting in other words. I can see where this might be convenient for some projects. Maybe that would be a good use of the red vise?

Cheers,

BW

 

[firebird]

Hi

Thats an interesting idea, mounted on a bench leg maybe? I'll give it some thought

Cheers

 

[Don Huseman]

In my machine shop club I was talking about learning a lot more information about our problems or mistakes. The meeting before that one we were talking about bending sheet metal in our vices. Well old Jim stood up at the meeting were I was talking about learning form our mistakes and held up his harbor freight vice in several pieces. The vice was a cheap piece of junk and broke under moderate force. You GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

 

[tattoomike68]

The beef on that blue one is much better.

I have only broke 2 vices in the last 15 years, all of them were heavily used and ready to die.

I will have to get pictures of a shop made vice at my brothers shop. its like most other vices but it welded from plate steel. its the ticket.
Its on the welding table and you would have to be a big strong man with a huge hammer to hurt it. It was made to be a "hammer on" vice.

In college we learned "care and use of a vice" first quarter #1 was not beating on the vice. It was part of the standard "Dumb things I dont want to see you doing" lecture the first day in the shop. ;D

As far as a vice thats not so tough there is nothing wrong with beefing it with welded support.
I know where they break and its the gooseneck and the nut. Iv made/fixed both parts a few times working in job shops.

 

[old-biker-uk]

Been looking for one of these for a long time, then one turned up on evilbay when I was on holiday !

Mark