Vise recommendations?

I am thinking about buying a new 5" bench vise. What are good brands? Are swivel base vises sturdy? What features I should look for?

Thanks, Alex

I'm assuming you are talking about regular bench vices. I have a 4" Wilton and a 6" Harbor Freight vice. I'm pretty happy with both.

If you buy a good vice, the swivel bases are sturdy. If you plan on hammering a great deal and don't need the swivel, then maybe you ought to consider skipping it. I use vices mainly to hold work when bending, cutting, welding, etc. In general, I don't do heavy hammering on work in my vices.

The main things I look for are:

- Heavy weight

- Little to no play/slop in the jaws

- Replaceable clamping pads

- On big vices, I like having an anvil area towards the back of the vice. It's handy for small corrections when I don't want to both with walking to my real anvil.

There are specialty vices out there too, such as ones that are meant to hold pipe, ones with rotating heads, etc.

Hope this helps some.

--George

Be sure it's a steel vise. I broke a new Starrett vise once. It turned out to be made of cast iron.

Richard W.

I have had a 5½" Wilton Tradesman for several years and it has served well. The swivel base is solid when locked. It has replaceable jaws and a smooth thrust bearing on the screw.The only thing I would change is to increase jaw opening to 6" instead of the standard 5". Starrett also makes good vises.

Randy

When you mount your new vise, get the 'fixed' jaw hanging slightly out over the edge of the bench, so you can hold long material in it vertical.

I like Wilton... they're big $$ though.

Good Luck!

Erik

Starrett's vices are nice but you almost certainly don't have the money to buy them (or don't have the absence of mind to part with so much cash for such a product).

Record out of England has stopped producing their vices (horay for Rubbermaid/Irwin!). If you can find existing inventory, they're quite nice. They're all blue. If it's a blue vice, it's either a Record, or a knock-off of a Record.

Regards,

Robin

You could always look on ebay. I've picked up a couple of nice old columbian vises that way, built back in the good old days. Yes you pay a ton for shipping, but the last one I bought went for around $10, so with shipping it was around $50 or so. Not bad for a vise that new would be several hundred. Keep in mind this is made in the U.S.A stuff, not a chinese import.

Not saying the harbor freight vises aren't worth it, just another avenue to maybe consider.

Starrett is having a blow out on their 6 inch machinist vises. They are discontinuing their 6 inch machinist vise and giving them away for

200 bucks. This vise sells for $1600. normally. I just ordered one last Wednesday. This is a steal of a life time. Start navigating the website at the special tooling button. You might think this vise is too big but, if you ever need to hold something big, you have the means.

Kent

I have a 5" no-name that my neighbor gave me ("Nothing to lose"). What I _do_ like about it is that it has a 7" opening. Very handy sometimes.

The problem that I have with it has nothing to do with it's being a no-name. I have it mounted on my bench and the bench is rather high and itself a very convenient height. But the vise being on top of that makes its jaws too high. Especially for file or hacksaw work. I've thought of lowering the vise by putting it on the side of the bench, still facing forward, but I dunno'. I couldn't use the swivel (although I never do anyhow) and I never seen this, so maybe there's a good reason not to. Any thoughts (other than a separate bench for the vise - I've no room for that)?

TIA, Bob