Recommendation: Quality bench vice

Well, precision machine vices are made accurately so that items held in them are present accurately for machining (i.e. jaws are parellel (or 90 degrees) to sole, and stay that way)

I do not understand a requirment for precision (as opposed to nice ergonomics) in a bench vice.

Could you expand on your requirments?

BugBear

Record always used to be the best bench vice manufacturer, but expensive.

Machine vices are a different set of requirements (and makers)

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

I need to work on primarily metal, and on smaller pieces more than large

- say 2mm x 10mm up to 100mm or so.

This involves drilling, filing, sawing, etc. My current vice (not even branded) is fine for rough sawing wood, but there is a little play between the grip and the base that renders it useless for metalwork.

Odie

For those sorts of sizes and uses and the requirement for a level of precision, I would recommend a Record No 23 vice. Look on Ebay and keep an eye out for ones that appear to be in good condition and sufficiently local to you to be worth collecting. You may want to disassemble the vice, give it a thorough clean and re-grease, but that will depend on its condition.

Mark Rand RTFM

On or around Tue, 22 May 2007 17:47:34 +0100, Mark Rand enlightened us thusly:

or if you can swing it, buy a new one. ISTR J&L sell 'em, but they're serious money.

It is either for precision work, OR for bulky. I have two. The second one for hammering, welding, bending, ... The first and good one is out of reach of these torture-instruments!

Nick

I fully do understand that. Mine (a perfect Leinen-clone) closes parallel, doesn't wiggle, the jaws are in one plane and it weights more than you would like to lift a machine-vice. Good for clamping small and sensible parts. Jaws are replaceable, flat and not knurled (?).

Nick

I've got a Paramo, it seems very similar in quality to Record. I don't know if they're still made but can sometimes be seen at auctions, boot sales and the like.

-adrian

For small work I have a small 1 1/2" machine vice bolted to a scrap of 1" square steel that I just hold in my 4" vice, gives the best of both worlds without the need for two vices taking up width on the bench.

Jason