ALDI Table Vice

[Roger Mills]

If you're thinking of buying one of ALDI's £5.99 table vices, don't bother. I bought one, and it's total crap. Neither of the threads - for clamping it to a table and opening and closing the jaws - work smoothly. The working part of the vice is connected to the table fitting by means of a ball joint, allowing the orientation to be adjusted. Problem is, said ball and its housing are both made of cast aluminium - with lots of flashing, preventing smooth operation.

I've improved it somewhat by totally dismantling it, fettling off the flashings and then lubricating everything before re-assembling it. Unless you're prepared to do the same, I would recommend avoiding it! Mine is now probably worth six quid after I expended twenty quid's worth of labour on it.

[Andy Burns]

I have two vices, rather at opposite ends of the spectrum

a Record No 80 "Imp" that I bought when I was about 13

and a Samsonia No 38A "Perfect" vise model J

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sounds a bit like the Draper branded one I bought from Maplin ages ago. But I'd guess for a lot more money than that in real terms.

The casting which clamps to the ball warps with age and ceases to clamp. But a bit of filing make it work again, but weakens it. Not that I'd use it for anything where you'd expect a vice to be rigid.

The jaws are only 2" and I only really want it for holding PCBs etc when soldering. And it's screwed down to the workbench - the supplied clamp being pretty useless. I'd happily pay more for a quality item.

[Bill]

In message , Roger Mills writes

I actually have a pair of the Aldi table vices, one of each of the two mountings, bought a few years ago.

They have been more than adequate for what I bought them for - mainly holding small, often electronic, parts and, separately, for providing an extra "hand" that can be fixed somewhere on a boat when two hands won't do.

Maybe the quality has dropped since I bought mine, and I may well have stripped them down for a bit of fettling, but I've always been very happy with them.

Where I have been let down is with buying cheap vices, not from Aldi, for use with the bench drill or milling machine. There is some real rubbish out there. What looked OK in the advert or in the shop has just ended up in the bin.

[The Other Mike]

With a Panavise 301 from the mid 60's still going strong, I'll pass.

For any portable work I have a vice that cost under a tenner from Toolstation.

For anything 'heavy' in the workshop there is a Record No 8 vice that weighs more than an aircraft carrier.

[Brian Gaff]

Hmm, I had a set of jewellers screwdrivers where the blades were nice and hard and the handles looked good but the joint between them failed on most long before you had done up any screws. So much for looking good. they were branded Stanley, but I suspect they were in fact counterfeit. This was 10 years ago now and so rubbish is not a new concept. Draper hacksaw blades that broke far faster than usual, etc. Brian

[Harry Bloomfield]

Brian Gaff used his keyboard to write :

The later handles tend to be cast zinc, so very weak compared to the brass handled type they used to sell.