good vise?

Jul 01, 2009 23 Replies

Hi Gerald, Sorry to have been away from the group for a couple of days - yes, I'm looking for a replacement for a utility vise like the one you linked to, not to a woodworking vise. Although I may need one of those eventually, so am happy for the input so far. You would think that all chunks of iron might be comparable, but the jaws on my Craftsman (out of its one year warranty - have now learned a vise is not a hand tool - which are the only Craftsman products with lifetime warranties) broke very easily, and have seen that a number of others have had exactly this problem with Craftsman vises. No replacement jaws available from Sears, but replacement jaws for other vises cost nearly as much as this vise did in the first place. Thanks again, Kerry

I recently bought a low end Chinese vise from Woodcraft. First one I've owned with quick-release. Perhaps that has biased my judgement, but it seems to work fine for me. There's probably a little more slop in the threads than in the higher priced ones, but not enough to be a problem. Here's a link to one like mine:

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Wooden handscrew clamped to the workbench with another clamp. Started out as a stopgap measure, but with decent vises not being cheap, it's become my permanent setup.

For hand planing, a 3/4" wide cleat shoved into the miter slot of the table saw makes a fine bench dog.

Sorry for the delay in replying.

A google search on "Record Vice" (uk search) gives a number of entries.

Typical result is:

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