Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Subject: Re: Buying a vise
From: Robert Bastow <"teenut"@ hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 05:48:51 GMT

Gunner wrote:

> I have a 5" vise I purchased from HF for rough work, IE, holding stuff
> while I weld, braze, beat, twist and hammer on, and it gives good
> general duty work after 5+ years. However, some day I will have a Wilton
> etc for fine or accurate work.  Ive used both, and the difference is
> night and day.

I have a medium sized blacksmith's leg vice for pounding and forging on.

On my "Precision" bench, (Laminated, 3" maple top no less!!), are two 
4 1/2" Steel Record,swivel-based, vices, with custom made, heat treated and
precision ground jaws.  They are set about 18" apart, one on the face of the
bench, the other at the right hand corner.  The vices are carefully matched for
height and alignment so that they can be used individually, or both in concert,
as the occasion arises.

Anyone accustomed to a vice as a clunker, crude, clamping device, would have no
concept of the versatility and overall improvement in the degree of precision of
ALL your work, that such a set up can bestow!

After my bench, my files and my hammer..my vices are THE most valuable tool in
the shop!!  Bar NONE!!

teenut..still a bench hand at heart!