shop vise advise

Speaking of vices... a friend of mine had a great idea. He mounted a receiver hitch tube under his work bench and mounted the vice on a tube that slips into the hitch tube. The fixed tube has a nut welded on the bottom of the tube and a largish "wing nut" to tighten it down. He can rotate the vice in 4 different positions and slide it in handout a bit. It is great for welding- especially with the swivel base. He also has a bench grinder that he can slip in so his bench top is not cluttered with tools.

On the opposite wall he fabbed up a folding bracket for a vice which keeps usable floor space high. Not a very heavy duty rig to be sure but for some lighter work- hacksawing or drilling or grinding it works a treat.
 
Craigslist is a good place to find a good used USA vise and I purchased a 5" Columbian for $65 this year.

The GarageJournal has a good thread on vises called "The VISES of Garage Journal".

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Yea...Same here. If I see a good old American Vise for sale on Craigslist cheap...I just can't help myself. I buy it. I've got way more than I can use right now. But, hey...Maybe one day I'll build a big shop and put them to use. LOL
 
My compromise is that I have a 5" Record (made in England in 1979) for my bench vise, but I have a monster Chinese vise (6", weighs 125lbs +) for beating on and welding. I also have several other specialty vises scattered about for various types of delicate work holding.
 
Dabbler, your Record is a great vise; I've used one in the past. I wanted a decent vise for my son and bought him a Record from Amazon not more than two years ago - it is NOT of the same quality. Not sure if its made in China or not but I wouldn't be surprised.
 
About 20 years ago now, I bought a both a Wilton 6” and a 4-1/2” bullet bodied vises for $500, as a package deal. While at the time the cash was a struggle, I’ve never regretted the purchase.
 
For really beating on something then maybe a blacksmith post vise would be the best choice.
 
Not for beating on, but I've found that what I thought was a cheap little vise turned out to be my go-to vise. I found at auction a few months ago, a 3 1/2" Columbian vise, It and a used 750 Drill Doctor for $25. I wire brushed the faded red paint off, masked and sprayed it with two coats of Rust O Lium bright red, let it cure over night and baked at 150º for 2 hours in the kitchen oven. It has an Acme (or square, I'm not sure right now) thread, Much quicker than the HF 4" it replaced, also much more stable. I'm really pleased with my little $12 vise.
 
Dabbler said:
My compromise is that I have a 5" Record (made in England in 1979) for my bench vise, but I have a monster Chinese vise (6", weighs 125lbs +) for beating on and welding. I also have several other specialty vises scattered about for various types of delicate work holding.
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Another good brand of British vises is Woden. Not very common (I've come across two.) but very nicely made. I bought mine at a
garage sale for $11.00. It's pretty small, but I keep it on a bench in the garage for small stuff.
If I could find a bigger Woden, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

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