son of a...! vices

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I'm not even sure what brand I have. Got it with the workshop that came on the place when I bought it and when I sold the house I took it with me. Damn thing is indestructable and heavy as hell though, can beat on it all day and nothing happens. Soon as I get it out of storage I'll have to look and see what kind it is.
 
Not sure if Columbia is still out there - some of the best US makers have gone away or bit the cheap labor bait and sacrificed their quality. Wilton vises that are now sold aren't the same ones that built the reputation of the name. They're made in China or one of the other cheap junk countries.

"Record" stuff was sold with a different name in the US long time ago. Might have been Columbia but I'm not sure. Either way they made top quality heavy cast iron vises that could last a lifetime, or two.
 
honk said:
Wilton vises that are now sold aren't the same ones that built the reputation of the name. They're made in China or one of the other cheap junk countries.

".
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good info...thanks, i'll keep that inmind.
 
rusmannx said:
doesn't this seem pretty reasonable for a big vice?
i've been keeping my eyes open since this thread was started, and i
haven't seen anything this big for this price.... especially a wilton (which
everyone seems to like)

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NTELargeImageView?rfno=200096474&storeId=6970
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What is it with you and Northern? Got stock?

That's not a Wilton that "everyone likes". That's a new age Wilton made in China and no better than any other China made vise. You can get one just like that except it'll have no name cast in for $35. at Harbor Frieght.
 
honk said:
What is it with you and Northern? Got stock?
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lol, i wish. i just got one of their catalogs; i'd never even heard of them til it came.
anyway, i find they have tons of stuff like harbor. i don't know the quality though..... maybe the same as harbor.
 
I picked up a Ridgid 5-1/2" swivel base vice with 3 different jaw insert for $0. The company I work for is a major distributor of Ridgid and I worked the rep and some loopholes for a free vice ($300+ wholesale) and a 15" drill press($300 wholesale). Nice to have connections :D
I work for the nations largest plumbing wholesaler. Besides plumbing parts we are major distribuors of Dewalt, Milwaukee, Ridgid, Channelock, Irwin, and Lenox, to name a few. I've scored quite a few tools either at wholesale cost or just plain free.
 
Funny, I have a HF isque made in china vice that I have full BEAT on for 15 years..

Never failed once.
 
rusmannx said:
lol, i wish. i just got one of their catalogs; i'd never even heard of them til it came.
anyway, i find they have tons of stuff like harbor. i don't know the quality though..... maybe the same as harbor.
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Yeah, I get their catalogs and their emails, and they do have more stuff than most, if not all, of the Chinavendors. But in general their prices are quite a bit higher than HF and others.

I use Chinese tools and have two Chinese vices in my shop right now. I've also broken two of them, but at the prices I can spot them all around the shop, keep one just to weld on getting it ALL messed up with slag, solder, flux, and brass drippings without needing to feel like I'm screwing up a good tool.

There are different quality levels of Chinese junk. Homier sells the worst of it, IMO, HF is acceptable, and places like Grizzly have the best. Like Jet, if a company puts it's own name on the tools it sells they'll generally take the trouble of going to the east and finding better quality tools to sell. That's what I don't like about Northern. You won't find the 'Northern' name on their tools but they're still charging prices like companies like Grizzly or Jet get for their stuff.

God, if my old man could hear me talk! He'd kick my ass, LOL! He lived in a better world than we got.
 
RECORD all the way, sometimes a pipe comes out to get it a lttle tighter and it takes the abuse.
 
I never even looked at which brand my vice was until I read this thread. Looked at it today while I was working on a bracket. Wilton 9400. I know from the pus yellow paint on it that it came from my Stepdads farm in Oregon City, he sold that before I was born. I remember it from his commercial shop when I was a kid. If the new stuff is half as good you couldn't go wrong.
 
Wilton is the best in my opinion. Thats all we have at work on all of our benches and we beat on them hard every day. We vice things up and heat em with the torch and get the vice super hot and no problems also. I once had a hard time getting one of the vices to hold something due to worn jaws. I put it in the vice and tightened it as tight as I could (and I have 280 lbs of ass to put on it) then took a hand sledge and beat the handle another 3/4 of a turn and it held tight. Actually, I had to take the damn thing apart to get it open after that. And just to put it into context, the guy that has been there the longest has been there 18 years. He said they were old when he got there. Expect to pay at least $500 for a good vice.
 
Chinese steel is often of very poor quality. That vice is one example, a second is a hammer I picked up over there for collecting rocks while doing field work. By the end of the field season it had worn down to where half the head was gone. I'll take my estwing next time. It is for this reason I avoid buying any chinese product made of steel, though it is getting harder and harder.

Ross
 
Josh83 said:
Expect to pay at least $500 for a good vice.
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wayyyyyyy above my financial abilities. i've got about $100 a month to spend on "extras" and five cruisers that need parts. :frown:

hf has the same vice for sale for $29 (what i paid last time) and i did get three years of pretty tough use out of it, so i may buy another one of those for now, that way, i can buy a front end rebuild kit for the 55 also.
 
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