Bench Vises

[4X4HIGH]

Great replies here, thanks guys I'm going to check you the local Grainger store here, they have Wilton and I will go to Home Depot too to pick up a couple other things so will check out both. Tomorrow.

Grainger does sell Wilton vises but they are overpriced buying one from Grainger. The cheapest I found was on Amazon.

 

[bigjbear]

Went out (in the freezing cold ) to snap a pic of our old wilton. This thing is ancient!!! My gpa welded the sucker to the bench way back in the day. Its def stood the test of time I would say

I've got an old Wilton that looks like this and new (relatively speaking, its about 10 years old) Record. The Record is a good bit more heavy duty, but was made in England, not the US. The Wilton was made here.

 

[BadDog]

Wilton and Record both make good vises. But like most companies, they now offer "value" (cheap import) lines, so buyer beware.

The Wilton Mechanics Vise (I think that's what they call them) sold by Enco and others (red) is marginal in my opinion. But the bullet tail Machinist(?) Vise is still quite good, though I think not as good as the old ones. I've got both an old 5" bullet vise and a newer 6" red vise. The red vise uses an exposed U-section slide and the movable jaw is not at all rigidly held, particularly when not clamped hard, so things that can't be clamped hard tend to move more than I like. The bullet gets my love and attention when I need a good vise. Same for my older Record. The HF rotating "pipe vise" and the red Wilton are on my welding bench, and you can only imagine the grief they see. In fact, the red Wilton has quite a bit of paint burned off from welding and O/A, plus a few plasma gouges in the jaws...

 

[14-Bolt]

I've been looking for a vise or two. Almost bought a used, blue rotating head Wilton the other day off CL, until I found out it was made in CHINA under Wiltons specs. Made me think twice about owning even a american wilton. Even wilton had to bend over for china.

 

[shiner2001]

Not a bench vise, but this has probably been the most valuable tool used on our ranch for three generations. (It doesn't get tired and doesn't ask questions, so it's better than most "helpers" )

For reference, that's 2x4 tubing clamped in and a 48" pipe wrench leaning against it.