Any body tried to buy a vise lately? A man cave is useless without a vise So for a while now I've been figuring I'd get one from Home Depot. I like the big 6 inch workshop model they sell for 79.99. It's a "Stanly" or "Irwin" depending on what they have in stock. Exactly the same thing, even the same blue paint, just a different name on the box. Except the store by me is out. Has been for over a month. So's the one near where I work. So eventually I ask one of the employees when they will be getting them in again. He looks at the bar code thing and say's they were ordered last week so they should be in towards the end of the week. Cool says I, I shall return. This was two weeks ago. I've looke in occasionally, still no sign. I went to have a look at Lowes. They have nicer looking ones with a fine silver grey powder coating on them. "Bessy" brand and "Germany" on them. Damm I think. Pity my xmas gift card is for HD. In fact they only have one of the 6 inches left on the shelf and despite the different look and name it looks suspiciously like the other's at HD. I do some research online and find that Bessy is indeed a German company, but they diddn't traditionally build vises, which appear to be the same as the other stores, also made in China. Now I'm beginning to think there is only one vise factory in the planet, probably in Guandong and just finishing them differently for different "lables". So I look at the harbor freight catalog a colleague just brought in. No vises to be seen. Look at Harbor Freights' online catalogue. Hey the have vises, same as HD's. Same color and price, exactly. Except they dont! No availability, on back order...

What the hell is going on. I think there must literally be one vise factory on the planet. It's in China and for whatever reason we just can't get any into the states

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

sears online cat. lists a blue million of them. Pick your poison.

Looks like you're between a vise and a hard place.

__________________
'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

Interesting, I hadn't thought of Sears. Maybe I'll check them out this weekend.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

I picked mine up at a garage sale last summer. They had 4 or 5 to pick from; the guy had loads of tools. This one is a nice heavy monster made in Rockford, IL. I believe I paid $20, and couldn't be happier with it.

Unless you need one TODAY, just keep an eye out at junk/pawn shops and wait 'til the springtime garage sales start back up!

__________________
1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)

Try Grainger or Fastenal. They carry the Wilton line. Not as cheap as Homedespot or Lowe expectations but a darned fine vise. Man stuff!

Stanley world headquarters is a couple towns over from me. Little if anything is produced in this country anymore, and most if not all is made in China. Stanley ran with the big dogs in its day. Now it's that stray mongrel begging for scraps.


That's what I'm thinking. Do a search on CL for them, too. You'll probably a lot better off with someone's used 20-50 yo vise than a new one, anyway.

We've got one here in our shop that's used regularly but relatively lightly. I don't know how vises are sized, but it weighs over 50 lbs. I know this because somehow we managed to break the sliding portion/front half off and I had to replace it. It was a larger, Chinese made one because the older one was too small for the work we were doing. We got 5 years out of it and it was pretty cheap and will replace it with another cheap one since it's not a critical component.

The old (50+ yo), smaller one is now in my possession and I'll probably pass it on to my kids just before I check out.

__________________

1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

MSC Industrial Supply has a wide variety of vises available, ranging from fairly cheap to really nice. For the latter, bring money.

You can check out their stuff at mscdirect.com - but they actually have a branch in Phoenix, too.

Oh, and ditto the suggestions to look for used ones. If you can find it for the right price, then high-quality stuff from back in the day is a great way to go.

X3 for the older - undamaged - stuff.

I've been looking for one with a strong quick release mechanism for years...

I understand that Irwin and Stanley are now the same company. As for the Bessy stuff - it has a good reputation (and price to match) over here.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

It's often more difficult now than it used to be to predict quality solely by looking at the name on the tool.

A lot of "legendary" names are now found on products that aren't a shadow of what they used to be. Sometimes the whole product line has cheapened. In other cases, makers of really top-grade professional tools are still making good stuff, but have also expanded their lines to include lower-end stuff that still carries the same name.

I shall indeed be looking out for good stuff at garage sales/craigslist. I just find it ridiculous that it's so hard to find something like this in a couple of large hardware chains.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

That's because HD and Lowes are NOT "hardware" chains. They are so called "Home Improvement" stores. Just like trying to buy quality parts from Pep Boys, Autozone, etc.

You can get what you need but not always at the quality level you want.

Ever done the 2 hour "find 10 STRAIGHT 2"X6"'s" routine at either of them?

At least you can hunt for straight ones at the Despot. Regular lumber yards are death on 'sorting.'

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Yeah I have. It's vexing.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S