My usual technique of clamping workpieces to a table with c clamps

I used to use cheap vises at work. Went through 3. Last one we decided not to cheap out and got a Rock River. Big jaws, heavy duty, and got a set of cleats/shoes for it to work with wood and softer metals. If you wont do heavy work on it, go cheap, if you may have some big pieces or use it a lot and dont want it to break... Like always, spend more money.

Cheap vises are good as long as all you want is to hold on to something very hard.
Higher end vises have better jaw parallelism, smoother closing, less backlash and overall better finish.
I have a 40 dollar vise some would call a piece of shit and and an expensive Gressel.
If you don't specifically know why you would need a more expensive one, you don't need it.

Something you want to check for tho is interchangeable jaws to not damage whatever you're working on.

Kinda related, for the lulz :
http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Machinists-Swivel-Base-Vises/dp/B0042T8624/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1350721474&sr=8-7&keywords=wilton+machinist's+vice

>>883870
You can find a good old one at a garage sale.

>>883902
this

if your going to use the vise as an anvil get one from harbor freight, if your going to use it as a vise buy something better.

you won't buy a good one for that price. i bought one for half the price and the cast cracked when i overtightened it, then i made another using its parts from channel iron and flat plate, which has not broken yet so you might want to give that idea a shot.

Perhaps just DIY a Moxon or tail vise with some fat threaded rod and some stout wood.

Harbor freight ones are ok if you aren't going crazy with it. Otherwise go to a flea market or craigslist and get an old one.

>>883870
I've been satisfied with my $70 Harbor Freight vise.

It's 5 or 6", rotates, and does just about everything I want out of a vice. I mostly use it for grinding.

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I ordered this vise.

http://www.amazon.com/Yost-FSV-4-Heavy-Duty-Forged-360-Degree/dp/B00E8IWTHC

It's made of forged steel (very rare on a vise) instead of cast iron, so it weighs less than half as much as an iron one of equivalent strength is an attractive proposal.

>>885432
>Pussy babyman vice.

>>885432
>so it weighs less than half as much
GAAAAAAAY

>>885449
>>885432
>weighs half as much
>steel is mostly iron
>half as dense
you dun goofed and fell for that marketting hype

>>885432
Having a vise that weighs half as much is like having a hammer that weighs half as much; it seems like a good idea until you think about it for more than half a second.

>>885436
I dunno, it looks pretty stout.

Why would I want something huge and heavy when I could just build it smaller and lighter from a stronger material?

>>885467
Because you generally are putting shit in a vise because you don't want it going anywhere. The more mass there is to the vise the less likely that crap is going to move on you when you are cranking on it. Same reason they make work benches that weigh a fucking ton. You could use less wood and save some money but it would bounce around every time you hit something with a hammer on it.

>>885478
It's not the mass of the vise than keeps the workpiece from moving around, you dumb shit. It's the hundreds of pounds of pressure the jaws are exerting on it from either side.

>>885452
The material is stronger, so it required less to provide the same strength.

>>885484
>It's the hundreds of pounds of pressure the jaws are exerting on it from either side.
Even a modest hammer blow can impart thousands of pounds of force. This impact is absorbed by the vice and then passed to the table it's clamped to. A more massive vise will move less and transmit a lower force to the table, which is good all around. A rule of thumb I've heard for anvils is to get one that's at least forty times as massive as the largest hammer to be used on it. You see the anvil on OP's vise, right?

Try this: Get a 12-inch section of 2x4, and hammer in a nail while it's sitting on a card table. Then try it again with the board sitting on a cinderblock sitting on the card table.

>>885484
Yeah, I wasn't talking about the JAWS fucktard, I was talking about the whole vise. If you are using your vise to do something like bend pipe or whatever you are gonna want that fucker to be heavy and have it bolted to a heavy bench or it WILL move on you when you start cranking on it. Clearly you've never even used a bench vise before so I don't even know why you are posting in this thread.

>>885529
This guy knows whats up.

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>>885452
my vise could crush yours

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...crush yours into a ball

23 pounds of forged steel

>>883882
My Tech college has a bunch of huge old Wilton vises bolted to barrels full of concrete. The things are absolute tits.

>>886234
wow i wish i had a workshop full of tools i never used

>>886234
>everything clean
>jack still has all its paint
its like you never use your tools

>>886231
Nothing like Chinese iron amirite?

Anyone have a good source of decent woodworking vises, e.g. Moxon or tail, or is it preferable just to make your own? Just getting into woodworking so it'd be nice to set up a dog system as well but don't need high end shit yet so hacking together something with threaded rod would be an option.

King of all vises boys, look no further.

I've used a palmgren drill press vise for four years, resentfully. Mostly for filing, sawing, and pressing. Wilton machinists vises are in the $450-1000 range, so I thought why not get a Kurt? Many jaw options, accurate, strong, made by people paid a reasonable wage, and heavy. Now I just have to earn the money dammit. Ridgid makes the cheapest decent vises I know of. Below that price, used or diy is the best hope. Mass is needed for filing, chiseling, and hammering. Not necessary for sawing, grinding, or most woodwork. Good luck.

>>886725
>I thought why not get a Kurt?
>Now I just have to earn the money dammit.
ive scored a couple used, but not used up, kurts on ebay for decent price. try to find one within driving distance, theyre heavy as fuck and cost a metric fuck ton to ship.

Just use your hands you pussies

>>886806
do you even diy?

>>883870
i actually went to lowes, finally going to break down and spend $50 on a basic vise. they had a "light duty" vise for $30. naturally being a jewfag i bought that one. and ya know what, i dont know what they consider "light duty", but the mouth opens like 5" and is way more than enough for torquing ar15 barrel nuts and shit. i am more than happy with my lil vise. it looks almost exactly like the one in the op except the shank or whatever its called that the outside jaw is attached going though the base to is like 1/3 as thick.

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>>885432
>forged
>weighs less than cast
if it was forged it should weigh more than a cast vise since denser metal

>>883870

Got one from Bunnings in Aus for like $65, 125-150mm offset jaws is what you want. I think mine is one of the 2, sitting in the shed(which stinks of diff oil to repel people)

>>885484

Look up AvE on youtube. 2000psi is what he sorta measured from his vice for clamping load

>>887291
>an aluminum airplane should weigh more than a concrete airplane because aluminum is denser than concrete