This is what a "bad" day looks like!

EdCaffreyMS

EdCaffreyMS

"The Montana Bladesmith"


5" Irwin vise that I've had for 9 months! Ya know it's not gona be a good day when is starts like that.

Although Irwin advertises an "exclusive" warranty.....I learned to day that it's only 90 days, and even then you have to send it back to the company!

Last of those Ed will be buying!
 
I'm sorry that this happened, but, with your mad knife making skills I would suggest to just take it apart, heat it up, beat it flat and make a really cool bowie knife out of it. :1:
 
I've done that before. You probably said nicer words about it than I did when it happened. It's hard to find a good NEW vise anymore, since they're all cheap cast iron.
 
Ed,
For that very reason I always cruse ebay & Craig's list etc when I need a vise and find one made 40 plus years ago or older.
 
I thought I had the day all planned out too..... was gona make 416 laminate (mosaic cores with 416SS laminated to the outsides). I cleaned all the mating faces....lined everything up, and went to "clamp" it in the vise so that I could MIG weld around the perimeter......at first I thought my hand had just slipped when I went to tighten the vise.....turned the handle just a tad more. and had to jump back to keep that jaw from landing on my foot!

Spent the next 3 hours rounding up a new vise and installing it. I did manage to get in about 4 good hours of forging afterward, but still have 3 more billets that I wanted to get done today. Some days it seems like "Mr. Murphy" lives in my shop! :)
 
I bet Irwin want be selling too many more vises to anyone on this board...

Sorry it happened, but I was just wondering what it could be re-purposed for?
 
Buy a new one at HD and keep the sales slip, return the broken one a week later for the refund.


I've just read some reviews, they all broke in the same way

I bet the old ones were a solid casting.



It really ticks me off when these companies buy up all the manufactures with good reputations, redesign cheaper and then produce off shore

selling banking on the reputation built on old tools.



Record vises, vise grips, they are all suspect now.
 
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Buy a new one at HD and keep the sales slip, return the broken one a week later for the refund.
Click to expand...

Must admit to thinking the same thing as you Count. :nothing:
I had one peel open in slow-mo on me. Was quite graceful, really. Cheap one. The fact that you have to mail it to them for warranty is a bit of a joke. 4x the cost to ship as the price.
Granted, it may have been a faulty casting. It happens. Any signs of flaws in the break? A guy at school broke open a nice old Record 6" trying to hand bend, with the help of a pipe, a 1/2" test coupon. Bent it towards the opening jaws. Tool crib guy was in full kill mode.
 
What a crock .... I have one just like that . I guess I better watch my step . I do have an old one , its kinda loosey goosey but, it does tighten up nice and the jaws are good . Are any of the newer tools worth a darn ? Thanks for the post and heads up . Them babies are dangerous .
I mean what would have happened if you were twisting some hot cable and it fell in your lap ......
 
Bubba: Just just for giggles you could try what I did for our big old Record. It had become really slack in and out. I can't remember the details of what I did, but the gist of it was I took it apart and put in and old lifter spring from an engine over the threaded shaft. I think I shortened it to work with this vise and added some custom ground washers for the bigger dia. spring, YMMV. The spring that was in there was mangled so I tossed it. Gave it a good clean out, put it back together and works like new. Nice and tight with instant engagement.
Just a thought, if it's relevant to your issue.
 
It sure is ,Thats a pretty good idea . Usually the only thing that goes wrong with a vice is the shaft becomes worn. An old lifter spring !! what a novel Idea. And they said there is nothing new under the sun >>> maybe not .
 
Food for thought when buying a vice: It really is a straight forward device. It's clamps and holds stuff. You can spend a mint on a name brand one that will, likely never crap out or just grap a cheapy from Harb Frate and just toss IF it breaks. They are cheap and for the most part work the same. This is speaking in terms of general, Joe average usage. Twisting 4, 1" solid square rods together, yeah, BIG good one it likely the way to go! :)
I've got a few cheapy 4" ones and have bent 5/8" CR, 90*, cold, without issue. That's enough for me.
There's a handful of DIY vice builds out there, using square tube. Might be a fun project if so inclined and not a lot in material cost.
 
Finshed up forging a bit early today, so thought I would see what I could do with the broken vise.

Luckily this was one of the vises that has a pipe vise on the other side of the conventional jaws. The hard part was setting it up in the milling machine so I could create a "step" and a flat area to inset the new jaws. At first I was gona just use some 1" square A36 for the jaws, but decided I wanted the versatility of either using the hardened jaws, or making it in such a way that I could remove the hardened jaws in case I needed some "soft" jaws.

After a couple of hours here's what I ended up with.....



There's no doubt that it will be a "light duty" vise, as I doubt it's got enough strength for me to "reef" on it.....but at least its usable again. :)

 
Ed all the swivel head vises are import made . You have one of the better ones made for Irwin and a few other names us tool users know . Wilton still makes some of the best vises you can still buy but they will cost between $1200.00 to $2500.00 . I still had some of those returned broke .The hardest thing that can be done to a vise is to clamp something super tight in the jaws ( hit tightening bar with hammer ) then hit with a hammer . The sharp impact will cause a fracture under stress . As they say a vise is a clamping devise not a press . Please don't hate me for the info . I just sold tools for over 30 years and ran into this quite often . Wild Bill
 
Watch Craigslist in your area for good old American iron. Those which are better built are machinist vises which have the screw hidden under the dynamic jaw slide. Good names to watch for are Wilton, columbia, (charles) Parker, rock island, record (English so more rare here), Reed, Prentiss, and I am sure there are some I am missing. If you break one of those......it is because you were seriously abusing it!!!

Unfortunately even Wilton outsources some of their cheaper lines to China now (those new in the 250 - 450 range) so if you try to go new....be sure of where they are made.
 
Start hitting the farm and estate Auctions, Youd be suprised how many of the good older Wilsons ect have been sitting on someones bench for decades and big ones can be had for 25$
 
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