Reply To: Workbench Vice
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Let me add a concern or two if I can. First off I think, George that you took the best route with a secondhand Record with a little age to it. New Record vises are Asian imports and not the standard of the old Records made in Sheffield, UK. The old Record vises will last you for a hundred years of part-time use and 99 years of fulltime trouble free use.
I have been exchanging imported vises for 20 years. In my first school in the US we were forced to start buying imported vises because we couldn’t get domestic made vises for anywhere near a reasonable cost. We bought from Woodcraft thinking that would be a good source but eventually we ended up buying replacement parts that cost us more in the end. Since then, I haven’t found an Asian vise that has lasted longer than a year and that os with very much part time student use. On the other hand, I am using a a Record vise that has been in fulltime use for 75 years. I also use a Woden vises at the school here in the UK. They are all second hand and once cleaned up and in situe, work like new. I have had one go bad and have not had time to work out what’s wrong with it. I recently bought five Record vises for the workbench build and I think I paid about £20 each. They all worked perfectly well but some need half an hour’s clean up.
Is there a really good Asian import? The only way of knowing is if you know someone who has owned and used one every day for several hours a day as is the case with my vises as a working craftsman. I have beaten on mine for decades and everyone I have ever owned was made in in the first half of the last century.