WHAT VISE IS THE STRONGEST?

[Music] [Music] everyone welcome back to the shop I'm gonna be testing 12 Isis today we're gonna be testing for strength and durability with max clamping force with a handle a shock load and build quality test a failure we're gonna be testing vices you can purchase new online or at your local store or a vintage vise you can find out a swap meet or yard sale and a vise that I built right here in this shop I want to thank everybody that's donated these vices without you this test would not happen with so many options out there to purchase you the viewers have sent in 12 vices if you'd like to see me test and we're gonna test their build quality here's the vices we're gonna be testing today we've got the Harbor Freight central Forge 5 inch swivel of ice with anvil the jaws are removable they do feel hardened and they got a pretty good neural to them we got a swivel base with dual handles on each side and it is made of great cast iron it feels kind of hollow that's not a good is that a good word to describe build quality it just feels lightweight here's the in and out motion so build quality is what you'd expect from $50.00 we got the five inch Dewalt bench vise here with a swivel base it's made of cast iron I kind of like that this angle is the same height as the jaws so if you want to put something on here and and tap away you can kind of extend it out just I think it's a neat feature what's cool about this vise that I like is it has this quick 1/2 nut and this has a buttress thread this is the only one out of the test that has this thread type which is supposedly pretty strong I like that the jaws has this little groove in here for small pieces of material stock to hold on to has the probably least amount of backlash out of all these which is pretty nice overall I think it's a cool looking vise fit and finish is pretty good on this we got the Wilton trailer hitch vise going on here this is a pretty neat bike because you can just slip it into your trailer hitch on the back of your service truck or pickup truck or maybe even weld some receiver tube on your welding table and use it when you need it or at a different location so kind of a neat concept this is has a pretty good opening size I think this will go up to 8 inches I believe but one of the things I noticed is the man how much slop there is in this dynamic jaw which would kind of frustrate me depending on what I'm doing I'm not too sure about that this is one feature of this vise that's a little bit strange this is a fixed handle there's that's that's it right so as you can see it's really short so that it doesn't really get above this jaw to get in your way which is kind of an interesting design so you have a really short handle and it seems to be never in the right place you can't pull on it you're it's awkward it's kind of weird to only have one handle interesting design I've got a 5-inch Hoyer vise this is the most expensive vise that we're testing here in Germany in Europe you can find this vise for around $200 but here in the States it's quite a bit more expensive it has a really unique design it has like this rail system you can see its machine and then the screw is over the top and the body you see this nut comes through here it squeezes on this rail and that's what gives you their adjustment and the way the jaws are held on are kind of unique too from the back which I like so that the screws don't get damaged close to a six thread per inch spindle so if we should see pretty high clamping force with just the handle this vise is made from forged steel so this thing should be really strong and hard to break this is so Wilton tradesman here the material is ductile iron so this thing's gonna be pretty strong and this is a five-inch jaw with a five-inch opening but what I noticed that five inch opening you got a lot of slop because this slide here is just barely in this tube it has smooth jaws and Basu oval base and this is a heavy-duty swivel base it doesn't have a pipe jaws inside but I think you can add them this one's gonna be tough to beat the material is ductile iron so this thing's gonna be pretty strong next up is the Yost 905 a s heavy duty bench vise this is a five-inch jaw it's also made out of grey cast iron it opens up to about five inches the fit and finish is pretty loose let's just say that the spindle is loose in the dynamic jaw it to approximately has six threads per inch this has a steel slide which is kind of interesting we'll see how it holds up we got the Wilton mechanics pro this is a pretty tried-and-true design favored by lots we have a 5-inch jaw but only like a four inch opening which is kind of disappointing but we got hardened pipe jaws here on the inside and on the bottom and also with a dual clamp swivel base this is ductile iron the one thing I do like about this vise is the fit and the finish and how tight the vise is pretty good we've got the Irwin swivel vise here as a five inch jaw in about a five inch opening what's kind of cool about it is that it swivels in two directions you got the swivel base and then you have the swivel so you can switch between pipe jaws or flat jaws that is a little bit weird that it moves back and forth like that this pin in here isn't too precise and even when this jaws fixed I've got quite a bit of movement in the dynamic jaw the backlash in the screw feels pretty good this is made out of cast iron with a steel shaft it looks like and it looks like these jaws are removable or replaceable it's kind of interesting next up is the Prentice Bulldog vise the vise is constructed of grey cast iron the jaw opens to eight inches funny story about this Prentiss Bulldog here is I found this at a thrift store saw that it had a crack in the tail slide here which I knew that I could repair and fix so I thought it was a good candidate for a restoration project upon further inspection after removing all the caked on paint and grease was that somebody has already repaired this vise what I find unique about that is the handle is still intact I anticipated this handle to be bent with a break like that so seeing that this Prentice is not indestructible I would still like to test it and see how this repair job held up along if this crack in the tail slide does affect performance the backlash is horrendous before the jaw actually moves but this is something that you're going to have to deal with when you buy a used vise you're gonna deal with all these problems but let's put it through the test anyway we got a 5-inch Yoast vise here this is the ductile iron version which is the top dog it has these two gibs they're able to take the slop out of the tail has a pretty large opening for its jaw size it also has two swivel clamps on here hardened steel ground jaws looks like on the top overall feel feels pretty nice it has a pipe jaws in there also but the one thing that's kind of weird is this backlash in and the nut that would kind of bug me a little bit but it's made out of ductile iron so this thing is gonna be tough to break we got ourselves a Wilton here we got a five-inch jaw with a only a four-inch opening this has does have a swivel base it's cast iron with a steel slide which specimen is I'm really curious how they got the steel slide to mate with this cast iron dynamic jaw here this is gonna be interesting to see how this connection holds up we do have a pipe a pipe jaw here and some serrated hardened jaws that are removable and fit and finish is kind of what you to be expected in this price range the thread is also six threads per inch not to precision but we'll see how it holds up in a strength test up next on the torture test is the fireball to vise this is made out of three by four mild steel tube with half-inch plate for the sides this has a capacity of opening up to 16 inches this has a one inch eight thread pitch and thrust bearings on both sides of the handle so it's really smooth operate having the eight threads per inch is a trade-off for clamping force versus speed and I want clamping force in this design the handle has dual speeds fast torque this has a swivel base the fit and finish is by far to say a lot better than one of the ones you can purchase exact bias by saying that but it's the truth it's just you're able to take the extra care in building a vise than purchasing one sometimes it's gonna be a shame to break it this is definitely a tool crime but I want to discover where the weaknesses are in a design like this and the only way to do that is to literally break the Vice if you'd like to see how I built this vise I have a video on it and I'll leave a link in the description below the first test is designed to just see how much clamping force the vise can produce with just the handle next up is the Harbor Freight central Forge okay maximum force by hand is 64 26 up next is the DeWalt tie as I get it we got a peak of six thousand two hundred nineteen next up is the Wilton trailer hitch vise I can't get any more than that that peak at peaked 3774 next up is the Hoyer well but as much as it goes 8,000 pounds next up is the Wilton tradesman that's it with a peak of 40 to 44 next up is the Yoast 905 okay best I could do peak 57 84 next up is the Wilton mechanics pro this is highs I can go 35 82 next up is the Erwin multi-purpose Wow tight as I can get it by hand so that's seven thousand two hundred and fifty eight pounds with just the handle next up is the Prentice Bulldog it's tight as I can get it we peaked at 11,000 195 next up is the Yoast Adi spar she goes peak 8000 669 next up is the Wilton 675 Oh something's already breaking here's a tick that's it peak 4214 next up is the fireball vise 5000 pounds half way feels pretty tight and then torque mode see that was what peak value there for the handle sixteen thousand four hundred and sixty two pounds with a eight inch long handle at the end of the day a vise is designed to clamp and hold your parts this graph is a direct indication of how well will perform that task the next thing we're gonna test is shock load where we clamp a one by two bar in the vise jaws as clamp it as tightly as possible and hit it with a sledgehammer ten times as hard as I can this will find the weakness in the body or the base and house connected to the table and also the overall construction of the vise next up is the Harbor Freight central Forge [Music] [Music] the jaws are all loose now but it survived there are some bondo that started to chip off on the side of the where that was painted the paint came off the back but overall it survived up next is the DeWalt well we definitely loosened up the base so I'm thinking that bar that spreads across here we bent it next up is the Wilton trailer hitch vise loose Wow loosen something up [Music] [Music] stupid thing won't stay tight and I might have already bent it this JA how it's attached to this sliding tube is the mechanical connection there is failing and right now the handle is really tough I didn't even get to ten hits and every time I hit it it would just loosen up on me but I think we can take it to failure you can see something separating in there it's bending next up is the Hoyer for such a little vice it's pretty strong that's one benefit to having this fixed base that you get a lot of rigidity and that's not a weak spot when you do these impact tests but overall it's still nice and tight held onto the bar well ooh something there's a little jog jerky right there ooh put a little stress on that spindle we got some slop in there we might have stretched the threads a little bit whew Oh bonk I don't know we might we might erect the nut in there next up is the Wilton tradesman [Music] everything seems nice and tight didn't wiggle loose it's obviously designed with the intent of hammering nicely done next up is the Yost 905 I can't get the adjusters any tighter so we did some damage inside here at the swivel we'll inspect it when we pull it off next up is the Wilton mechanics Pro well the strap broke this seems to be a weak link in all these vices and so when it comes time to purchase one flip it over see what the strap looks like and that will tell you is this is not a vise to be hammering on next up is the Erwin multi-purpose I [Music] noticed the base kind of loosened up a little bit but overall the construction man it survived the bar held in the jaws pretty good it's about as loose as it was before I think we're ready to move on to the next test next up is the Prentice Bulldog I think this is how the original job broke was doing something like this because the handle isn't bent so I was kind of halfway expecting the jaw just to pop back off but the repair held this is why we love old vices like this they just are stout and not having that swivel base really just contains all that power I can tell when I was hitting this bar that was just pretty solid so this is why they these old vices have such a good reputation next up is the Yost ATI this strap looks like it's made out of cast iron it just snapped and that's what holds it inside this ring this vise is repairable though we could build another strap and just back together again and off we go next up is the Wilton 675 we had a catastrophic failure about four hits in the vise Brooke if you look at the way it's designed this is all empty right here and then it's just bolted down with this one pin so of course it's going to break but I think we can still proceed with a test the strength test the clamping force I'm gonna undo this base and bolt this body right to the base plate and we'll see how well it clamps next up is the fireball vise I'm surprised I gave her my oh I was trying to break it that these actually held up I could feel it kind of have a little spring in it when I was hitting it but it's still super solid I mean didn't loosen up at all look what it did to the soft jaw I designed these to be replaceable Andry machinable so this is this is good I want it to do this I don't want it to damage the part that I have inside the vise overall it survived next test is designed to find the weak link in the clamping mechanism and what fails first and in order to do that we're gonna put a cheater bar in the handle and twist away till the vise fails next up is the Harbor Freight central Forge [Music] like what failed they drilled a hole for this spring to give like that back to take out the backlash but that they weakened the whole shaft by putting that hole right through there so design flaw number one don't drill a hole right in the middle of your spindle it's gonna break up next is the DeWalt 270 so what's happening is this little arm has got a little cam on it it pulls this pin out and up and down and I suspect something's broken inside there because we got no no action next up is the Wilton trailer hitch vise peaked out at forty eight seventy nine woohoo big numbers from the Wilton trailer hitch vise snapped off right at the spindle this is has I think one of the smallest spindles and all these vices this is only like five eighths I'm not quite sure how this piece of tube steel is fastened to this jaw the jaw feels really strong just whatever connection this is weak I love the proof of concept to be able to put a trailer hitch vise in your trailer hitch I think this is has potential I think it falls a little bit short on the build quality kind of disappointed in this design I thought this was gonna do really well next up is the Hoyer even at 10,000 pounds it's spreading this base apart and if it's actually touching the table and wedged up against the tail so I don't know how tight you have to have this to afford to not do that right hundred and ninety foot pounds 215 peak number is eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty five pounds that broke up here looks like this spindle is hardened by looking at the grain structure yeah it's locked up bent there good next up is the Wilton tradesman [Music] okay there goes the handle I'm going to switch to the torque wrench a lot of twisting going on Oh clamping force is going down see we peaked at ten thousand seven hundred and ten looks like I just literally twisted the whole thread right in half just cheered it right off right there at the the nut oh it still feels fairly tight it feels like it did you just literally stretched that all thread apart which means the body of the vise is a lot stronger than the thread so it's salvageable I think it's rebuildable just make a new thread for it put it back in the service all is not lost next up is the Yost 905 128 127 foot-pounds all right peak number is ten thousand seven hundred ninety four once again the spindle broke right where they put that collar through to hold for the backlash let's flip it over and look at the swivel that broke first well we bent the we bent that a piece of that's just a piece of hot rolled flat bar that keeps the swivel in check that bent on the impact so you'd be fighting this bending all the time if you're trying to do any hammering or bending next up is the Wilton Mechanics pro ok let's see what it peaked out at six thousand eight hundred seven pounds the handle snapped off the spindle broke right where they put that pin through land look at the so weak that's a huge design flaw do not put pins in spindles next up is the Erwin multi-purpose that's already a hundred and eighty foot-pounds [Music] something's already breaking feels like [Music] it's gonna break right here next one okay I lied next one that's getting loose something's happening did I say that already something's giving it's just pulling through the AH casting we peaked at 11,000 195 the failure point we stripped the threads out inside this body it no longer engages so that's too bad with a peak pressure of what 11,000 pounds not too shabby and it's versatility this is a pretty strong vise next up is the Prentice bulldog Oh we're stripping the threads out peak value fifteen thousand nine hundred and eighty seven pounds that is so crunchy little assured that a nut off see there it goes look how much a nut engagement there is on these old things and that's a good that's three and a half inches easy of thread engagement Oh give me a workout put a new spindle in here and this baby's good as new build a new block for it put it back to work next up is the Yost Adi peak 16,000 953 all right we broke the screw right there at the head right where they necked it down and it found the weak link and snapped it off I think with a new strap across the base a new spindle this thing could be put back to work again next up is the Wilton 675 150 foot pounds and 6570 peak is five thousand nine hundred and eighty nine looks like we got another spindle failure right the very last thread twisted it right off that's like four threads per inch so that's one of the reasons why the power was so low next up is the fireball vise Oh okay the vise is still going and just snapped my ratchet off I'm gonna put a pipe wrench on here and I'm gonna see if I can go a little bit more [Music] ok I think that's it see where we peaked forty thousand five hundred fifty seven holy smokes I'm pitting out sweating all over the place this advice has given me a huge workout trying to break it starting to bow this jaw right here from that pressure point of the meter it's not spread over a large distance so here's the thing it is a little bit gritty it's not as smooth as it once was I'm wondering if it's this bearing inside here it's a little bit chewed up but it still opens and it still functions none of these other vices could do that dude guys this is made with just parts around the shop it's incredible I am literally blown away I'm really curious to see what failed inside the vise so let's pop this cap off okay that's awfully weird I mean it still feels pretty dang good so here's what I think happened these two Jam nuts were contacting this plate inside this tube and it was grinding and it loosened up causing friction so I don't know quite why it may contact either something kind of bent inside there but I think if I take these nuts back to the grinder and grind them down a little bit it will work just like new so what do I learn from all this carnage if I go to purchase a vise well I'm going to be looking for advice to has the largest spindle diameter possible and the finest pitch thread that's gonna give me my most clamping force and also I'm gonna avoid a swivel base I think that is a common failure that I've seen in all these if it's not designed properly just out of curiosity this is gonna be a little bonus clip to see what this stair at 9:24 clamping pressure is I'm really curious [Music] I peaked out at 6300 this is the one thing I hate about these vices - there's no bearing in the spindle so it's just it's hard to get loose to tighten one more vise I want to test here in the shop is the milling machine vise I'm going to first test it with this little halfsie handle that I like and I use 99% of the time and then we'll switch to the long handle and see what the force is hey that's pretty tight with that little handle seven thousand pounds and when we really want to squeeze on it see we got here well fourteen thousand this is always fun to test this kind of stuff I always find it interesting so hope you guys enjoyed this I'd like to know what your guys's favorite vices so please post in the comments

Channel: Fireball Tool

Views: 12,279,424

Keywords: fireball, tool, Fireball tool, Welding, vise comparison, vise review, bench vise review, bench vise, bench vice, vice review, best vise, best vice, best bench vise, wilton vise review, fire ball vise review, best vise 2019, vise restoration, vice restoration, bench vise installation, bench vise build, bench vise uses, irwin vise, wilton mechanics pro vise, wilton trailer hitch vise, yost vise, dewalt vise, harbor freight, harbor freight vise, best bench vice

Id: VcbTopj5u7A

Length: 36min 20sec (2180 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 22 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Btool88]

Put old Reed in there.

[u/Sharkymoto]

yeah i like him but, there is much more to a vise, precision, resistance to vibrations and stuff. all in all i expected to see much more from the steel vises and much less from the grey cast ones

[u/Magnestum]

This was fun to watch, but I don't agree with his prioritization of clamping force. You basically never need to hold something THAT firmly. Anything more than that is pressing.

And I suppose a bench vise can be pressed into service if needed (pun intended), but I think maybe measuring the capability there shouldn't be under the guise of 'holding stuff real good'.

[u/grecoromanhammerlock]

To answer the question: My favorite vice is Girl Scout Cookies.

[u/TWD1122]

Glad to see him bring in the load cell to test, wish there was some more info on the torque values

[u/FaradayNova]

Informative as frig