What do you guys use vise grips for these days?
- Thread starter mikey03
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fishwatcher
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- Joined
- Jan 26, 2023
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- 758
This guy could use vise grips to pull the cotton swabs that broke off from the wax he put up his nose. 
Ohio Andy
Well-known member
Clamp garage door track to keep a garage door from coming down during disassembly for replacement.
Holding parts to remove rust on a wire wheel...
My last two uses
Holding parts to remove rust on a wire wheel...
My last two uses
sz0k30
Well-known member
Vice grips aren't an everyday tool, but sometimes they are the only tool that works.
Ohio Andy
Well-known member
My big c-clamp malco's are used quite often on my drill press to hold things in place... I keep thinking I should build a new table for it rather than this. Oddly shaped table I have was hard to clamp too.
Just when I think they are obsolete something comes up where they are useful or even essential. Most recently I was putting up wire "cages" to protect open lite bulbs. These were secured with a bolt and nut that I needed two hands to install. The old needle nose vice grip clamped the bolt opening together and held it while I inserted the nut and bolt.
Also very useful to clamp on to a "spinning" nut so that it can be tightened or loosened.
Don't throw them away just yet.
Also very useful to clamp on to a "spinning" nut so that it can be tightened or loosened.
Don't throw them away just yet.
dnschmidt
Well-known member
To answer the question. The same things I used them for in the "old days." The idea of a clamp (no matter what type it might be) will never go out of style
Beerhippie
Well-known member
Ohio Andy
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Nice, very nice... Great Link
Also, hadn't occurred to me a good cut coat hanger wire with it. On the back of my mind I think I should have known that but I didn't
driftpin
Well-known member
Considering them as 'obsolete for me' is of-course, a personal view. But first, I want to hear from the posters after me, "is it 'vice grips' or is it 'vise grips'?"
I think that vise grips are one of the tools I consider essential both in the garage, and in a carry-box of tools to do work somewhere. One of the best places I can think-of to carry more than one pair, is during a visit to a salvage yard. I admit that I don't frequent them as-often as I once did, but I would consider several pairs of different configurations of vise grips to be essential tools. I use them to hold vises to drill something using my floor model drill press. I use them on jobs requiring more hands than I alone possess. I use them on old, rusted, rounded-off nuts or bolts. They do the job. They make a difficult job less-difficult.
I find a vise grip w/rounded jaws in a 10" size to be one of the most often used tools when I deal with recalcitrant fasteners. I use them to drill pocket screw holes on woodworking projects. Vise grips make a difficult job easier, and they defeat Mr. Rust, Mr. Rounded-Off, and are the friend of temporary fastening. What-else can I say?
I think that vise grips are one of the tools I consider essential both in the garage, and in a carry-box of tools to do work somewhere. One of the best places I can think-of to carry more than one pair, is during a visit to a salvage yard. I admit that I don't frequent them as-often as I once did, but I would consider several pairs of different configurations of vise grips to be essential tools. I use them to hold vises to drill something using my floor model drill press. I use them on jobs requiring more hands than I alone possess. I use them on old, rusted, rounded-off nuts or bolts. They do the job. They make a difficult job less-difficult.
I find a vise grip w/rounded jaws in a 10" size to be one of the most often used tools when I deal with recalcitrant fasteners. I use them to drill pocket screw holes on woodworking projects. Vise grips make a difficult job easier, and they defeat Mr. Rust, Mr. Rounded-Off, and are the friend of temporary fastening. What-else can I say?
Beerhippie
Well-known member
Depends on what exactly you're gripping, doesn't it?
Here's my oldest pair:
Pre-lever release Petersen, so early '50s. VISE.
Jeff C
Well-known member
They work great to hold your truck window up when the window motor goes bad. Yank the door panel off, lift window and clamp track with vice grips. Good to go until you get around to fixing it. I’ve had one pair in a door for years.
CHI_Tool&Die
Well-known member
Whenever I’m on the bench grinder doing work with pins or thin, small stuff I’ll use the vise grips. I’ve also used them a ton when I have to pull out stuck dowel pins, though my Knipex twingrips are better now that I have multiple size options in my box.
jetlag
Well-known member
Welding, mostly.
OccupantRJ
Well-known member
First tool I bought with my own earned money from cutting grass with a push mower 60 years ago!
OccupantRJ
Well-known member
I have enough that I don’t know how many, and use them constantly in my shop. I have them in hangers on the wall to grab as needed for mechanical, fabrication, and just general clamping.
Yesterday, the only tool I could find, was the chain version of vise grips, to loosen the oil filter on my 08 Dakota. It barely fit in there and only moved about a 1/2" at a time, but did the job. My regular filter wrench was way too big for this job.
NoahG
Well-known member
I use them any time I need to add a handle onto something. Often used to hold small parts when using a grinder or wire wheel.
I also use them a lot of threaded rod where I have a nut on either end and I need to tighten the assembly down. Just last week I was using some 1/2” all thread with a nylock on each end, and in order to get it tightened down how I wanted, I held the center with a vise grip.
I also use them a lot of threaded rod where I have a nut on either end and I need to tighten the assembly down. Just last week I was using some 1/2” all thread with a nylock on each end, and in order to get it tightened down how I wanted, I held the center with a vise grip.
I don't weld, and use them rarely.
Most recently I used them to hold some swaybar links so I could remove and replace them. They're sort of a "I'm not asking" tool.
I've got a couple of needle nose vice grips with fuel line over the tips that I use one hoses/lines when I need to temporarily block them. Also a rare thing.
However, when I do need them I find myself being very happy I have them.
(My set includes a pair of narrow-faced Malcos, a couple pair of regular Malcos, a couple Bremen, a couple vintage Peterson and the two Pittsburgh needle nose.)
Most recently I used them to hold some swaybar links so I could remove and replace them. They're sort of a "I'm not asking" tool.
I've got a couple of needle nose vice grips with fuel line over the tips that I use one hoses/lines when I need to temporarily block them. Also a rare thing.
However, when I do need them I find myself being very happy I have them.
(My set includes a pair of narrow-faced Malcos, a couple pair of regular Malcos, a couple Bremen, a couple vintage Peterson and the two Pittsburgh needle nose.)
Nick Rivers
Well-known member
Most recent use was a pair of 4" needle nose Vise-Grips to pull my motorcycle throttle cable when the ball end snapped off. Just held the Vise-Grips against the throttle grip.
It got me home.
It got me home.
Southernbuild
Well-known member
As pinch off pliers when a heater core hose springs a leak. They, (the needle nose version) worked way better than expected, for an emergency parking lot "repair"
It's not winter time so its all good!
It's not winter time so its all good!
4xdog
Well-known member
Exactly what I used to hold my door extra-high to clear the crossbars and bike fork-mount carrier tray on the canopy shell of my Gen 2 Tacoma.
bwringer
Well-known member
If we're leaving town for more than a few days, I unplug the garage door opener and clamp a set of locking pliers onto the track on one side to keep the door from opening. Might as well inconvenience any miscreants that may stop by.
Been there, done that, mostly with clutch cables.
Also, they're great as substitute shift levers.
Skyman
Well-known member
Aside from welding, which is a skill I never took the time to acquire, I've probably used Vise Grips for just about every purpose mentioned above by others. I haven't used them on drum brake springs since I got the dedicated tools for that back in the '70s, but I prior to then I did. Shifting gears? You bet. I drove my '67 Chevy G20 van for quite a while with a VG clamped onto the shifter shaft, and the guy I sold the truck to drove it away with that VG still on duty for that task.
Given how long the VG has been in production, and how many are in existence, I'm having a hard time imagining that it would EVER become obsolete.
Given how long the VG has been in production, and how many are in existence, I'm having a hard time imagining that it would EVER become obsolete.