G'day folks,
Figured I would finally join up a couple of weeks ago after coming across this forum, never could I begin to imagine the wealth of knowledge here...
Anyway, figured as I recently returned from deployment and got around to getting a new bench vise, I figured that would make a good first post.
For quite a while now I've had a 100mm Irwin Record Bench Vise, Grey Cast Iron, "Made in Sheffield - China
". Given that, not too bad for what I use it for, except that I've been afraid of breaking it while making brackets, and being a standard pattern is a pain in the **** when you want to work on anything in its vertical orientation and that is longer than the throat is deep (retic sprinklers, rudders, garden power tools in any orientation, etc).
What I really wanted was a Dawn 100mm Cast Offset, but that is financially out of reach, even the second-hand ones that recently turned up on FB Marketplace and Gumtree around here are going for near their as new price (and these are fairly beaten up, they wanted $375 and $430 respectively).
Enter the ITM (formerly Trademaster) 100mm Offset Fabricated Steel Vise.
Just under 3x the price of a new Irwin Record at $154 AU (the on sale price, normally $235, but at that point I'd be trying very hard to negotiate a deal on a fabricated Dawn....), and appears to be at the high end of Chinese made gear (I’m assuming China since I can't find a clue as to where it's been made, Nicon factory in India is another possibility, even Dawn doesn't make their fabricated vices in Australia anymore..... The lowest I could find for a new fabricated Dawn was $300 including freight.
Anyway, it has a nice thick machined one-piece spindle, with a roll-pin in through-hole to retain the spring (too small a diameter to be a likely point of failure via the spindle shearing off) and what I’m told is a Ductile Iron Nut, so not likely to break that either. Support plates are 8mm, jaw plates are 12mm. 14mm holes in the base that take M12 bolts quite handily. For the price, I can't complain, have already taken advantage of the offset feature several times, and look forward to seeing what it can take. Being Fabricated Steel, it will be easy to have repaired if I break it (looking at the welds either side of the rear of the dynamic jaw plates to the slide, if anything will fail first, it's those). I've attached numerous photos to give you an idea of its size and construction, and also in comparison to the 100mm Irwin. The jaws are almost twice the thickness on the ITM. Also, in the photo where the dynamic jaw wound out, that is with the rear end of slide flush with the rear of the body (the max I would take it to).
The other vice I had considered was a Bunnings 150mm Craftright Offset at $75, however the price and the quality on inspection in-store was... well... not flash, the spindle is of a significantly smaller diameter than what I have now.
I'll start a Garage Gallery thread down the track once I've tidied up. It's what is now considered a two car garage in new houses built in Australia since the early 2000's
Let's just say you
could get two cars in, but you'd only be able to get in and out of one of them......
Of course I thought I was being quite clever with consolidating space and storage, until I saw that YouTube video of the (I think) 8 by 4 foot workshop.
Can't get over the American vises either, the Reeds are unreal and ridiculously heavily built.... Very curious as to why Offset vises never took off in the US, or at least became a reasonably available option?
Cheers all
Edit:
There's a 200mm Dawn Standard shop vice for $85 on FB Marketplace at the moment for those living in and around Perth.... get on it.
