What is this little hand held vice for?

[ConductorChris]

Hello All

What is this called and what is it for?
Anyone know who made it? Only markings are Made in U.S.A.
It's hinged at bottom

Thanks

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Hand vise. For holding a very small workpiece you are working on with the other hand. Especially when you don't want your fingers or knuckles in the way. They can be clamped in a bench vise, too. I just used one in my left hand on a 5/16"-18 lag bolt that needed its threads cleaned up with a thread file in my right hand, for example. And I used them all the time on small things I am hitting hard with a wire brush.

 

[slowtwitch73]

They are great for holding things to a grinding or wire wheel.

 

[ConductorChris]

Thanks Private Lugnutz and slowtwith73 - I guess for all the things I have been using vice grips for.

 

[Rileysan]

Thanks Private Lugnutz and slowtwith73 - I guess for all the things I have been using vice grips for.

Hand vises have a much better grip than vise grips because of the increased surface area, which requires less overall force to hold items steady. This is a tool I didn't know I needed until ~15 years ago when I found one at a garage sale and tried it. I won't use anything else when grinding small items on a bench grinder.

Brian

 

[ConductorChris]

Well, I look forward to trying it out. I didn't even know I had a usable tool. YaY!

 

[bmwrd0]

They are also great for hand filing small objects. Lets you get a good grip on whatever it is.

 

[ConductorChris]

Hand vise. For holding a very small workpiece you are working on with the other hand. Especially when you don't want your fingers or knuckles in the way. They can be clamped in a bench vise, too. I just used one in my left hand on a 5/16"-18 lag bolt that needed its threads cleaned up with a thread file in my right hand, for example. And I used them all the time on small things I am hitting hard with a wire brush.

Just perusing the Lugzsonian, and see you have one of these in your prep tools.

 

[Dumber than lumber]

Also called a pin vise, I believe.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Pin vises have pins that can be moved around various holes to hold irregular parts.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Just perusing the Lugzsonian, and see you have one of these in your prep tools.

I do! Two of them actually. One is a little smaller. The Palmgren is great because it's aluminum and light in the hand. Often I don't even use the wingnut. I just squeeze. Because the workpiece is not being held that long. But it's so much easier and (as Brian alluded to) wider than pliers or vise-grips.

Ironically, I just added a "finger vise" to the prep bench today. I found it at the flea market this morning. Turns out to be the jaws from inside the chuck of a brace bit drill. But I am going to use them as a finger vise! I took this pic for a discussion we were just having on that topic on the Garage Sale thread.

Also called a pin vise, I believe.

Pin vises are a little different, in my experience. Pin vises are the shape of a pen with a tiny chuck at the end with little jaws that screw open and closed on various bits that machinists' and also jewelers' use. (Never mind. What slowtwitch said! Haha.)

 

[bonneyman]

I think I'm gonna grab a pair of watch makers vises for holding small work. I probably could make some out of scrap parts but they're so cheap on clearance and ready to go right out of the box. Heck!


https://www.esslinger.com/watch-movement-holder-set-2-sizes-wrist-watches-clearance/

 

[Private Lugnutz]

This is a pin vise.

 

[ConductorChris]

Garage Journal is so powerful due to the great depth of knowledge by so many people who are by profession or hobby. I thank you all.

 

[Mintgrun]

I have a wood handled hand held vise with a head that looks like some sort of pot metal. It's similar in size to the one in the original post. I'm sure I could have found it if I'd looked a little harder, but I did dig these little guys out for show and tell.



Unfortunately they've both been abused and no longer function, but they're cool enough that I may make some new parts for them someday. Their handles are hollow and there is a hole through the clamp bolt to allow wire or small rod to pass through. The little one says GERMANY on the handle but any markings on the other one have rusted away. I think they may have the same maker, based on the similar wing nuts and the ball end turned on the bolt.

Tom

 

[steaks&anvils]

Looks like you are missing the leaf spring inside the handle? This keeps the handles open and the bolt/wingnut don't spin on you when you try to clamp something in it.

You can put a spring on the screw bolt (on the inside between the handles), it will help spread the handles and keep tension on the bolt/wingnut to avoid them spinning. Makes it much easier to use.

 

[pepi]

Here

 

[slowtwitch73]

They can also look like so:

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/sho...s/vises/31175-jewellers-pin-vise?item=60F0501

 

[RTM]

I am used to what Lugs called a pin vise. But the LV thing is obviously called that too. I always thought of that as a jewelers engraving block tool, like this. And LV loves vintage tools, so they probably have one to prove me wrong.

https://archive.org/details/SwartchildCatalogue189798/page/n73/mode/2up?q=Jeweler+

 

[driftpin]

I use a pin vise (a 'vice' is related to a failure of moral turpitude) for cleaning passageways in carbs. Just a poke with an appropriately-sized wire will usually do it, to remove hardened accretions.

 

[rlitman]

Pin vises have pins that can be moved around various holes to hold irregular parts.

No. You're thinking of an engraving vise.

This is a pin vise.

Yup.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

No. You're thinking of an engraving vise.

Agreed. If Lee Valley wants to call their engraving vises "pin" vises because of the moveable pins, it's their prerogative, but it does beg confusion with traditional terminology.

 

[slowtwitch73]

One is a vise that has pins.

The other is a collet. Should have been a called a pin collet or collet pin or someother.

Officially off in the weeds

 

[Farmer J.]

I use a pin vise (a 'vice' is related to a failure of moral turpitude) for cleaning passageways in carbs. Just a poke with an appropriately-sized wire will usually do it, to remove hardened accretions.

Just for the laugh at yet another difference in American and English versions.. Spelling for both meanings can be 'vice' in England, so I looked it up and found the origin goes back to the Latin word for Vine. Vines twist around things like a screw thread..
From Oxford English Dictionary:

noun
noun: vice; plural noun: vices; noun: vise; plural noun: vises
a metal tool with movable jaws which are used to hold an object firmly in place while work is done on it, typically attached to a workbench.
"hold the rail in the vice"
Origin

Middle English (denoting a screw or winch): from Old French vis, from Latin vitis ‘vine’.