cvairwerks
Well-known member
My update says that mine will ship by the end of February 2023....ordered in 3rd week of October 2021...
Fireball Tool Hardtail Vise - The Best Vise On The Market???
- Thread starter dr_clyde
- Start date
slodat
ALLIANCE MEMBER
You guys seeing Jason’s torture test videos on IG?
merkyworks
Well-known member
Fireball vise can take a beating! Wilton 600s not so much haha.
slodat
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Seeing the testing has me feeling like it’s going to be an amazing lifetime addition to my shop.
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Don’t get me wrong the fireball vise is impressive but the 600s did pretty good. It took 359 blows from a 75lb sledge. I’m pretty sure that is way more than most normal people will ever put it thru. I would be in the market for a hardtail if it was about 1/2 the size. My bench isn’t big enough to put that thing on.
I pre-ordered 10/2021, recently emailed and was told that it would be a Taiwan built vice, shipping end of December. It is a bit upsetting, when I placed my pre-order I was completely under the impression it was USA made vice. Feels a little bit bait and switchy.
slodat
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Just got off the phone with Fireball tool. Paid the remaining balance. Looking forward to having this beast in the shop!
Saw the "sliding jaws" design on his instagram. Looks sweet but thinking about it I'm not really liking it that much. It's easy to throw them on a new vise, but we all know how "easy" it gets to remove jaws from a vise after years of use, and with a lot of wear those probably won't slide as well. And the extended jaws with on back support give a ton of pressure on the edge of the cast iron base.
Also, I thought the normal jaws were pinned but it looks like they have no positioning apart from the screws (kind of disappointing for a high end vise).
If the jaws are meant to be removed often, I'd much prefer a "reverse" design with the screws screwing into the jaws instead of into the cast iron. And especially because with those offset jaws, you're not pushing the jaws into the support - on one side you're actually pulling the screw out of the base!
Also, I thought the normal jaws were pinned but it looks like they have no positioning apart from the screws (kind of disappointing for a high end vise).
If the jaws are meant to be removed often, I'd much prefer a "reverse" design with the screws screwing into the jaws instead of into the cast iron. And especially because with those offset jaws, you're not pushing the jaws into the support - on one side you're actually pulling the screw out of the base!
General Geoff
Well-known member
slodat
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Ended up canceling… long story that has nothing to do with the vise.
General Geoff
Well-known member
Ah ok, sorry to hear that.
Maui
Well-known member
Has anyone actually received one of these vises yet? Opinions?
cvairwerks
Well-known member
I'm somewhere between #450 and #600 on the order list, based on delivery rate and date of order. Current delivery rate is around 100 per month, and I'm supposed to be getting mine in late Feb., and I ordered mine the third week of availability.
General Geoff
Well-known member
Not yet for me, Fireball's email back in October said I should be expecting a call sometime late December to pay the remaining balance and arrange shipping. Still awaiting that call. FYI I pre-ordered on September 18th 2021.
paulsomlo
Well-known member
I'm in the wrong business.
slowtwitch73
Well-known member
His most recent video talks about the wait list etc...
Tim in Indiana
Well-known member
I ordered mine on 09/22/21 and the email I received after asking the status said they expected my order to ship "March/April of next year"
Most likely I will not buy the Taiwan made vise as my understanding was I put a deposit on an American made product.
Most likely I will not buy the Taiwan made vise as my understanding was I put a deposit on an American made product.
General Geoff
Well-known member
Wow, I didn't think they had delivered to any customer by August. Got any pics??? First impressions? How was it shipped?
davethorik
Well-known member
VISE - tools - by owner - sale
VISE. New Fireball Hardtail vise. The best and biggest vise being made now. Jaws are 6" wide and open to 14"!! This vise is BIG!! Most likely the biggest one you have ever seen. At least 275lbs....
sandiego.craigslist.org
Is this the first one to hit the used market??
General Geoff
Well-known member
Aaand the flipping begins lol
Handyandy23
Well-known member
The asking price on that CL one isn't even that bad, Fireball website says the Taiwan vises are $1,800, and that's after you wait a lot of months on back order apparently. An extra $200 to have it right now seems pretty reasonable.
No pics, but it's just like the pics shown in the pre-order video.
It's well made, and lives up to the hype, we use it daily.
Shipped in a wooden crate via LTL carrier.
General Geoff
Well-known member
Glad to hear it!
Leaflessshadetree
Well-known member
6.5" - Hardtail High Pressure Vise
US Made Total Cost: $3,800 shipping included to contiguous US Taiwan Made Total Cost: $1,800 shipping included to contiguous US We set out to create the best heavy duty vise on the market and along the way we had a couple decisions to make on where and how to manufacture this vise. This vise has...
fireballtool.com
I've caught myself saying that several times of late.
Southernbuild
Well-known member
I pre-ordered the Fireball vise last fall; believing, based on the since deleted Fireball video, that it was going to be an American made product. I struggled for a while with the decision to cancel or to stay the course, once it was made apparent that we weren't receiving an American made product, since I believe it was still a decent product, and I was locked in at the first tier pricing.
I recently cancelled my order.
It's disappointing, but I'm not comfortable with this shell game, accidental or not. And, didn't want a vise that would remind me of this experience.
Casting an American City, and State name into a foreign produced item I view as a deliberate attempt to mislead the consumer, as far as COO. Harbor Freight perfected the American city name, plus category to become a brand name; but even they didn't aspire to this level of duplicity.
Honestly, I expected better from Jason.
I recently cancelled my order.
It's disappointing, but I'm not comfortable with this shell game, accidental or not. And, didn't want a vise that would remind me of this experience.
Casting an American City, and State name into a foreign produced item I view as a deliberate attempt to mislead the consumer, as far as COO. Harbor Freight perfected the American city name, plus category to become a brand name; but even they didn't aspire to this level of duplicity.
Honestly, I expected better from Jason.
I’ve been following this thread for awhile as an outsider. I guess I’m one of the few that never had impression of where the vise was being made; I think it’s been made clear from the website archive that it never claimed to be USA made or Taiwan made for that matter. Too much assumption on many folks’ parts. I really don’t care for many of the same reasons those of us who don’t. To each their own however.
For a shipping update I inquired this week and got a reply today - I preordered the morning of September 12th, had gotten the email in October about expected shipping in November - I was told that I would be contacted by the end of this month when my order was ready to ship.
For a shipping update I inquired this week and got a reply today - I preordered the morning of September 12th, had gotten the email in October about expected shipping in November - I was told that I would be contacted by the end of this month when my order was ready to ship.
Mohawk Dave
Well-known member
Too much assumption? From hundreds of us vise hounds that were mega interested in this? We all collectively just went brain dead and assumed wrong?
I'm certain Jason talked about castings done in a Washington state foundry in the old YouTube video that is now up and gone. And certain as in 100%, because I remember looking at my 8" Athol and then reading about their old foundry and wondered how much more high tech the Washington foundry is. And I'm certain Taiwan never came up otherwise you wouldn't have a bunch of Vise Hounds super excited page after page on GJ with ZERO mention of Taiwan until the new website and videos were posted by Fireball.
Shoreline_
Well-known member
Aww man I thought this was going to be a reasonably priced American vise
NORTON'S SHOP
Well-known member
Reading some of the previous posts, someone please tell me that I'm misreading them. You pay an additional 2 grand just to have the vise show that's it's made in the USA, even though it isn't?
You misread. You pay extra for it to actually be made in the US.
NORTON'S SHOP
Well-known member
Nuff said. Thank you.
IMO there's just no way the vice costs twice as much to produce in the US. Something doesn't add up.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Higher production cost and lower volume. I'm not surprised on the price gap at all
If you like podcasts Jason was a guest recently on The Fitzall podcast. He outlines why he decided to go with Taiwan.
I do think the story changed. I do think Jason intended to make a USA vise originally but ran into enough obstacles that he decided to switch to Taiwan to keep his promised price and just hoped that no one would care. I don’t think it was malicious intent nor do I think he was trying to misrepresent his intentions from the out go. I think he got caught between a rock and a hard place and tried to change lanes at the last minute and play it off like it was the plan from the word go. Which I don’t think it was.
As I said in the first post, the primary reason I’m interested in this vise was USA coo. That was either outright stated or at least heavily implied by the original product literature that is no longer available to see.
I like Jason. I like his company. I like his products. But I still have a bad taste in my mouth how he handled this.
He would have been much better off just being honest and telling everyone that the cost to make a USA vise far exceeded original expectations. Then offer the choice of either your money back, a Taiwan vise at original price or the USA vise at a new price. But now that he’s gone the route he has he can’t claw back his stance without serious egg on his face at the minimum, criminal fraud at worst.
I still have not cancelled my pre-order. I don’t know what I plan to do yet. I’ll probably buy it because it’s a nice tool but I wish there was a way to communicate how poorly this was handled and get some sort of apology or at least acknowledge they screwed up.
I do think the story changed. I do think Jason intended to make a USA vise originally but ran into enough obstacles that he decided to switch to Taiwan to keep his promised price and just hoped that no one would care. I don’t think it was malicious intent nor do I think he was trying to misrepresent his intentions from the out go. I think he got caught between a rock and a hard place and tried to change lanes at the last minute and play it off like it was the plan from the word go. Which I don’t think it was.
As I said in the first post, the primary reason I’m interested in this vise was USA coo. That was either outright stated or at least heavily implied by the original product literature that is no longer available to see.
I like Jason. I like his company. I like his products. But I still have a bad taste in my mouth how he handled this.
He would have been much better off just being honest and telling everyone that the cost to make a USA vise far exceeded original expectations. Then offer the choice of either your money back, a Taiwan vise at original price or the USA vise at a new price. But now that he’s gone the route he has he can’t claw back his stance without serious egg on his face at the minimum, criminal fraud at worst.
I still have not cancelled my pre-order. I don’t know what I plan to do yet. I’ll probably buy it because it’s a nice tool but I wish there was a way to communicate how poorly this was handled and get some sort of apology or at least acknowledge they screwed up.
NORTON'S SHOP
Well-known member
Good luck with that. There aren't a whole lot of people (even coworkers of mine) that will apologize or admit that they screwed up. I **** up; sometimes on a daily basis it seems; and I'll be the first to admit my **** ups.
Southernbuild
Well-known member
I definitely was looking forward to owning a large American made vise, and appreciate Jason's creativity. Just hate this process went sideways. Honestly, it's got me questioning my plan to buy some of his squares, and the spacer set.
I'll join the camp of saying that if he had just owned the issue that prompted the COO switch, I probably would would have kept my order; at the least, I would have been understanding. The last two years have been rough.
I bought a rough condition 4C Reed vice to take the place of the Fireball; it's not as polished a design as Jason's, but after some refurbishing it'll serve me well, and scratch the oversized vice itch!
I'll join the camp of saying that if he had just owned the issue that prompted the COO switch, I probably would would have kept my order; at the least, I would have been understanding. The last two years have been rough.
I bought a rough condition 4C Reed vice to take the place of the Fireball; it's not as polished a design as Jason's, but after some refurbishing it'll serve me well, and scratch the oversized vice itch!
Maui
Well-known member
In the end, I'll probably just design and build my own vise from scratch.