Any difference in vise grips?

[M635_Guy]

I did a comparo a while back.

I did NOT like the Milwaukee - the crank-down with a screwdriver is a good idea, but they deflect a lot when clamped.

The Pittsburgh had a nice release, but is just plain cheap. Work, but are pretty basic and light-duty. I wouldn't bet on how well the teeth will survive/etc. No crank-down help.

The vintage Peterson is nice, and probably the best bang for the buck if you can get them at flea market prices and not beat to ****. They don't have any provision for crank-down help IIRC.

The Bremen was pretty close to the Peterson pair in feel/quality/etc. Virtually zero deflection when clamped, pretty aggressive teeth. I liked the 1/4" square drive for the crank-assist. I'd put them at/above the box store brands (Crescent/etc.).

The Malco pair was a work of art - manifestly felt like a high quality tool that was vastly better than all the others. Unfortunately it cost vastly more than all the others. Fine if you're only getting a couple/few, brutal if you use a lot.

Bang for the buck new, the Bremen is pretty great. I did wind up buying a few pairs of Malco. I tidied up the vintage 7"/10" pairs I got, but they're not in great shape.

 

[KnurledNut]

My go-to is the original Vise-Grip 10CR.
I have no use for the cutter put on most curved jaw locking pliers.
On this model, where it normally resides, there is a high leverage spot with teeth.
These were redesigned when Irwin got involved and I don’t care for the new ones.

 

[Beerhippie]

I needed my long-nose 9LN to pull some hinge pins today. I grabbed the Irwin "The Original" pair--I haven't used those in a while as I usually grab a pair of Petersens when I need 'em.

What a pair of craptacular pliers by comparison! The general feel is sloppy, the adjustment screw is rough, the gripping... all feel shoddy compared to a pair of REAL Vise Grips. They're now at the back of the Vise Grip-type plier rack where hopefully I don't grab them by accident again.

 

[bornbadbob]

I think it depends on what you are going to use them for, if you are trying to get a rounded fastener apart, you need “good” vice grips, if you’re tacking up a couple of pieces of steel to weld together almost anything that locks and unlocks will do. YMMV

 

[Beerhippie]

I think it depends on what you are going to use them for, if you are trying to get a rounded fastener apart, you need “good” vice grips, if you’re tacking up a couple of pieces of steel to weld together almost anything that locks and unlocks will do. YMMV

The Irwins are now confined to welding clamps.

 

[NHtoolguy]

While I have loads of Petersen, there is literally nothing wrong with Milwaukee or Bremen by Harbor Freight--with Crescent not being far behind. The only ones I can say I disliked were Irwin Made in China. Flimsy and poor tolerances.

I second the recommendation for Harbor Freight Bremen. They have decent durability and are favorably priced.

 

[Chipm]

You also spent hundreds of hours driving from garage sale to garage sale sorting through moldy and ill smelling junk pulled from grandma’s musty basement.

Some people find that enjoyable, or even a sport.

Personally I would slot that just below prepping for a colonoscopy on the fun to do scale, and just above going to a pawn shop sorting through stolen merchandise pawned by meth heads.

Yes, exactly. Some people talk about buying used golden-age tools as if it is as easy or convenient as walking into a store somewhere. I don't have time to mess with that.

 

[Chipm]

Bang for the buck new, the Bremen is pretty great.

Good to know. I just bought a Bremen 10" but have not used it.

 

[Beerhippie]

Yes, exactly. Some people talk about buying used golden-age tools as if it is as easy or convenient as walking into a store somewhere. I don't have time to mess with that.

Thanks--less competition!

 

[liliysdad]

Thanks--less competition!

Absolutely!!

I work 40hr+ weeks, have an antique booth on the side plus help with two more, a gut pile of Jeeps I don’t need, and still find time to go dig.

I’d rather spend two hours looking for tools at an estate sale than ten minutes buying it at Harbor Freight.

 

[Steve_P]

There’s a certain cadre here that more or less has a hard on for anything sourced from SBD, for no credible reason. That’s despite evidence that many of their products represent pretty good value.

After watching this negatively for a while, the best reasoning I can come up with is that they resent the fact that SBD scooped up a number of floundering legacy tool names and consolidated them under the SBD masthead, and ultimately restructured the businesses, which included a lot of offshoring of manufacturing.

Many are PO’d at SBD for failing in their attempts to build a new factory in Texas, but when the same thing happened to Malco’s failed attempt to revive the bankrupt locking plier factory in DeWit, they (Malco) get a pass.

The SBD sourced Craftsman screwdriver did quite well against SnapOn and the Boutique German and Japanese screwdrivers in a test / review by PF, a week or so ago, which ironically came out maybe two weeks after a bitchfest deriding the Craftsman screwdrivers that popped up in a post here.

Well said.

Gearwrench, Irwin, and Craftsman are on the GJ vocal minority **** list because it's no longer USA made. Doesn't matter how good it is, all that matters is the COO label. I'm not a fan of the offshoring model that was used with Irwin, but we live in a capitalist society. The reality is that simply the COO doesn't mean it's junk.

There's a vocal minority here where if it's made in China, it's junk. It doesn't matter the reality of how it tests, all that matters is the COO stamped on the tool. You could make two tools in China, identical except for the COO stamp, put Germany on one and China on the other and the China one would be junk here just because of the stamp.

The Chinese made Irwin vise grips tested very well for their price- I've probably said that 10X. But factual data won't change any minds with the China=junk crowd here. As they read this on their Chinese made smartphone or PC. "Hey, that's different!" Sure, China can make a smartphone, but a 1940's designed locking plier with a handful of simple components is somehow waaaaay too advanced for them to figure out.

The irony is that there was (and still is) a vocal minority here years ago when SK USA was functioning that slammed anything by SK. "Why should I buy SK (USA)? My Toptul sockets give me orgasms daily just looking at them at 20% the SK price...."

And yes, since most Craftsman stuff is now MiC, it's on the GJ shitlist. Even though everything that's been tested by PF has done very well, especially for the $.

Edit- I'd have to spend 100 hours of my time and about that many dollars in gas to find a nice Peterson vise grip at a yard sale where I live as it's all junk being sold at houses built in the last 30 years.

 

[tool_scrounge]

Yes, exactly. Some people talk about buying used golden-age tools as if it is as easy or convenient as walking into a store somewhere. I don't have time to mess with that.

You need to start buying them earlier in life I was enamored with vise grips while in elementary school. I could find them within my budget at garage sales.

 

[The Cobbler]

I could find them within my budget at garage sales.

up until about a year ago I was able to get Peterson vice grips @ Habitat for 3, 4 or 5 dollars. now they are asking around $10 for knock offs .

 

[NUTTSGT]

For a car/truck tool box/bag, I would find something middle of the road. It's living in a vehicle, low use but when you need it, you want it to be decent. However, the thought of it getting stolen dreads me to think of having high dollar tools in the truck.

Don't rush out to buy something, wait around, check out the sales and fill your truck bag with decent stuff, you bought on sale or got a good deal on. Your money will go farther and you will fill it with less $$.

 

[richfinn]

For a car/truck tool box/bag, I would find something middle of the road. It's living in a vehicle, low use but when you need it, you want it to be decent. However, the thought of it getting stolen dreads me to think of having high dollar tools in the truck.

Don't rush out to buy something, wait around, check out the sales and fill your truck bag with decent stuff, you bought on sale or got a good deal on. Your money will go farther and you will fill it with less $$.

I have some really nice expensive Malcos in my toolbag which lives in my truck, I got so frustrated with some Knipex locking grips I was using I ordered them from Amazon in a fit of rage, thanks GJ

 

[NUTTSGT]

I have some really nice expensive Malcos in my toolbag which lives in my truck, I got so frustrated with some Knipex locking grips I was using I ordered them from Amazon in a fit of rage, thanks GJ

Kind of amazing what you buy when you get to that point. . .

"I'm done, done I tell you.". . . Well maybe if I order these. . .

 

[T444e]

The Chinese made Irwin vise grips tested very well for their price- I've probably said that 10X. But factual data won't change any minds with the China=junk crowd here. As they read this on their Chinese made smartphone or PC.

I'm sorry for supporting domestic manufacturers. Unfortunately, I'm not aware if any consumer electronics manufactured in this country. I don't have any problem buying tools from first world countries.

 

[fishwatcher]

I was at my dad’s house and he offered to me some of his old tools. Most were generic, but I picked up a slightly rusted Vise Grip. At home, I finally found the Peterson stamp on it and “Dewitt NEBR USA”.

Here are I have a Malco, Peterson and Irwin. I can’t remember when I bought the Irwin. It could have been 10 years ago, maybe 20. Seems like it’s built well.. but I barely use it, so it hasn’t seen any hard use. There are no COO markings on it, so I assume it was made in China.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

I did a comparo a while back.
(…)

I did NOT like the Milwaukee - the crank-down with a screwdriver is a good idea, but they deflect a lot when clamped.

(…)

Was using my tiny Milwaukee long nose vise grips on Saturday to extract an approx. 5x30mm rusted screw with stripped drive from wood, the deflection that clamping it down to the head caused looked indeed unhealthy, but in the end didn’t cause any damage/ malfunction. I thought it was the tiny overall size/ tiny jaw dimensions on that particular set of pliers. Sad to hear that the full size ones also suffer from deflection. Thanks for the heads up!

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[ecotec]

Absolutely!!

I work 40hr+ weeks, have an antique booth on the side plus help with two more, a gut pile of Jeeps I don’t need, and still find time to go dig.

I’d rather spend two hours looking for tools at an estate sale than ten minutes buying it at Harbor Freight.

This is, basically, where I am.

I have more than enough Vise-Grips. Any future Vise-Grip purchases will be cheap and lightly used Petersen Vise-Grips. I have enough that I can be both picky and cheap.

Anecdotally, I have not seen any reduction in the amount of cheap Petersen’s at local sales… but, I live in metro area with a lot of manufacturing. I really don’t expect any decrease in the amount of common tools any time soon.

There are definitely more pickers… so, the tools you are specifically looking for may be gone earlier in the sales than in the past…

I would not recommend putting much of one’s tool budget towards tools that are commonly sold cheaply. Petersen’s are definitely in my list of tools to not spend much on.

I would argue that there are actually a lot of tools that can be found readily and cheaply (vintage socket extensions, punches, chisels, SAE sockets, SAE wrenches, band style oil filter tools, drum brake tools, regular ball peen hammers, engineer hammers, scissors files, file handles, pin spanners, drifts, hacksaws, channellocks, pipe wrenches, tap and die, clamps of all kinds….). I see no real reason to spend money on any of these tools.

 

[ChevyEFI]

Toptul.


And yes, since most Craftsman stuff is now MiC, it's on the GJ shitlist. Even though everything that's been tested by PF has done very well, especially for the $.

I know it is because of lack of distribution, but that name should have been in this thread by now.

Plenty of Craftsman was shitlist material well before the latest movement. Warranty doesn't offset quality and ergonimics issues.

 

[F-22]

Surprised noone mentioned these:

The French copy no one and nobody copies the French. Maybe not completely true but they are innovative and they work well. I like to support them just for that.

They are also finished very nicely. Not as shiny as the Malcos but they have that nice Facom satin sheen.

 

[Hakeem]

Surprised noone mentioned these:

The French copy no one and nobody copies the French. Maybe not completely true but they are innovative and they work well. I like to support them just for that.

They are also finished very nicely. Not as shiny as the Malcos but they have that nice Facom satin sheen.

Those are so freaking ****. Definitely on my wishlist.

I bought these Snapon pliers thinking they were the US made ones. Sadly no, made in Spain. Still nice, with great fit & finish, but I haven’t found them to be much better than my HF Bremen yet. Shoulda grabbed a pair of the Malco instead.

 

[Kasal]

Those are so freaking ****. Definitely on my wishlist.

I bought these Snapon pliers thinking they were the US made ones. Sadly no, made in Spain. Still nice, with great fit & finish, but I haven’t found them to be much better than my HF Bremen yet. Shoulda grabbed a pair of the Malco instead.

They're made in Spain by Grip On. I have several of their models (you know, I support domestic products). What I like is the release lever. I have another one that works backwards, and I don't like it. Overall, they're not bad tools.