The vise is around the same price as a 4” Gressel bench vise from Switzerland.
The Fein vise has an advantage for easy adjusting on flat iron machine tables.
No clue where the Fein is made.
Reposting this here since the other post discussing this vise is on the Hot Deals board, and lengthy discussions are frowned upon there.
Just got mine today. A few observations:
- The packaging was very, very nice.
- Someone above asked where this is made. The answer is: India!
- Someone was asking about the slop in the dynamic jaw and whether the dynamic jaw would lift up in use. I took a few quick measurements and found the dynamic jaw has between 1 and 1.5 degrees of "yaw". I was able to squeeze a .003" shim under one side of the dynamic jaw's sliding surface, but then the other side was pushed down tight. I didn't have two .001" shims to try under both sides, so I set a depth gauge up on some blocks and took an initial measurement, then forced a wedge under the jaw and took a second measurement. Looks like just under .002" of lift in the middle, which is pretty consistent with the shims.
- I clamped a lifting bolt in the jaws and tried pulling the vise off my little welding table with a hoist. I used a crane scale to see how hard I was pulling but I ended up just pulling my little table off the ground. It apparently weighs about 180 lbs so that was the max I could test without stacking a bunch of heavy stuff on the table (which would have inevitably fallen off when the magnet finally let go). In short, I don't think the strength of the magnet is going to be an issue here.
The fit and finish is pretty okay. The machining marks on the sliding surfaces indicated some questionable tool path choices but I'm sure they had their reasons, and they passed the "fingernail" test.
The black oxide finish on the handle seemed a little iffy but the finish on the jaws seems better. The spring in the mag handle is nice and crisp, and the action of the button is nice. I like the little green indicator o-ring on the handle that tells you it's locked down. No major casting flaws on the vise itself and the powder coat looks good.
It's only a 4" vise, but that's what I wanted. I don't have a production table on my drill press and there's really not room for my 6" Cardinal speed vise.
There was a lot of play between the dovetails on the vise and the mag base, but then I realized there are a couple of "gib screws" you can tighten to lock them down (at the cost of being able to quickly separate the vise and the base. Maybe there's some advantage to leaving it loose so the bit can center itself in the punch/pilot hole?
Anyhow, obviously no real use yet but I'm excited to ty it out. The time saved clamping the vise down will more than make up for the time lost tightening the clamp screw compared to the speed vise. Someone should make a Cardinal style speed vise with a mag base!
