Today we were assembling some things from KOP-in this case, a battery connector. We were using a small vise, and using a couple useless allen wrenches between one side of the vise and the connector, we began turning the crank on the vise. After a couple turns with a pipe on the end of the crank, this happened.
Been there done that, once with a junk Chinese vise, once with a USA-made Palmgren vise, and recently broke the jaws on a USA-made Craftsman vise. What brand is this one and where is it from?
When I go back for a meeting on Monday, I’ll check out more about the vise.
But now I can say one interesting thing; as I was taking it out of the table it was mounted to, I already saw that it was nowhere near invincible, as one of the metal “feet” that you would put the screws through was completely knocked off. This may have been done on purpose, as it would’ve been hanging off the edge of the table. But still strange.
I have a couple vises in my shop at home, they’re more than 20 years old and get plenty of use, and I haven’t broken them because I don’t do that. I use a press to press things.
Also it’s pretty common to only have three mounting bolt holes on a vise.
All right. The vise is made by Babco and there’s a 604 on the moving side of it. As for where it came from, I have no idea. It’s been around for all the time I’ve been on the team.
I can tell this one came with 4; there’s a similar rough breaking point to the fresh split.