A good workshop is not complete without a bench vice. A perfect workshop however, needs everything to be great, including the best bench vise for the money.
We have reviewed for you the best bench vise for a quick and informed choice on the perfect one.
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What’s A Bench Vice?
A bench vise is an essential tool that you need in your workshop to hold thing in place as you work on them.
You can use the bench vises to hold together two pieces of wood together after applying glue so that they will stick together tightly.
You can also use a good bench vise to hold a steel rod as you bend it. Some bench vises are not that good for these purposes, and thus the need to get best bench vise for the tasks.
Since it might take you a while to go through the thousands of vises in the stores, here are the top three best bench vises for the money that you can buy:
Top 3 Best Bench Vice On The Market
1. Yost Vises 465 6.5″ Combination Pipe and Bench Vise
The Yost vises vise is an ideal bench vise to use in any workshop.
This model of the Yost vises has a 6.5” nominal jaw. It also has a pipe capacity of 0.125”-2.5” in diameter.
The range is perfect for holding the pipes with diameters that fall in the range. The pipe capacity it can hold is ideal for light application.
The bench vise also has a 360-degree swivel base. You can twist the vise to face any appropriate angle for the task that you are about to perform, making one of the best bench vise for the money that you can buy.
The 360-degree rotation makes it suitable for curved items. If the purpose of buying a bench vise is to work with curved items, then this is the best workbench vise for you to go for.
After you make the rotation, the grip that is placed on it will be sustained perfectly. The top part of the bench vise will not be tilting as you continue with your work.
You will enjoy a stressful free work session with the bench vise as you work on the item with great accuracy.
The vise has a cast-iron construction with steel U-channel, which lasts for ages without experiencing the effects of wear and tear.
The Yost vises vise is also the best vise to use with limited resources. It has an extended flat portion that you can use as a table for working on items that require a hard surface to be placed on.
The top jaws of the vise are replaceable; you can change them any moment the grip is not good enough.
The permanent jaws also have a great grip however. They have grooved on the surface to enhance the tightness of the grip it has on items.
Drawbacks:
The Yost vises vise may not support too many heavy duty tasks. Some of the users have had problems with the vice when they tried to perform heavy tasks with the vise.
If you use the the vise without exceeding the recommended parameters, you should be able to use it for a really long time.
2. Ridgid 66997 F-60 6-inch Forged F-Series Vise.
With a heavily forged steel construction, this rigid bench vise is a good bench vise for you to go with.
The bench vise can be used to hold more item types than the iron cast bench vises.
Its strong construction allows you to work with even stronger materials than the iron cast bench vises, making it the best bench vise for the money.
The Rigid vise, has a steel handle with rubber rings. Tightening the bench vise is easy and you can have a tight grip without breaking a sweat.
Its design also allows you to have a quick job with the vise.
It is constructed with the patented parallel jaw alignment system, which ensures that each grip you place on the material you are working on will be held with great tightness.
You can work with this bench vise on multiple workshop tables since it has a low weight. The bench vise weighs just 12.4 pounds.
The weight is way lower than what the iron cast vises weigh and this is because the material used in the manufacture of the bench vise is less than the one needed for iron cast bench vises.
The anvil is long and extends down to the farthest end of the bench vise. This vise is ideal for holding a great deal of item sizes, especially pipes.
The Rigid bench vise is a small bench vise that you can use for a very long time. The bench vise has a warranty that you are given and are free to claim any time before the warranty gets void.
Unlike most of the bench vises, you can use one hand on the handle to tighten the grip. Most of the other bench vises require you to make a great effort on it before you get a good grip.
Drawbacks:
Some of the users have had problems with the rubber parts of the rigid bench vise. The rubber comes off if you wind the handle with haste.
This however starts happening after a couple months of use.
3. Wilton 11800 648HD Utility Workshop Vise.
The Wilton vise is the best bench vice for you to go for when you want to work on multiple tables with the same vise.
The vise has a really low weight that beats all the other cast iron vises, enabling anyone to use it with ease.
It can support pipes of up to 3″ in diameter. You can work with the pipes of this nature without having to tighten the grip after every few seconds.
The swivel can rotate at an angle of 180°. You can work on the table with anything that fits there at any angle.
If a pipe that you are planning to cut bends at 90-degree angle with the table’s edges, you can go with the diagonal position and hold it still without it bending.
This Wilton 11800 vise has a lock on the base to keep the swivel from turning as long as you set it at the place you need. The lock can easily be removed and replaced if you ever need a change of work angle.
It also has the type of grip that you only get with the best heavy duty bench vises in the market.
The grip that the vise has can hold firmly anything that can fit in between the widest gap between the jaws, allowing you to work without issues.
The paint and finish is durable, allowing you to use the machine without covering scratches every once in a while.
The paint also ensures that the inner parts of the metal does not get affected with the external factors such as moisture and extreme pH conditions.
Drawbacks:
The size of this Wilton Vise is considered by some as bulky and inappropriate. The material used on its construction is used in bulk in order to make it more durable than it will be when light.
This makes it inconvenient for some people, though many people like it for its stability and heavy duty usage.
Buying Guide For The Best Bench Vise For The Money
Choosing a great but cheap bench vise to work with is not as hard as most people consider it to be. You only have to ensure that you got the basic necessities in check.
Here are some of the things that you should be studying to determine whether it is the best one for you;
- Weight:
Mounting a bench vise can be a difficult task for you if the vise weighs more than 20kgs. This is why you need to find a bench vise that you can mount with ease.
- Maximum size support:
Choose a bench vise that can support the average maximum size of items that you work with. The largest size that a bench vise can support is usually mentioned in the bench vice reviews so it cannot be something hard for you to spot.
- Durability:
The bench vise that you should go for should be highly durable to avoid extra expenditure. The material that it is made of can be coated and last for long, even if it has a high oxidation level.
- Ease of use:
The handle of the vise that you are using should not be hard to turn. You should go for a vise that you or any other worker will be able to use properly.
- Swivel:
Though most people like to work with a fixed angle, it might be a great idea to buy a vise with the highest angle range on the swivel.
A range between 180-360 degrees should be able to give you enough room in your workshop.
- Price:
Buying a costly vise when there are so many cheap vises in the market that have the same quality is something that you should avoid. You should however keep the quality in check when choosing a cheap one.
Each one of the mentioned vise should be able to match with your needs. Most of the vises being sold in the market are best sellers because of the brand, not because they are better.
They cost a bit more but still offer the same quality, so these should be some of the best bench vises for the money.
