Okay, I now have 7 vises, what do I do with them

Metal

Registered
Registered
Joined
Sep 30, 2015
Messages
233
I came upon a nice rotary table on craigslist, and the guy threw in THREE old bridgeport 6" vices

So now I have 5-6" vices an 8" and 2-4"

What should I do with them? I'm wondering if there is any creative reason to have so many vices or should I just restore and sell them off.

I was thinking since the 6"'s are about the same size I could make a universal locating position for them and set one up for soft jaws, or two up for wide jaws, ect, but it may be just easier to replace the jaws on the one on the table than screw around swapping vices.
Ideas?
 
Two choices, SELL or Keep. I would keep them. I have 11 vises. All different, I also have 4 rotary tables, one with XY capability. Yes, I use them all.

"Billy G"
 
My home hobby shop has turned into my main source of income so I would keep them. I am actually not sure how many vises I have, but easily more than 20, and maybe as many as 30 if you count bench vises and drill press vises. Easily over 20 decent vises. Lockdown, screwless, angle, insert. I have three shelves all together where I store vises not currently in use so I can find them easily. When a local machine shop went out of business (retiring) I bought all his lockdown mill vises (not all that many. When I came back to pick up my purchases, he found he needed to keep one for the lady who was leasing the shop so she could finish some jobs. I'm not an ******* (ok I am, but not that much of an *******) so I said, sure trade me something of equal value for it that you know I can use. He walked over to a shelf full of specialty vises and said pick any two. I pointed to a dovetail angle vise and a sine bar angle vise. I figured he would object, but instead he thanked me and took them out to my truck for me himself. I just used one yesterday to finish a mold for a customer. It would have been impractical for me to do any other way.

Vises are like ropes, fish hooks, lathes, and screw drivers. You can never have to many.

And, I am thinking about making a several hundred pound beast on a pedestal pole like those guys who do the extreme tool builds on YouTube.

The only time I would consider selling any tools is if I was desperate for cash and had nothing else to sell first. I'd sell my bass boat before I would sell my tools. Well, if a friend in need (real need, not just a deal hunter) came to me I might sell him something I didn't need to help him out. More than likely if he was one of the six (6!) people in the world I call a friend and not just a buddy I'd just loan it to him. Those people who are actual friends I can trust to make it up if they F it up.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I would sell the old Bridgeport vises. They do not have the moveable jaw pull down feature. IMHO the only milling vise you want must have that feature. It makes life so easy.
 
Multiple parts in one setup, place as many vices on the machine as it will fit holding as many parts as possible and have at it.
 
Back
Top