I have a D688, why were they discontinued?
You'll probably get a lot of likes, but might not from one HM forum member. . .I have wanted a Wilton Bullet vise for a long time. turns out I ended up with two of them for $100 each. They are in remarkably good condition. One was manufactured in 1954 and the other is from 1951. I was bidding on these and later discovered I was bidding against JRaut (one of the HM memebers). We both chuckled about that.
Anyhow, I hope to restore them as soon as I am more healed up from some injuries.
I think the d688 was outdated and the dx6 was a way to modernize and cut down costs. I like the fact that they are narrower but I don’t personally own one because parlec had their better design out before Kurt had the dx6 that could hold 9” inside the jaws and the carrier but doesn’t stick out the back. Then glacern got their vises made to the same design as the parlec/teco (read as copied). I’m not a big fan of glacern they just resell Chinese goods at high prices. For very little more you can get American stuff and for a little less you can get identical stuff elsewhere.
Glacern uses import castings, but they are machined and ground in the USA, pretty sure shars is the Chinese redistributor. the new dx6 are junk imo they are a very poor design that I would not recommend to anyone Kurt also has much worse packaging, the last 4 dx6 we got come damaged aswell.
I‘ve bought working, street legal, licensable and drivable cars for less than that vise.