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I have bought two cheap vises over the last 30 years. The first one broke the non movable jaw side, the second one I broke the movable jaw. Well I saved the good parts from the first one, and I was able to find them. A little measureing showed I could put the two good parts from the two broken vises together with a little time spent on my milling machine making them fit. Now I have the two parts that DIDN'T break, a precision fit between the sliding parts that is a lit tighter than either ever was. And every time I use the vise I smile to myself. After saying all that, if I hadn't found the parts from the first vise or they hadn't been able to be fit, I would have bought one of those steel Ridgid vises. Not all that expensive as vises go, they open a lot for the size, and being forged steel should be strong. The middle size would open more than enough to press a U joint, my requirement for a vise. I think if you buy cheap vises like I did, you have to expect to break them once in a while. Getting a big cheap one is one way to get a little strength and have a wide opening vise. You could get lucky like a friend of mine. He broke his vise. Had one at work they weren't using so he asked his boss if he could have it. He would have paid something for it if they had asked, but they didn't. Boss said, "Sure, take it, it's just junk anyway and we aren't using it". Well he got it home and we cleaned it up and it is a Brand New Starrett. Price in catalog for that model is about $450. All it is missing is the bolts to bolt it to the swivel base. And it looks like it has been used lightly maybe about 5 times.
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