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Hi Rich, The damage you describe to your previous vises makes me inclined to agree with the other responder that you're pretty hard on a vise. I understand that in many cases it makes economic sense to use a tool as a consumable even if it isn't generally thought of that way. My BIL once worked for a marble company on the pricey side of Seattle where Skil Model 77 worm drive saws were treated as consumables because the value of the installers' time, and the normal price of an installation justified it. (Of course, that BIL is a big liar, so I can't be sure of the veracity of any specific story he tells me---but the concept is valid, in any case.) I have a suggestion: If your vises are always destroyed in a particular activity, maybe you could build a piece of equipment that would do just that job and either be so robust that it could withstand the punishment, or be designed so that the damage could be repaired easily with readily available replacement parts. I've built a few specialty tools that would, in some cases, withstand forces that would have damaged even the large vises we have in the college welding shop. My tools were crude and monstrous because I could always use more (scrap) metal---which was free to me---in place of the engineering expertise I lacked. Then too, since I was building something which might be used only a time or two, graceful lines were never an issue. When I build something that I expect to use a lot, I take the time to make it more presentable, which generally means throwing away the first one (or two). I notice that whenever I throw away a prototype, it gets hauled out of the scrap bin and stays around the shop for awhile. I think it's because my specialty built tools are like alien artifacts---crude, and robust, and incomprehensible. All the best, Stan
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