Why The Weight Of a Vise Matters

Posted by Tool Man on February 12th, 2016

Shopping for a vise isn’t an easy job. There are so many brands out there and when you ask for a recommendation, everyone has an opinion that clashes with the previous one. Some would suggest you to go with the Yost while others will sing praises of Wilton vises. In the end, the only choice you are left with is to trust the Amazon reviews and pull the trigger on your purchase. But hey, before doing that just know what you’re getting into.  There are vises that look solid but aren’t. Your needs and usage are the things that will dictate your purchase.

And here is the most important factor you should consider before buying a vise – its weight. Today there are vises available on the market with the same jaw width but the difference of weight and price is so overwhelming that it leaves you wondering. As a rule of a thumb, the heavier the vise the better the quality and it will definitely perform well in heavy duty tasks. For example, Irwin offers 226306ZR vise which comes with a 6 inch jaw and weighs in at about 32 lbs. On the other hand, Yost 460 looks exactly the same but its weight is twice that of its Irwin’s counterpart with a staggering figure of 66 lbs. But again, there is a lesser quality model (Yost 455) offered by Yost that weighs around 35 lbs and has a 5 and a half inch jaw.

Some reviewers actually broke the jaw and found out that lesser quality vises like Irwin 226306ZR and Yost 455 had hollow jaws while on the other hand, high quality vises that weighed more were pure solid not only from outside but inside as well. Now light weight vises aren’t necessarily bad products as they are catering to a different target market. As a general rule you should keep the following points in mind:

• Light weight vises have lesser material to drive the cost down by a substantial amount and they are appropriate for light to medium duty tasks, however they can break if you apply more pressure or work load than they are manufactured to handle;
• Heavy weight vises don’t have hollow innards but are considerably expensive than light weight ones and can handle heavy duty jobs without breaking a sweat.

If you are looking to perform light to medium duty tasks you should go with the light weight vise as there are quite a few benefits there. For starters you’ll save quite a bit of cash and because of their lighter footprint, they are more portable. You can take them from one site to another without much hassle. On the other hand, if you are planning to do some heavy duty work with your vise, then you should go with the heavier one as the lighter one won’t be able to handle your tasks in an ideal way.

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