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Swindens vise?

lucky7

Titanium
Joined
Sep 6, 2008
Location
Canada
Is this company still in business? Emails to them go unanswered. Alternately, does anyone have a good condition 6" vise of theirs they'd like to sell?

Lucky7
 
Yes they are still going a guy on another forum bought a new Swinden last year. I have an old model rotating Swinden and they are good but not worth the eye-watering price IMO.
 
I have one, and it is really practical, but it has one flaw which becomes painfully obvious if you put any serious torque on it: The key that keeps the whole thing from spinning is grossly undersized so it will break out of it's keyway. IMO the design with that key is just flawed.
 
Yup, lunatic price. Hafta wonder how practical a DIY version carved from solid and / or built up from weldments would be. A 4" one I could certainly use as finding a decent small vice with pivots is apparently impossible. All the outside engineering is pretty obvious. Just the screw and nut arrangement to figure out.

Panza
Isn't that key deliberately undersize as a weakest link in case someone goes looney tunes with over torque. I can see situations where Gorilla Guy would be tempted to get creative with his 9 ft cheater bar! However you slice it a round tube slider type vice in that style can never be as strong as the conventional rectilinear version. I'd bet the tube on a Swindens vice is less than half as stiff as the rectilinear slider on a similar size Record. Any minor bend will seriously interfere with the pivot action too so its far less tolerant of abuse. My big Record takes the concept of rattling good fit to serious extremes. More weight stabilised than mechanically guided during setting up.

Clive
 
You might be right on that Clive. As you say it is pretty limited in taking torque compared to a square ram. When you lean on it in a way that rotates the jaws opposite ways it gives very easily. Even if you get one of the big ones it's not a heavy duty vice.
 
Many many moons ago I had (IICR) a 6'' Swinden Vice on a patent swivel base (can't remember the name) that also tilted fore and aft.

As a vice for bench fitting& filing etc etc etc it was the best vice I ever used - but as a heavy ''kick bollock and bite swing on that'' type vice it wasn't up to the job.

I found mine in the cellar of an empty house Dad and I were working on, ........it was stolen in a break in in August 1981, and while I missed it from time to time couldn't justify the cost of replacing it.

They always were very expensive, .in my 1953 Buck and Hickman catalogue A Record #36 - 6'' all steel quick release with swivel grip base (top of the line) was
£11-6-0 or £298.72 in todays money!

A 6'' Swinden was £14-3-6 or £374.72 at todays money !! + £8-6-6 (£220.08) for the fancy base as above making both together £22-10-0 or £594.80 in todays money :eek:

As a guide, in 1958 a new Ford Thames 300e 1/4 ton van was about £400 on the road ???? Thames 3e - Google Search


Ref for inflation calc Historic inflation calculator: how the value of money has changed since 19 | This is Money
 
Now you understand,my dad does do other things whilst sat on his arse drinking tea.

Which took you long enough to learn how to make properly! ......mutter mutter ..........cheeky bleedin kids, .......SIGH! but as he's a good boy n kind to his mum, I'll pay him this week.
 
Oh dear, a guy who's as polite and respectful to his dad as I am ;-)

Besides, I can blame Limi for introducing me to these vises and on this site! Still hoping to find a used one..?

Cheers,
Lucky7
 








 
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