Sam Thompson

The pliers allow you to feel if the work is moving and you can reposition it more easily, the tightness of the grip is usually irrelevant as the sharp teeth of a mole grip will damage the surface. The long nosed Mole grips are even worse than the standard variety as the jaws just cross over themselves when you try to round off small nuts.

I only started this thread in a 'tongue in cheek' kind of way but I can see that, having invested so much in your collection, you could never bring yourself to admit the mistake PS Pliers are just as good!

Here's a pic of mine. The bench legs are 5" dia, buried 18"; the bench top is 2" thick oak, bolted onto a 3x2" frame and then bolted onto the legs which are braced diagonally by more 3x2. The vice bracket is welded to a 1/4" thick plate 28x37" which is bolted to the bench top. The bottom of the leg is about 3" above ground level and is held onto the bench leg with a bracket. None of it moves but I've just tried putting my hand against the bottom of the leg (foot?) and hitting the rear jaw with a hammer and I couldn't feel a thing.

A big hello to Falcon and welcome to the world of dogs from Nibble

If you put a large (0.75" or more)vertically in the jaws and pull the top half towards you the vice will tend to pivot around the cloverleaf bracket and is braced by the leg. If the bar is gripped horizontally and the free end pulled the vice will tend to twist about roughly the same point and will be held by the bolts etc. in the clover leaf. The bottom of the leg of my own six inch (I think!) vice is firmly held to the leg of the bench but isn't supported vertically and I regularly work 1"sq stock.

The leg is needed, it's to brace against bending and twisting; it also adds extra mass. The vice needs to be securely mounted but the leg transmits little, if any, of the hammer's impact into the ground. That's why, as youngdylan says, they are also used to grip and back-up long bars for rivetting into railings etc.

And your initial post was patronising and ill-informed. It also covers ground that has been well raked over in the past.

The swastika itself isn't evil. it's thousands of years old (and was painted on the side of a number of British aircraft in WW1). These tongs aren't a personal trophy and they have no historical importance except as a relic of one of the most vile political systems that mankind has yet devised.

The leg doesn't need vertical support, it is there as a brace against bending and twisting forces. The energy of the blow is absorbed by the inertia of the mass of the vice. If you don't believe me, lie a post vice along the floor and hold your hand against the bottom of the leg while someone hits the jaws with a large hammer. you won't feel much, if anything.

Don't you just love it when a self-confessed 'newbie' tries to tell you how to do your job?

I have to disagree, collecting nazi memorabilia is sick.

Have you tried oxy/fuel cutting?

The one my uncle swiped had 'coal' cast into the side, so that's what he used it for!

I didn't mean not to use them, just to destroy the marks on them that might delight the sick b******s who collect that stuff. It's only a pair of tongs, they're unlikely to yield much new archaeological information.I doubt that using them will cause genocide or the invasion of smaller countries (or perhaps it already has). I've got a few pairs of British army tongs of the same vintage and they were made in prisons.

It's for hammering round corners, you can hide behind a wall and no-one will know you're there.

In the UK the hammers issued for breaking up coal on steam trains were usually cast iron so that it was pointless to nick them.

Grind the marks out of it; the eagle will be standing on a small swastika. Many people consider hanging Nazi memorabilia on the wall a bit odd.

If an anvil hasn't been used for some time and especially if the top has been ground, it will benefit from use. Try hammering on it for a few hours. I've never found that the bounce of a ball bearing has much relation to how pleasant an anvil is to use anyway.

If you use an axe or hatchet as a top set, be careful that you don't split the eye. They weren't made to be struck like that.

Sorry for my last (semi-flippant) comment, I misread your post and thought you were asking about 5" thick material, not 0.5". My eyesight's not what it was!

Just get a bit of steel closer to the size you need.

It looks like the bicycle wheel wasn't up to the job; in the second vid he's replaced the spokes.

If the metal slips or you need a different angle you have to disengage the clamp, adjust it and reset it. Why not learn to make and use tongs?

That's a great mock-up for a proper one. I'm not very keen on carpentry (too many new ways of messing it up or hurting oneself) but I bet it's an easier and cheaper way to experiment with angles, lengths etc. The rubber pad on the treadle is a terrific idea for a brake.

So, to sum up: They're quite good for a few things but not very good at anything.