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I Forge Iron

Vice grips/Mole wrenches


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REallY?? I love my vise grips... I bet I own 50 pair in various configurations... I use them most in fixtures and jigs... they make a instant secure stop when clamped on a chunk of flat bar... I use them to temporarily position stuff when doing design work... I use them to hold two chunks tight together when riveting.... Of course when a nut has been rounded off and a wrench wont do... removing pins that cant be driven ( I have a slide hammer I built with a vise grip at the end to grab a pin) I use some form of a vise grip pretty much every day.....

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I picked up a bunch of welding clamp style at a yard sale and they are handy, granted I have only used them for gluing up decorative carvings I am repairing for a bench. (yes, as woodworking clamps)

I haven't used vice grips on a bolt or nut I have been trying to save in a long time, but if the fastener is scrap, rounded or otherwise damaged, they work rather well.

Phil

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I recently bought several pair of long handled vice grips from HF mainly for gifts for my blacksmith friends. They LOVE them. They are best thing for retrieving stuff lost in the fire...."Handier 'n a pocket in a shirt" as the saying from my childhood goes.
Each of my vehicles has a soft tool bag with a pair of vice grips,a multi-screwdriver,roll of electrical tape,and,of course,some baling wire(or reasonable facsimile since we switched to baling twine). Has gotten me,or other stranded folks out of lots of jams.
They were invented by a BLACKSMITH.....

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Has anyone ever discovered a use for these abominations? They don't work as: spanners, tongs, pliers, stillsons and nor are they much use as welding clamps.
Why do people buy them?
Why are they still sold?


Dont do much fab work do ya, j/k. I seem to agree with everyone else I couldnt be without them, I actually need more. Like monster said great for jigs, or just about anything.
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They come in pretty handy for me as well. A friend used to say that you only needed two things in a tool box...WD40 and duct tape. If it's supposed to move and doesn't, use the WD40. If it moves and shouldn't, use the duct tape. Vice grips could possibly replace either one. I have seen them used on battery terminals, zippers and everything in between.

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The small ones make an excellent fly vice for the heavy duty salt water flies and even large bass bugs. Just turn them sideways and weld on a post and, voila! a set of mondo jaws for your fly vice! Various special versions are pretty successful tools too... I have a set with a pair of disc jaws for clamping face frames to assemble with pocket screws and use a small welding clamp type to clamp the ends of metal studs while a screw is driven through the channel into them (otherwise they will just bend out of the way). They are not a good substitute for heavy tongs for forging work though (that was their originally intended purpose). Vise grips have become a pretty successful product considering that they failed in the purpose for which they were invented. MANY such failures enrich our lives today in applications that were not originally intended... D2 tool steel for example.

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The guru at anvilfire says that one of the biggest hazards of working in a blacksmith's shop is falling stuff. Either on you or just you. Especially for those of us who like to wear shade glasses to look at the fire. Vice grips may look pretty wimpy, but combined with a few pieces of angle iron or channel, they can corral up some jigs or workpieces so they are a lot less likely to fall. I don't like to wear steel toed boots, so I have to be very careful about falling objects.

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Just a few cents more. If they are good and tight they are great if not they ain't worth crap. I have both.
Lock um with one hand. Need 2 hands and a screwdriver to unlock. Other ones(mid size) feel like they lock then pop open. Even with tong rings(or locks) had stuff slip out. Never with the good vise grips. I found if ya buy um at
the flea market or yard sales they are there cause they are worn out. Have 10 welding clamps. 2 sheet metal clamps
5 pliers. Can't do fab work without um.
Ken.

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I would have to agree with what everyone else is saying. They are great to have around the shop. Clamp things on the table, to each other, hold a random chisel instead of burning your hand, hold unusual stock that your tongs won't accomodate (how I made my first hardy stem), etc.. don't go more then 2 days without using at least one pair.

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big foot napta....
what was the first intended use of D2 tool steel?

and i love my vise grips!
I reckon a good exercise would be trying to make one's ones :D

alec :D


The whole D series of steels were originally developed to create cheaper alternatives to the high-speed steels for cutting tools. In this application they failed as the D series steels will not hold an edge well when heated (they DO make nice knives though... which do not need to withstand heat from power machining operations). D2 in particular has become a widely used tool steel for such things as drawing and forging dies.
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I have found that using them with some thought they work very well as a wrench. Fit them to the bolt or nut so that a corner is engaged in the serrations, clamp pretty tight but don't collapse the nut or your working against yourself. Rather than pull or push as you would with a good fitting wrench, strike it either with your hand or a mallet. This impact generally breaks loose very difficult to remove fasteners. I stumbled on this when regularly replacing the filter in GM carburetors in the 70's and 80's. The nut stripped even with a proper fitting wrench.

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Just a bit of trivial history about the original Vice Grip pliers:
They were invented by Bill Petersen (a blacksmith) of DeWitt, Nebraska in the 1920s. My grandfather worked for the Petersens around that same period and according to family folk lore, he had a hand in their development. Whether or not this is true is up for debate. However, I don't think I could go a day in the shop without using one type or another of Vise-Grips. I mostly us the C-clamp type but have several others I use as well. I wasn't happy to see the Petersens having to sell to Irwin and subsequently out sourced. They are still fine tools but they don't say Petersen, DeWitt, Nebraska, so they just don't feel the same anymore cool.gif.

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I have found that vise grips are good for holding hot iron straight from the forge. The spring does not seem to be affected by the heat, and one does not have to look for the "right set of tongs". The reins on these vise grips have been cut down and are still long enough.post-7305-064142000 1277150045_thumb.jpgpost-7305-073837500 1277150063_thumb.jpg

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I prefer tongs by far but whenever I don't have the right one for the job I find vise grips are a great alternative.
Unlike you Tran, I always seem to have problems with the springs, they end up not doing their job anymore until I find them in the dust pan. I love the extention idea, it's unbeleivable that someone wouldn't think of doing that after holding them like a hot potatoe for so long. Anyway, thanks for the idea !
Naz.

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I have found that vise grips are good for holding hot iron straight from the forge. The spring does not seem to be affected by the heat, and one does not have to look for the "right set of tongs". The reins on these vise grips have been cut down and are still long enough.post-7305-064142000 1277150045_thumb.jpgpost-7305-073837500 1277150063_thumb.jpg


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?
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  • 4 weeks later...

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



I think you might be kinda missing the point about them.

I've a reasonable collection of G, bar and carver clamps but I wouldn't be without my mole grips. Amongst the many jobs they are very good for is holding small bolts/ items when trimming them on the bandsaw or belt grinder. What do you suggest would do the job better?

First photo shows some specialized mole grips that almost no other tools can do the job of, access being a big plus

post-11205-026252400 1279195043_thumb.jp

post-11205-065060200 1279195046_thumb.jp

post-11205-031279900 1279195050_thumb.jp

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I think you might be kinda missing the point about them.

I've a reasonable collection of G, bar and carver clamps but I wouldn't be without my mole grips. Amongst the many jobs they are very good for is holding small bolts/ items when trimming them on the bandsaw or belt grinder. What do you suggest would do the job better?

First photo shows some specialized mole grips that almost no other tools can do the job of, access being a big plus


My absolute favorites are the chain type Vise-grips,so incredibly versatile.The second fave are the French models with the oversized curved jaws.First saw them on a French yacht and traded some American tools for them.The brand starts with a V also.Can`t find them now(what a surprise) or I`d post it.Vise-grip now makes a model like them that aren`t near as good.
It helps me to think of these things as reworked toggle clamps(which work wonders for fixed jigs).When I worked around large groups of people who tossed them after they broke them I used to unsweat or grind back the jaws and use them as a jump off point for all sorts of weird clamps and tools.They can set copper rivets,crimp fuel line and wire fittings,flatten tube or bend sheet metal and then hold the bent metal to a hammerform.Replace that adjusting bolt with a longer length of allthread and a sliding weight and you have a slap hammer that will pull anything you can get a grip on,works great on broken nails and stripped screws.You are only limited by your imagination.
Having a pair of Vise-grips clipped to my belt loop has bailed out many a rider(either SAE or metric)when broke down on the side of the road.That and a Leatherman are standard road tools.
We used a modified pair to hold a shop door closed against winter winds but found it useful to keep pier crawlers(the kind with cameras around their necks)at bay during the summer too. :D

The sliding jaw C clamps are great when you`re working alone.You adjust them for level of hold.Hoist and hold the work,then use one hand to clamp and lock while the other maintains alignment.Faster than even those squeeze type clamps and you don`t have to worry about burning the composite body.
Making gravity work for you AND against you all at the same time,hard to get better than that! :)

Nearly anything can disappoint if used beyond it`s capacity.These tools are no more a wrench than a pair of slip joint pliers are.
I try to look at the potential of something while keeping it`s limitations in the back of my head.I think someone(probably Larry or Grant)said in a past post,tools are a start point not a destination.(unless you`re a toolmaker)
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Having a pair of Vise-grips clipped to my belt loop has bailed out many a rider(either SAE or metric)when broke down on the side of the road.That and a Leatherman are standard road tools.



On of my favourite emergency uses was when my gear lever shook off my Triumph sickle, those 6" moles I carried sure came in handy then.

I do get annoyed with those "mechanics" that just repeat the old platitude, usually in a very po faced voice ..... "there's no place in my toolkit for mole grips". How wrong they are.
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