As a hobby carpenter, mechanic or any other type of person that does like to work with his or her hands at home, a bench vise is piece of equipment you can not do without.
It does not matter if you have to hold some wood that needs to be cut or shaved you always are short one hand. With a vise for your bench you can take care of that problem. I don’t know about you but it always feel I could use an extra hand while I am working on a project. It does not make a difference if it has to do with wood , metal or even plastic. While cutting or gluing something I can not believe that I use to do that without a vise on my workbench.
I am an old carpenter and like to work at small projects at home. In my professional life I always had the best tools the company I worked for could afford. Now I work at my home projects I realize how important that was at that time. I also realized that I had to have a good vise at home to be able to complete the projects in a timely matter and without calling for help all the time.
What I learned is that a carpenter most of the time uses a different vise than someone who works with other materials. Wood working vises are most of the time installed at the side of the bench and vises for metal or more general use are installed on the work bench. It is also a different type of vise.
Woodworking vises are made of wood or have wood covered parts to avoid damage. A metal vise does not have that unless someone uses it for softer metals. Like you can read it is very important to choose the right size and material for your vise. Too small makes it useless in some situations and too big makes it more expensive then necessary.
I hope these tips will help you to find the best vise for your money and be successful in all your DIY projects.