I will second the thought on the Wilton vise. They are expensive, but they are not indestructible. Most times a vise is destroyed not by use, but by abuse. I had a great vise that was over 30 years old that was in perfect working condition. When I moved, I let a friend take my work bench and vise to "store" it for me until I relocated to a place that I could put it. In less than a year, they totally trashed that vise to the point that it wasn't usable. I should have known better since every vise in the shop was barely usable. They would hammer on the handle to get it tighter, and if that didn't work, they would use a pipe on the handle till they got it so tight that the handle would bend. I never could understand why they thought that it had to be that tight, and I believe that the true reason was that the vises were not large enough to handle the work that they tried to hold in them. This is an important lesson. Make sure that the vise that you buy is the size that you will need. If the vise isn't large enough to hold what you put into it, you will keep trying to make it tighter to hold the work. Also, a vise is primarly for holding, not hammering on. Some vises do have anvils on the rear of them, but if you need to hammer on the item, you should also have a anvil in your workshop. Anvils are for hammering, vises are for holding. Be prepared to spend a lot of money on a quality vise, but you will only buy it once. Dusty
This is the vise that I have on my bench at work and use it quite often ! Although I did take the serrated jaws out and made new smooth face jaws for the type of work that I generally do.
