Screwdriver
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my record vice is hopelessly limited to holding something in place securely whilst I work on it. What else does an £840 swindens do then?!!
First off, I would never consider spending that much on a new anything when I could find a secondhand one.
However, the first thing you notice with a Swindens is that once your workpiece is securely clamped - you can still manoeuvre it! A Swindens will hold eight feet of scaff pole for example, all hanging out of one end. Then you could level it off with the rotating feature. You're not messing about trying to get the workpiece exactly at the level you want while it's loosely held, then nip up the jaws. The pipe jaws are just great for working on motorcycle fork legs.
Clearly once the piece is firmly clamped you can spin it around while welding or hand filing etc. That is fantastically useful, especially with heavier or more awkward pieces. Finally, your one pride of place vice has to sets of jaws, a really decent standard set and a really decent pipe jaw. I have replaced my pipe jaws with soft faces so I have the luxury of hard and soft jaws without having to keep swapping them over.
Like I said, once you've used a Swindens, you really miss that facility on any other fixed vice.