Thread: You get what you pay for.....

For about 40 years I've lived with a succession of mostly barely-adequate vises for woodworking, and always wished I had a quick-action version, but each time I did a bench upgrade, I seemed to be in a bit of a financial bind so made do with something less ideal for the front vise. (Since I discovered tail vises, I've spent 80% of my time using them, anyway, so it became less important).
Recently, I've been stuck with uing a smaller bench I made to be portable, and although it's got a decent tail-vise, the front vise was the smallest Record, which is a little under-nourished for anything heavy, and has a nasty habit of wracking. Been eying those Recod knock-offs for a long time, wondering if they are up to the job - after all, a vise is hardly a high-tech machine, is it?
So on Saturday, I lashed out and dropped $69 for an Asian-made version, and fitted it in place of the baby Record.
The attachment was easy - it pretty much sat in the same cutout, and even the two front bolt holes matched. Then when I assembled the whole thing and closed it, I noticed the tops of the jaws are off by a good 1.5mm over the 175mm of the top surface (see pic). The gap between top and bottom, which is desirable, is also a bit more generous than necessary, IMO.
However, a bit of tinkering with the wooden jaw liners, got it closing ok, (second pic) and it certainly holds things firmly enough. It's substantially heavier and more solid than the vise it replaced, and will do the job well enough for the time being, but there are several aspects of its construction that suggest it won't stand up to too many years of heavy use.
Have decided that it probably IS worthwhile shelling out the (many) extra $$$s for the named brand, after all. That is, if they make 'em remotely "like they used to" ??!! :confused:
Cheers,
(sort of) happy,