Unusual Vice Grips

[J Tiers]

Really? My English dictionaries (Oxford and Collins) both give vice as the preferred spelling, with vise as the US version. Funk & Wagnall (my American dictionary) naturally gives vise as its preference.

Clearly an issue for the vice squad.

[lynnl]

Really? My English dictionaries (Oxford and Collins) both give vice as the preferred spelling, with vise as the US version. Funk & Wagnall (my American dictionary) naturally gives vise as its preference.

Then what spelling do those give for bad habits, aka "vice" to me?

Oh.., never mind, I already have enough literary windmills to joust with. (Including dangling prepositions!)

[ironmonger]

I have a few vice grips (Canadian, eh) but there are two styles that most people don't seem to have.

https://www.irwin.com/uploads/produc...enches-302.jpg

<<snip>>

I have a couple of these. Very handy for blacksmithing when holding punches and drifts close to hot stuff. Also quite useful if you 'hammer eye' is not as good as it once was.
Come to think of it, my 'hammer eye' might have begun failing years ago. This probably accounts for more arthritis in my left hand than my right. Holding chisels can be bad for your health if you miss.
Probably good for abusing screwdrivers as well...

[Richard P Wilson]

I have found that genuine Mole grips which were the only brand available in the 60's in the UK had a difficult to use opening lever. The levers on my no name brand bought in the last few years work in the opposite direction and are much more user friendly.
In the UK we clamp things in a vise, vice is more to do with naughty ladies.

No! Here in the UK we clamp things in a vice, naughty ladies are vice, and the navy have a rank of vice admiral. We must like vice a lot, we use the word so much. Vise isn't a word we use.

[AD5MB]

these are meant for stripped nut removal. they are excellent for crimping golf cart and motorcycle battery connectors. you have to make two or three passes to sink it deep:

[Glug]

Vise isn't a word we use.

I'd advise you to try it.

[PStechPaul]

I have a "Myer Plier" which can be useful for some purposes:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthoped...ise-1695529764



I also have a vise-grip with an adjustable beam for clamping wide objects. I'll post a picture when I find them. There are lots of varieties here.

[lynnl]

I'd advise you to try it.

That brings up another question. Here the verb form is "advise" and the noun is "advice." How is the distinction handled in Britain?

[Georgineer]

That brings up another question. Here the verb form is "advise" and the noun is "advice." How is the distinction handled in Britain?

Simple.

-ise is the verb ending, -ice is the noun ending, as in practise/practice, license/licence. Advise/advice are pronounced differently and make a useful rule-of-thumb when in doubt.

So the grippy thing and the naughty thing, being both nouns, are both vices. As far as I know there isn't a verb 'to vise', but I'm sure that somebody, somewhere, is working on it. The Admiral's Vice is an adjective, but we won't go there!

George B.

[mklotz]

No! Here in the UK we clamp things in a vice, naughty ladies are vice, and the navy have a rank of vice admiral. We must like vice a lot, we use the word so much. Vise isn't a word we use.

Just out of curiosity, what, if anything, does the OED have to say about "vise"?

[Cuttings]

I bought these from a fellow at a local street market a few years ago. I have tried to search for similar pliers but can't find any. I know these were made in Taiwan.

[john hobdeclipe]

Another home rigged dimpling tool:

[PStechPaul]

Here is the vise-grip I have which has an adjustable beam for wide items:

[MrWhoopee]

Back when I was at the Junior College, a young engineer from PG&E came into the machine shop looking for someone to build a tool he had designed. This was in the late '70s, about the time they were rolling out the orange polybutylene pipe for natural gas. The tool was a huge pair of vice grips (3 ft. long) with rounded jaws and an adjustable moving jaw like a Crescent wrench. It was for clamping off the pipe in emergencies. The handles were 1-1/4 pipe, the jaws were 1 in. thick 4140. I machined and welded the whole assembly, including turning the worm and cutting the rack on a shaper with the same form tool. It worked, but I nearly separated by sternum trying to clamp a piece of 1-1/2 in. pipe. Meanwhile, someone else designed a unit that utilized a hydraulic porta power. Guess who's design won.

[Stu]

Here's one I made for holding sheet metal at 90 degrees for edge welding