Mini Bench Vice (50)

Name: Mini Bench Vice (50)
Brand: Harden
SKU: 600601

Item No. 600601

Price on request

A mini bench vice is bought for the work that a full-size vice makes impossible. The jaws on a workshop vice are wide, heavy and rough, and closing them onto a small delicate part means crushing it, hiding it, or both. This one clamps 50mm wide across a 32mm jaw length, which is the right scale for holding something you can work on with a small file, a soldering iron or a jeweller's screwdriver, at a bench where you are looking closely at what you are doing.

It is made from cast steel. That is worth noting because most vices at this size are cast iron or, worse, zinc alloy. Cast steel is tougher and considerably more forgiving of being knocked, dropped or over-tightened, and a small vice gets all three. Steel also lets the section be thinner for the same strength, which keeps the vice compact around what it is holding rather than swallowing it.

The work it does: holding small components while they are filed, sanded, drilled or deburred; holding a circuit board or a connector while it is soldered; holding a part while glue or epoxy sets; gripping small fittings, valves and unions; holding keys, hinges, catches and hardware for adjustment; and holding a workpiece steady for close inspection or marking out. In a jewellery or watch context it is the standard bench fixture; in an electrical or electronics context it is the third hand that makes soldering practical.

The buyers are electricians and electronics technicians, instrument and appliance repairers, jewellers and watchmakers, model makers and hobbyists, locksmiths, and general workshops that need a small holder alongside the big vice. Hardware dealers sell it to households as well, since it is often the only vice a home bench has room for.

Get a few things right and it earns its place. Mount it properly — a small vice that moves defeats the whole purpose, and filing against a vice that rocks is worse than holding the part in your hand. Use soft jaw covers, a folded strip of aluminium, leather or even card, on anything soft, finished or precious, because even small serrated jaws mark brass, aluminium and plated parts. Tighten by hand only: the leverage on a small handle is enough to distort a thin-walled part or a tube, and once a component is squashed out of round no amount of care afterwards recovers it. And do not use it as an anvil, which is what kills small vices — a vice is designed to squeeze, not to be hit. Ask us on WhatsApp for a price, or compare it against the 70mm mini vice if your parts are a little larger.