Loading…
12
Vent: I bought a cheap barrel vise from a flea market and it cost me a whole weekend
I was at a swap meet in Springfield and saw this barrel vise for forty bucks. The guy said it was a steal, and I figured for light work it would be fine. Tried to use it to swap a barrel on an old Mauser action last Saturday. The aluminum jaws were so soft they just deformed under pressure, and the whole thing started to twist. I spent hours trying to rig it with shims and extra clamps, but in the end I had to stop before I damaged the receiver. Wound up driving an hour to borrow a proper steel vise from a buddy on Sunday to finish the job. Lost my whole Saturday and a tank of gas. Has anyone else had a flea market tool bite them this bad? What's your rule for buying used tools?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
olivere306mo ago
Honestly, forty bucks for a whole setup sounds like a decent gamble to me. Sometimes you just get unlucky with a soft batch of metal.
3
schmidt.grant5mo ago
Ever feel like you're the soft batch of metal in human form? I'd probably bend the tools just looking at them.
6
derek9396mo ago
Forty bucks for a whole setup? What are you even buying, paper clips? That price screams junk metal from the start. No gamble, just a sure way to waste cash.
4