STANLEY 1-83-069 MAXSTEEL Multi Angle Vice, Yellow/Black
STANLEY 1-83-069 MAXSTEEL Multi Angle Vice, Yellow/Black
| Weight: | 1.56 kg |
| Dimensions: | 19.99 x 8.41 x 21.49 cm; 1.56 Kilograms |
| Model: | 1-83-069 |
| Part: | 1-83-069 |
| Colour: | Yellow/Black |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Stanley BLACK+DECKER |
| Dimensions: | 19.99 x 8.41 x 21.49 cm; 1.56 Kilograms |
| Quantity: | 1 |
Quite a useful tool to own and good at what it is supposed to do, locks in place in all sections without a worry of becoming loose, is nice tool.
some slight paint chipping but overall a great product that just works as it should good wide opening of jaws and seems pretty strong even when put at strange angles.
And that reason is, it is a very good vice, plain and simple. The quality you’d expect from Stanley and at a very reasonable price considering it has the whole multi angle ball joint thing going on. Clamps to a bench nice and tight. Ball joint clamps into positions nice and tight and the jaws close nice and tight. Now it’s not a particularly big vice but for a hobbyist like myself it’s pretty perfect. Fully recommended.
Bought an import something like this years ago and chucked it because the gimbal didn’t lock down securely, this is different, only needing a quarter turn to lock it securely for most small work. The only downside is the rather absurd packaging which took half an hour to remove. I use it clamped to an indoors worktable to hold victims in any position since I only have one hand, and find it indispensible. Well pleased, excellent value for money.
I found this while browsing and decided that it looked great value so bought it and I was right. Very good, useful vice, well made and ideal for small jobs.
This is a vice that you can carry anywhere in a sack or back-pack and set up on any sturdy table.
It has short clamping bars so is a little awkward if you have big hands or fat fingers but you get used to it and once set up is a top addition to the tool bag.
For everything craft related this would be an ideal vice. I don’t do any of that but use it for DIY related activity, and it holds up alright for the odd job, but it’s too small and flimsy for tougher jobs. Glad I bought it, and I use it often — just understand you’re not getting an absolute unit of a vice like the old-school ones.
I bought this vice for a friend who is a wood carver. He uses it to hold the piece of wood that he is carving.
The workpiece needs to be held rigidly if accurate cuts are to be made. The ability to hold the carving in numerous different orientations is also essential. This vice fulfils both requirements very well. It is also very good value for money.
I went for a recognised brands as my dad always said, buy quality tools and they’ll last a lifetime.
I’m impressed with the vice so far.
It’s quite sturdy and well built.
My only gripe are:
– The level at the bottom is a bit of a chore to wind but that’s neither here nor there; and
– The clamp that fits the vice to the desk will get a single layer worktop no issues, but I struggled to get my workbench in.
Have generally tired of “endorsing” products. But for the STANLEY Multiangle Vice I’ll make the effort.
I think this is simply best vice and value for money I have spent on a tool, probably ever.
Well thought out, versatile and a good “GO-TO” piece of equipment. It even has soft rubber grips for those fragile materials in a helping hand role. I have used this to hold metalwork pieces with no issues; some comments have mentioned slippage in the ball & socket, but as there is a stop slot for regular vice work I think that is an unfair description, under heavy torsional load it will shift of course; but then what are you doing, is there a better way? For household/hobbyists its just useful and I have been so impressed I have just bought a second one for larger jobs. I have wasted more money on lesser products, I think its a practical and easy to use product – If you are in the market for a general small DIY- Hobby vice, in my opinion this is the one! The open jaw limit fully engaging all three rods is about 55mm, Valley depth about 35mm & jaw length is 70mm, Enjoy!
As a coffee machine engineer I have had several instances where I have needed to remove fittings from items such as water pumps or flowmeters and these fittings can be extremely tight making them hard to remove without a decent vice.
For the money and the fact that Amazon are excellent with allowing returns it was a no brainer to give this a go. I had to remove some 13mm nuts from a group head recently and trying to hold the group in one hand and a socket in the other was nigh on impossible, even the holding it with your foot on the floor they just wouldn’t crack loose. Out came my new gadget, found a good clamping surface, all nice n tight , got the group head in the jaws securely and a couple of squirts of WD-40 I attempted the undoing of the 3 nuts. The vice did move a few times so it took a little bit of angle adjusting and tightening up a bit more but after a few goes I managed to loosen all 3 nuts thanks to this little life saver !
This is a very welcome addition to my handy tools in the boot of my car, highly recommended for smaller jobs .
I’m writing this review after having had this vice nearly six months.
I’ve been using this vice for soldering leads (it has a little diamond shaped groove cut into the end to end and top to bottom of the steel jaws, underneath the soft plastic jaw covers) so it’s great for holding round connectors, and small household repairs.
Pro’s
The jaw head can be moved to and held at almost any angle.
The jaw is 69mm wide (73mm with plastic covers on) and opens to a maximum of 65mm (60mm with plastic covers on).
The work surface/bench clap opens to a maximum of 60mm (with plastic covers on to protect your table/bench – 63mm without covers)
Cons
Not much really, especially when you look at the competition at this price point – the only minor niggle is the top of the jaws meets half a millimeter before the bottom, but it does clamp up tight with another quarter turn. If you need a more accurate vice then you’ll probably want to buy a proper engineers bench vice and certainly be spending more than 20.
I know that other reviewers have had problems with the angle clamp but mine has been absolutely fine, I can clamp it tight enough so it doesn’t move no matter what angle I choose.
I would have no hesitation recommending this to anyone wanting a medium size vice.
Very honestly, I cannot recommend this vice highly enough. It is relatively small, but has an awesome grip, and is very very versatile.
Pros:
+ Very cheap
+ Small
+ Very sturdy
+ The multi-angle is much more useful that you’d think
+ If you need a simple stable one instead of a multi-angle, this rests nicely on it’s side for a permanent small-ish vice with good grip
+ The jaws open quite a lot for it’s size and you can fit an entire small pcb inside for soldering
So and so:
* It could have benefited from attached spirit levels to make sure it’s level, but honestly I can’t complain for the price.
Negative:
– The jaw pads are very sensitive to high temperatures
– The only thing I can think of which isn’t ideal, is that if you damage the jaw pads, it would be almost impossible to find replacements. Also, the replacements (if you are so lucky to find any) will probably cost about half the price of a new vice 🙁
Do not let the negative dissuade you from buying this. Just be careful when using the jaw pads, or if what you’re going to be holding will heat up, just remove the pads, do your job and replace them. If you damage them, buy some A70 black rubber and some tire glue and make new ones, as this is the cheapest and easiest method to replace them
I bought this with a moderately pessimistic approach but did what most people do and that is trust the maker with a name you know to give you a product you have never used but that will do what you expect it to do.
To be honest I like it… OK its got a fault but I can live with it given that it does all I want it to and I just love the rotating head, its great being able to angle the jaws to give me the most comfortable angle for filing say.
You want to know what the fault is don’t you… Well remember its not expensive and its not a thumping great bench vice so when you grip anything in one end of the jaws and tighten them the jaws go out of parallel by a long way.
OK you say thats not a problem, but it is! … If you grip something that is of even thickness say 5mm and its 25mm long and you want 15mm to stick out past the jaws so you have it gripped by 10mm.. when you tighten the vice the jaws go out of parallel and you are now not gripping the first 9mm of your work and no matter how tight you go your work is still loose because its only pinched on the end…. So you put something of the same thickness in the other end of the jaws or turn your work vertical and grip it in the middle I know but I’m just saying thats what happens…… I still like it though!
The movable parts are fairly close fitting, in fact in mine they are quite gritty due to the close fit and slightly rough surfaces. I imagine that’ll sort itself out with time and friction.
The reason I’ve marked it down to 4 stars from 5 is due to the gritty movement but it’s mainly due to the non-parallel jaws.
The jaws are closer together at the top, like this: /
That’s not a problem if you’re just using the notches ie to hold a PCB or similar but it’s certainly NOT what you need to firmly hold anything larger.
Trying to file down a metal part that’s help by 2 line contacts would be an exercise in frustration.
Fortunately the jaws are removable via 2 pairs of slotted flathead screws. I intend to fit a new pair made of soft aluminium then do something hideous with a router to get me some coplanar jaws.
It’s possible I just had bad luck with mine and everyone else’s will have ‘normal’ jaws. But somehow I doubt it, it looks like that’s the way the jaw castings were made. The jaws appear to be offset about 5 degrees from perpendicular.
On the whole it’s surprisingly well made for the price (I paid about 16), just a shame about the jaws.
I’ll add a photo of them later (in all honesty it depends if I can be bothered)
A fair addition to the armoury of the most dangerous thing on earth… an Englishman and his shed
PROS
* Quick and easy to fix to bench, etc.
* Flexible multi-position jaw positions
* Sturdy – holds materials, etc. very firmly for a hobby vice
CONS (very minor)
* Ball joint a little stiff
* A little shallow when clamping to a bench (could do to go further onto the surface)
* Needed a little grease to make all threads very easy and smooth
Admittedly all screw adjustments were a little stiff, especially the ball joint, when I received the vice from new. However, a little lubrication (I used a very small amount of grease) and simply using the vice has freed up all stiffness.
It is possible to adjust how ‘stiff’ the ball joint is by loosening/tightening a spring-loaded plate, adjusted with two screws. Obviously, the slacker the plate, the easier it is to move around, just a light unscrew and adjustment becomes very easy – but use excess force on the material and the ball joint will slip. If tightened (as mine is) then the joint is stiffer to adjust, but when tightened the jaws remain in rock solid orientation.
It clamps to a bench (or any other surface, e.g. tailgate of a pick-up, etc.) very securely. I’ve applied quite some force to the material being held and the vice has remained firmly attached. It maybe could do to sit a little further on to provide a little more surface area rather than having to tighten up the clamp as much.
The jaws on mine aligned perfectly and remained parallel and square to each other irrespective of the position of the material being clamped. The removable rubber jaw faces/cushions fit securely and are useful for softer, more delicate materials, and the metal jaws have a V groove for materials such as dowel, steel bar, etc.
This vice is by design not a permanent fixture to a workbench, and obviously isn’t up to ‘heavier metal-working’ type of application. However, I have found it to be rock solid, big enough for the hobby/DIY jobs I’ve had, yet small enough to put way after use. I’ve even used it on the kitchen table!
Previous to this vice I used a large bench mounted vice or a small suction-cupped mounted vice. The first, whilst very strong and robust, isn’t versatile. The second perfect for small soldering, gluing, etc. types of jobs, but not very strong. This Stanley sits nicely between the two.
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I bought this vice to cut keys and for the price at well under 20 I have not been disappointed. It took a little time to unpack the unit, without being brutal with the packing, but it came without paint blemishes. The only difficulty I did experienced at this stage was placing the vice jaws upright as the ball joint was very tight. I was attaching the unit to the kitchen table. I applied a little grease to the ball and this solved the problem. However, I did wipe as much grease as possible from the ball once I got it moving in case this might effect stability later. The screw operating the jaws worked very smoothly and after extracting the movable jaw completely I did insert a standard 10mm bolt to see how well it performed in the threads. A standard 10mm bolt operated perfectly through the threads so there does not appear to be any current problems with the cut of the threads preventing the jaws moving smoothly. The jaws are 70mm wide, without their rubber covers, and the capacity would appear to be 75mm. The unit did not attract my magnet, so I assume the vice is made from aluminium. The movable jaw does jiggle slightly but I found that this was an advantage when aligning the v grooves in the jaws to hold tubular objects. One could easily align the tops of the jaws so they were level. The top part of the table clamp has a protective rubber cover to prevent damage to the table surface. However, the underneath has no protection and if there is one mod I would like it would be a greater surface to the cup underneath. I think the underneath small cup/clamp might move in time without a bigger cup area. All in all I feel the vice is well designed, very flexible in its positioning and excellent value for money as a hobby unit.