Wondering what vises anyone could recommend.I bought a 5 inch from tractor supply for 100 bucks and its worthless .I keep an eye out for used for sale but they dont come up much in my area.Ive read good things about wilton vises.Does craftsman even make a decent one anymore?Im willing to spend a couple hundred for a good one.

 

I purchased a great benchtop vise @ a flee market many years ago & it's holding up fantastic.

Plot out a course for several flea markets in or near your area. I often see some really nice ones - old school solid built. You might be surprised at how many choices you find. Good luck.

EDIT: Another option is Craigslist. I just punched in "vice" in my Eastern North Carolina Craigslist and found several really nice old school well built benchtop vices for ~$100. GL

 

A Reed and a Record, $250.00 each on Kijiji.

 

go to antique shops,the old ones are always better. I have my gradpas,its got a broken track on the lft side,but a piece of flat stock taks care of that. it has taken a beating,a severe beating,and still works

 

Find the listing of Estate sales in your area, new sales every weekend, all sorts of deals on all sorts of garage tools.

 

I bought one of these, not expensive and its attached to my steel work bench. While I have not wailed on it with a shop hammer, however I have used it a lot this year and it works well.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-5-in...55BV/307606536

 

I got a Yost 750-DI. I worked on it to get the top locking position to fit nicer and I spend some time on general finishing, but it's a very good ductile iron vise. Jaws are great, screw nice and smooth.
Make sure to get a DI vise if you can't spring for a real forged one.
The Harbor Freight version of the Yost is a complete piece of garbage. My buddy got it. Clearly a bad copy - not just a different name on the box.

 

Check out post #54 in this thread for good info on Crapsman bench vises:

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...n-62807/page2/

Unless you spend big bucks or go to a garage/estate sale then buy the cheapest one you can since they're all junk and will eventually fail anyways. When I was shopping for a vise recently I even noticed that the big box store manufacturers (Crapsman, DeWalt, Irwin, etc.) have gone to 3 feet instead of 4 on the base to save a fraction of a cent per unit.