Brockhaus Heuer 100 180 Bench Vice

As you probably noticed it's not cheap but against that it's probably the last bench vice you will ever need to buy. It's a precision tool that is built to last and any wear that might occur over many years of use can be compensated for via clearance adjustment of the prismatic slideway. The jaw movement is accurate and parallel, there's no slop or play, and you just know it feels right when you use it. I bought the 7" version (180) which is the largest but sadly this one doesn't appear to be available with replaceable jaws. The largest that does is the 160. This wasn't a deal breaker for me because, although worthwhile, I'm very unlikely to wear out the serrated stock jaws because I mostly use vice jaw inserts specific for the job on hand and which will grip and won't mar the finish of the workpiece. It's pretty rare I need to use the powerful bite of serrated jaws. On that note - the price of Heuer jaw inserts is a bit of a joke, £57 (for e.g.,) for 7" aluminium jaws is extortionate (IMO) so I just made my own (pictured). Care needs to be taken when bolting the vice onto your bench because the placement of the bolt holes used to hold it in place are positioned quite far forward, and that doesn't leave a lot of room to ensure the fixed jaw remains slightly proud of the front edge of the bench - which it has to be if you want to hold long vertical items which reach below the bench top. 35mm back from the front edge is all you have to play with here.Out of the box the slide adjustment bolt was not set correctly and a small amount of play could be felt by manually lifting the moving jaw when extended. This was easily corrected by tightening the bolt a little to squeeze the sides in, I'm not sure why it wasn't correctly set at the factory. The small anvil area behind the fixed jaw is useful for tapping pins home etc., but is supplied painted - not a great idea and at some point I will sand the surface back to steel with my angle grinder + flap wheel. This 180 vice (and the 160) offer a huge opening capacity of around 8" (200mm) and because of the Precise movement afforded by the prismatic slideway is actually still usable at this maximum opening. I didn't buy the rotating table for this vice because thinking back to my old vice (which had such a feature) I never actually used it.A good quality vice in your workshop is one of the most important tools you can have and this Heuer 180 will not disappoint. It's very well made and built to last. My advice is to buy the biggest bench vice you can fit in your workshop.

This is the absolute best vice I have ever seen everything is machined to very tight tolerances no slop or unwanted movement, built to be very heavy duty.