Vise Grips

[chief38]

BTW, I have seen MANY Vise Grips on devises serving as a semi-permanent handle. Not my idea of a proper fix, but hey, it does work!

 

[ZGrand]

I was riding with a group of motorcyclists in the mountains when one of the guys dumped his bike on some uneven pavement, breaking his clutch lever. He clamped a small pair of Vice Grips on what was left of the lever and was able to make it home.

 

[Jack Flash]

My Dad drilled it in to me not to use them in place of the proper wrench or socket. But sometimes you have a broken bolt or screw that a wrench is useless on. Lock on to it with Vice Grips and it can be turned out.

I still have the first VGs I bought back in the 70s, made in the USA of course. Now days I enjoy going to Estate Sales to look at whatever tools they have. Often I find vintage made in the US VGs that are priced at a couple of bucks. Sometimes a little rusty but they usually clean up nicely.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...My most far-fetched application was on an E.M. Skinner pipe organ.The Great manual 16 foot Diapason needed new leather in the chest. I found several small needle nose VGs; and when another pipe went South, pulling up the wire and securing it with the vice grips, stopped the deep bass cipher. Thank you, Mr. Petersen.

That's certainly unusual. If it was an E.M Skinner rather than an Aeolian-Skinner, it would have been made prior to the merger in 1932. Both firms made fine instruments. According to The Pipe Organ Database, there are still over 200 Skinner organs, including the one you worked on.

 

[anoblefox]

when I was 17 I was racing my motorcycle on a dirt track at night that was illuminated by overhead incandescent lights on a wire. I crashed and broke my collarbone. I had to have my collarbone drilled and a 1/8" x 4" stainless steel pin installed during surgery. I was told by the orthopedic surgeon that as the bone healed it would push the pin out through the skin. Well, it really did not quite protrude out the top of my shoulder like it was supposed to. The doc gave my four shots in my shoulder before he put his knee under my armpit to remove the pin. You guessed it, he pulled out a common pair of vice grips to extract the pin. To this day I can vividly remember the sound it made; it was like pulling a rusty nail out of an old piece of wood!

 

[RobertJ.]

I remember my dad using one as a window handle on a '58 Ford.

We had one that worked as the handle for the hot water in our bathtub!

 

[JcMack]

VIce Grips, channel locks, hammer, phillips and slotted screw driver, hammer and a roll of duct tape. With these you can rule the world

When I was young everybody had an assortment of some or all of these tools in their trunks. The "master mechanics" amongst us also kept 8 or 10 wire coat hangers for exhaust pipe hanger repairs. I have my share of original design vice grips along with some that are self adjusting as to size of item to be griped. They look like standard vice grips but have no adjustment screw. Cheap wire coat hangers have gone the way of the DO DO Bird. How do people now days keep their pipe up??

 

[Bald1]

My ex father-in-law had a Masters in food science and was in R&D at Cryovac. He used a set of Vice grips as an exclusive tool, every nut and bolt from lawn tractor, tiller, etc. All the nuts and bolt heads were rounded off. Give me proper SAE or metric sockets and wrenches any day. I did snap off a shift lever on my dirt bike and used vice grips on the stump to get me out of the woods back to the truck. Field expedient? Yes, but not an everyday tool. My 2 cents. .

They were never intended to replace your wrenches and sockets. They have a million other uses. I use mine weekly to hold on to whatever I’m wire wheeling on bench grinder.

 

[robvious]

a necessity for any tool box or drawer... a tool of first or last resort... college friends now ex-brother-in-law was a machinist at the factory here in Nebraska... used to celebrate the 4th of July on their acreage... he always had a handful of "Blems" for anyone that wanted them.. the "corporation" changed and those went away... they moved everything to China shortly after that...you could see the end coming..

 

[NYlakesider]

When I was young everybody had an assortment of some or all of these tools in their trunks. The "master mechanics" amongst us also kept 8 or 10 wire coat hangers for exhaust pipe hanger repairs. I have my share of original design vice grips along with some that are self adjusting as to size of item to be griped. They look like standard vice grips but have no adjustment screw. Cheap wire coat hangers have gone the way of the DO DO Bird. How do people now days keep their pipe up??

They get a few electric welding rods and beat the flux off of them.

I still have my Vice grips from the mid 60s and boy could they tell some stories.. Since then added a few more, its nice to have different sizes handy.

Like others have said I also have a few that were modified for welding projects and lifting. Weld on a loop on the end of the adjustment screw and you have a decent light duty lift eye.

Yes by now their a bit beat up but capable of giving full duty when used. I have used V.G. many times to change springs on garage doors. Get the door in the air and put a V.G. on both sides of the track.