Have you seen the new Fireball vise

[SteveM]

You may have heard of Fireball Tools. They make some innovative product like welding squares that actually look like a welder designed them.

Some of you may have seen the vise Jason at Fireball Tool built:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUJbz9Ih13Y

Maybe you saw his vise test where his vise literally crushed the competition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcbTopj5u7A

Well, he's coming out with a vise for sale.

You can't get an idea of the scale from that picture - it's almost THREE FEET LONG!

https://fireballtool.com/fireball-hardt ... pre-order/

You can put a $100 deposit down now and pay the other $1,400 when they ship next April.

First thing I though was "$1.500 for a vise?"

Then I looked up the price of a new 6" wide 10" opening Wilton Bullet vise - $2,300.

The Fireball weighs 275 lbs. The moving vise is a totally enclosed box with ways that mate to a channel in the base.

Here's the intro video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRG_AOlZ7E

I can't afford one and honestly my Chas Parker that's between 50 and 100 years old will do me fine, but if I had a professional machine shop or welding shop, I think this would be on my list.

Note: I have no relationship with the company or Jason. I just think the thing is awesome.

Steve

[earlgo]

Impressive video of his wrecking all those vises. The oldest one seemed to be the best of the commercial lot. His fireball was absolutely astonishing.
My shop makes do with a 50 year old 4in Columbian and an 8 year old 5in Yost multi-jaw rotating bench vise. Oh well.
--earlgo

[rrnut-2]

The monster vise that he made is impressive.

Jim B

[rmac]

I think JBodenmann needs one of these. It would surely solve some of his more difficult work holding problems!

[pete]

At both mines I worked at they got by with 8" sized Record vices and parts don't get much bigger than what they worked on daily. In fact it was rare to see those vises even used. At a certain point the parts own weight acts like a gravity vise. Each to there own I guess, but I've never seen any absolute need for those really large bench vises. Tbh I probably use my bottom mount wood working vise as much or more than my 5" Record just to get enough light grip for part removal on a bigger assembly because it doesn't mark or crush the parts being held, and custom soft jaws if needed are cheap and easy. And I bought it for that specific task since I'm certainly not a wood worker. Personally I think they also work better in small shops for light part disassembly because they take up zero bench top space.

Expensive bench vises? I think the original Bugatti bench vises (yes that Bugatti) were well over $20k. A copy from the original patterns can be had today for only 5500 British pounds. https://tula-bug.co.uk/for_sale/large-bugatti-vice/ or about $7k U.S. at today's exchange rate. I do like the leg and wall attachment method it uses, but definitely not $7k worth of like.

[apm]

I have both an original Athol as well as a standard generic Chineseium rotating vice and while they both are on opposite sides of the shop, one in the welding area and the other in the machine shop side if I could only have one I would go for the rotating Chinese vise. It's far more handy. With the rotating feature you can work on a part at all angles. Plus let's say you want to hold a long part say 4ft long all you do is rotate the vise 90deg and rest the part on the floor.

I introduced my father to a rotating vise years ago when I was still living with my parents and when I moved out Dad kept that one and bought me a new one he liked the rotating feature so much too.

I think it's just an example where the American tooI industry dried up and went away before ever stumbling on such an innovation or I am sure Chas and Athol would have made them too.

I am surprised if he was going to invent the perfect vise that rotation wasn't part of the design consideration.

[whateg0]

I watched a video awhile back talking about the fall off the steel industry in the US. It talked about how while other countries were investing in new techniques and better equipment, steel Mills in the US continued to rely on the old way if doing things because it costs money to improve. I'm all for buying American but when the import is just better in every way and usually costs less, it's hard to make that argument. As they say, it's not a charity!

[LIALLEGHENY]

If your going to compare vises to a product your coming out with, at least keep the playing field fair. Granted the vises were supposedly donated by viewers, and he was trying to show the weak points of each vise but ...... What about a cost comparison with an actual dollar value???? You get what you pay for.
Made from scrap laying around the shop.....sure.... and the picture of the one that he is going to market looks like it is cast.......not made from welded plate. Interesting that the link to his advanced sale has been pulled....guess it's going to cost a lot more than he originally expected, especially considering the inflated cost of things right now.
I walked away from this thinking his presentation wasn't any better than a scripted reality TV show. Scour the for sale pages and find an old Athol, Columbian, Reed Prentice or similar and save yourself some money. You can even buy a can of red paint and dress it up if you want.

Nyle

[whateg0]

I don't know where y'all keep getting the idea he's selling a fabricated vise.

[SteveM]

I don't know where y'all keep getting the idea he's selling a fabricated vise.

The prototype was fabricated.

Water jet cut plate steel, welded together.

Steve

[Bill Shields]

Videos are all gone...maybe he got enough $?

[SteveM]

Videos are all gone...maybe he got enough $?

URL changed:
https://fireballtool.com/fireball-hardt ... pre-order/

Steve