broke

  My vise broke again, and I'm unlikely to be able to fix it successfully, so I'm replacing it.

 The vise I have isn't familiar to most people - even a lot of handy folks, profesionals who work with their hands, mechanics, engineers, machinists - I guess not many people are aware of this style's existence.

 They are not especially rare, and are easy to find if you want to buy one, they just aren't in the majority.  The reason they are special should be evident from this photo:

Not only does the body rotate as usual, but the head rotates in another axis which is at right angles to the axis of the base swivel.

If you mount one of these on the corner of your bench, as most folks do, it becomes ever so much more useful.

The head can swivel around in such a way that i can actually hold some items which are on your bench.

It becomes much more useful for holding long items which rest on the floor.

There are some blivets installed on the "bottom" of the vice head for holding pipe and round objects.

With a few rare exceptions (who appear to be lying anyway) these things are all made in China, so be sure to choose a reputable vendor from whom you can get support - or, gasp, perhaps even a warranty - should you run into problems.

 Now, you can obtain one of these for about $50 from one of the importers of Chinese dump-goods, such as Harbor Fright. It comes with - literally - a three-day warranty, unless you purchase an extended warranty.  (I tell no lies: three days.) They know what they are selling.

 You can also pay over $300 for one which is STILL made in China, although there are a bunch of different castings, so perhaps they aren't all coming from the same building in Shanghai... so I recently found one sold by Grizzly, but the one I bought was being dumped for cost by some outfit who shouldn't even be selling vises... long story short I got it for $13o including free shipping.  The free shipping matters since this is about fifty pounds of cast iron.

 How did I break the old one?  The moveable head cracked / separated from the round ram part.  I tried re-welding it, but I knew I wasn't doing it right, and I was surprised that my repair held up as long as it did (a few years).  But when it broke again, it wasn't because I put a "cheater" pipe on the screw handle; I don't abuse my tools.  No, this thing broke under simple "main force" (hand strength) and I note that I am a skinny dude who is tall, thin, with skinny arms, I weigh 170 pounds soaking wet and I can curl only about eighty pounds, and bench maybe 100 at most.  ergo, it is literally impossible for me to abuse this vise unless I were to put a pipe on it. ^_^

EDIT, MUCH LATER:  As of May 1, nothing has shown up from OpticsPlanet.com, it's been three weeks.  They put my email on their promotional mailing list, but not one damned thing about my purchase has come to me.  WOW: I just checked the status on my order, and it's been canceled.  They never sent me any notification.  Avoid Optics Planet at all costs.  I did a bit more searching (should have done this up front) and found a lot of negative reviews.  Caveat Emptor, folks.