I bought a great Craftsman bench vise, back when it was still available, and have gotten some great use out of it. However, when I built my newest workbench I decided to leave the vise off of it. Although a permanently-attached bench vise can be of great usefulness, it was more beneficial for me to have a smooth tabletop.
There are times when I need the holding power of a bench vise, but I still don’t want to install my Craftsman vise to the new workbench and its hole-free tabletop. When the need arises, I will often call upon a portable clamp-on Yost vise that I reviewed a while back. The Yost vise is well built, but it is best suited for lighter duty work-holding needs. I have been making do with the Yost vise, clamps, and other temporary fixtures, but I often wish for a more robust movable bench vise.
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Earlier today I happened across the Wilton CBV-100 clamp-on vise that’s shown above, and promptly ordered one. It’s the same Wilton Super-Junior compact vise that is available with a bolt-down swivel base, but instead of the swiveling base it has a swiveling table clamp.
The CBV-100 Super-Junior clamp-on vise features 4″ jaws, a 2-1/4″ jaw opening, and 2″ throat depth. It can swivel 45° left and right, which isn’t very much, but I suppose that’s better than 0°.
As with Wilton’s other bullet vises, this one has an enclosed screw design that seals dust and debris out and lubrication in.
Price: $120-130
Buy Now(via Amazon)
There’s also the CBV-65, which is similar but with narrower 2-1/2″ jaws and a slightly smaller throat depth of 1-3/4″ (via Amazon).
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Update 3/23/17: I ordered one a while back, and I don’t remember the issue, but it was disappointing out of the box. I think the base needed refinishing, or something like that, to get it in full working order. Maybe the jaws were burred and wouldn’t close all the way? It’s been in a “uch I’ve got to get around to fixing this” box for nearly 3 years. I’ll update this post when I dig it out and see what the problem was.
Phil
By the looks of it as well as the price, it appears to be constructed from pure Chinesium, along with so may vises these days, but this doesn’t automatically disqualify something built well and rugged. I could use a decent clamp-on vise for additional holding near my existing bench vises as well as in other spaces. Most I have seen were dismal, tiny things that wouldn’t do me any good for larger work.
Is this one in your awaiting list? If so, I hope you have a quick review planned.
Stuart
According to some comments on Amazon, this vise is made in the Czech Republic.
I have one of these vises on order, and will try to get a review out promptly. If you have any specific questions, just ask.
Phil
Hmm. All the more reason to Czech it out. Thanks, Stuey.
Kyle
I use one of these regularly at work and in my opinion it’s high quality – like the other bullet Wiltons. Any drawbacks are not due to the brand – but inherent trade-offs that come with a small, clamp-on vise. I agree that it would be a nice accessory if an alternate base was sold so if one desired it could be hard mounted thru a bench top.
Stan
Given the “cheap” price of this, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was in fact made in China though. There is always Yost for a USA made clamp on vise, but the jaws on that aren’t replaceable though.
I suppose though, replaceable jaws are more expensive (potentially?) and harder to find American made hardware as well to hold those jaws into place.
Stuart
The Yost clamp-on vise (https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/yost-clamp-on-vise-review/%3C/a%3E%29 is much smaller than this one.
Stan
Yes the Yost clamp on vise is smaller than this, but in case anyone that visited this page and was wondering if there was any USA alternative, I wanted to provide that option.
I am not sure if this loose talk or actual truth, but I remember reading somewhere that Yost is planning on creating another clamp-on vise that is slightly larger though. Since I read that on a forum, that could all be talk, but maybe this might happen in the future?
Stuart
In case you missed it, I already mentioned and linked to the Yost vise in the post (second paragraph).
The Yost vise is not a “USA alternative.” If it was, I wouldn’t be buying this one.
Functionality is more important to me than COO. The Yost clamp-on vise is great, but it’s too light for a lot of work-holding tasks, and its exposed screw threads are tough to clean when they fill up with dust, debris, chips, and other contaminants.
Peter Fox
I have both the CBV-65 and several CBV-100″s along with a SBV-100 (the swivel base bolt down version).
They are indeed made in the Czech Republic, and are of far better quality that any Chinese made vise I have ever seen.
That said they are not quite as nice as the real US made Wilton vises, the slide and therefore the max opening are much smaller than a full sized vise. And all of the ones I have needed a bit of cleaning and lubing before I put them in service, as they had a bit of dust and grime leftover from the machining processes.
If you are looking for a good smaller sized vise these are the best that I have seen on the new market, and definitely the best clamp on vise I have ever seen.
My only other recommendation is to get or make a set of Jaw covers as the stock jaws have somewhat aggressive horizontal serrations and will mar most anything that you would clamp in a vise. My solution was to cut short pieces of 1/2″x3/4″x1/16″ thick aluminum angle from a local hardware store to length and add some strips of flexible adhesive backed magnet to the underside to hold them in place
viceguy
The YORK is the OEM , ( very good quality )
http://new.york.cz/gfx/prod/full/501/190525Handy_100_standard.jpg
http://www.york.cz/en/catalogue.do
they call me spoons
As a (basement) apartment dweller whose primary work bench is an IKEA dining table, this could solve a lot of problems for me.