Forward DT08125A 5 Inch Heavy Duty Bench Vise with 360°Swivel Base and Head

THIS IS A GREAT VISE for medium duty. It is fully featured, well made, and ductile iron, which should reduce the possibility of cracking or breaking. I bought it to replace a small Wilton bench vise that I wore out by using it for bigger jobs than it was designed for. I suspect the features this vise offers will seldom be used by the typical homeowner or handyman, but for the occasion where a bigger vise is called for, this is a great addition for the workbench. The Forward DT08125A 5-Inch Heavy Duty Bench Vise arrived well packaged. No damage to box or contents. I mounted it with appropriate hardware for my bench application. Everyone's installation, and hardware, will vary. From all the complaints I read about this model's operation and design, they were mostly unfounded, for a vise in this price range. The vise opens and closes smoothly, a full 5" between the jaws. The design allows the work piece to clear the edge of the work bench, if the vise is mounted correctly. The jaws were both parallel and perpendicular and tightly clamped a piece of paper with no gaps. Handle is 9" long and 0.558" diameter. The vise base rotates smoothy 360 degrees and locks down firmly, given that you find the index detent (provided by tooth-like index nubs internal to the base) while tightening the dual clamps, one on each side. The vise JAW rotates smoothly 360 degrees and locks down firmly. The jaw won't rotate when firmly tightened, but will rotate with some force when the jaws are not fully tightened. That is more a matter of mechanics than it is design. After installation, the vise was solid as a rock. I made a video to go with this review to provide some scale of size, and to demonstrate the features of its design. I added O'rings to the vise handle for more convenient configuration/ operation (see video). Reviews complaining about this or that (not counting shipping damage from improper handling in transit) will likely by remedied by experience and use. My vise was in OEM packaging, delivered by amazon, and arrived in perfect condition. I researched and reviewed vises for many, many hours. I found no "cons" except that it is BIG ( almost 17" long) for the allotted space once taken up by the little red Wilton vise (which I would not recommend except for very light duty). I'm very happy with this one, would buy it again, give it as a gift, and would recommend it to all my rowdy friends.

This is a great bench vise that I highly recommend for anyone needing a reliable and sturdy tool. It has a lot of clearance, allowing you to work with various sizes of materials without any hassle. The vise opens up wide, giving you plenty of space to secure large items. Additionally, it comes with all the necessary bolts to easily bolt it to a bench, which is a nice convenience. It is quite heavy, as it's made of durable cast iron, ensuring that it stays in place during use and withstands heavy-duty tasks. The quality of this bench vise is evident from the moment you take it out of the box, and its robust construction guarantees long-lasting performance. Whether you're a professional or a DIY enthusiast, this bench vise will exceed your expectations and become an indispensable part of your workspace. The combination of its weight, build quality, and functionality makes it a fantastic addition to any workshop.

We ordered this vise on a Tuesday, and it showed up the next day. We opened the packaging which was well put together and found the vise to be in excellent condition, and it was well-coated to prevent rust in shipment. We were pleasantly surprised that it came with 4 mounting bolts, which we used to mount the vise to one of our roller cabinet toolboxes. The vise runs very smoothly. The unit looks great and works very well. Love the axis rotation, meaning you can rotate the jaws 360 degrees along the vertical axis. Never experienced that before. Great quality, nice unit, we are glad we made this purchase!

All-in-all, it's a great vice, an excellent value for the money. For everyday homeowner use, it'll last a long time. If you are going to use it for industrial or farm use, and need a real heavy duty vice, I'd spend the money and buy a Wilton. Made in America still means something in terms of shear quality.

I bought this vise for general purposes. Requirements were 360° base, swivel head, low to med price, heavy-duty construction. This achieved all of these requirements. How do they make these for such a low price? When it arrived, the box was not damaged, it was inside a styrofoam clam shell, yet the handle was bent. It also only came with 3 bolts and nuts in the hardware packaging for mounting, even though the base has 4 mounting holes. I emailed customer service immediately and was responded to the next day. They apologized and asked for pictures. I sent them and they said I had two options for the bent handle: 1. Return it and wait for a replacement. 2. Keep it and deal with the bend on my own, and they would refund 50% of its cost, which came to ~ $60. I chose option 2, which was refunded the same day. Awesome deal, even though getting damaged goods in the mail usually pisses me off to no end. As far as the mounting hardware goes, they said that is all that is provided by them. This doesn't make sense, but I chose to drop it. Great customer service is very uncommon nowadays. What ever happened to the Nordstrom's model? And why is a Chinese company out performing American companies when it comes to customer service? This vise is great. I'd buy it again and recommend it to family and friends. Forward's customer service is great. I really like it when my blood doesn't boil. Thank you Forward!

Yes, this costs as much as the Yost counterpart. Yes, this is also available from Irwin for the same price. Yes, there are others with different paint jobs. However, what only Forward has that neither one of those other companies have is proper packaging. I have researched the heck out of this and all the similar other brand's variants and have seen how the others came cracked or with bent handles due to insufficient packaging. This comes completely encased inside two thick halves of styrofoam---and all the way up to Alaska in pristine condition. The vise itself also shows the level of detail and care, the paint is uniform and more vibrant compared to the darker hues of blue in other vises. The jaws clamp tight and true, the tolerances are excellent, and the replaceable milled teeth are actually sharp. If you understand the inherent design that rotating vises require parts to be hollowed for the design and take that into consideration, this will last a lifetime even in an industrial setting which is how ours is being used. When it arrives, it's not overly caked in grease. A simple wipe down was all it needed, it already comes with all the pivots operating smoothly. However, when we oiled (a thin lubricating oil like 3 in 1 oil is fine) the entire shaft cylinder and the lead screw, this vise is buttery smooth---I'm talking thousand-dollar, operating with 1 finger type of smooth. It's just incredible. While I understand that this design is probably made in the same factory as a myriad of other rebranded versions, I can say that Forward at least keeps the quality control very tight. This is a small sample size but it appears other reviewers are experiencing the same thing. I've decided to contact Forward to see how their customer service is, and they responded within hours and are very professional. I really love to support companies such as this and see them develop more products with this level of integrity. Lastly, my enthusiasm might sound like a paid shill, I definitely paid for this 100% and have no affiliation with them whatsoever. I just hate buying bad tools and hate bad experiences with so many products that this was really a breath of fresh air. Once in a while, things turn out right and that's exciting.

I was looking for a good vise that could serve for light work around the house and beginning gun smithing. For this price point of about $140 there seems to be a few good choices all made in China. I took advantage of a holiday special and got this one. The vise arrive well-packaged and ready to set up right out of the box. I am not a heavy duty machinist or DIY'er. But I'm very happy with the quality and sturdiness of this vise. My vise does not have any slop or rattles when fully closed and the finish seems well applied. For my first vise and the type of work I plan on doing, I am very pleased. For beginners who wish to know about installation, I set this up on a Fedmax work bench bought here on Amazon. This bench has 1 inch thick Acacia wood which is very hard and durable and will support this vise very well. I drilled four 1/2 inch diameter holes to match the mounting holes of the vise and used four 7/16-20 x 3 inch grade 5 hex cap screws, eight 7/16 inch washers, four 7/16 inch zinc lock washers, and four hex nuts 7/16x20. The 3 inch bolts worked perfectly for the 1 inch thick bench. Depending on the thickness of your mounting surface you can select the length of your bolts accordingly.

I installed it yesterday and tested it out on a sprinkler pipe and it worked good. I like the pipe holder. I use a vice a lot to change the sprinkler head on wheel line irrigation sprinkler pipe. I broke my Craftsman vice trying to get the old sprinkler head out of a pipe that had rusted in there for 20 yrs. I took one out on the new vice yesterday and it handled it, no problem. Looks to be made strong and is similar weight to the Craftsman. I REALLY like the swivel head on it; it makes it much more versatile and can handle more jobs. It's jaw depth isn't nearly as deep as my old vice, so it won't hold as big of items, could be a turn off for some. But for me, all in all I like this vice.

The vice does what it should I suppose. The swivel base is quite difficult to turn. Poor design but locks tight. The jaws started chipping as soon as I used them.

El producto llegó un poco retrasado pero está muy bien. Tiene buena calidad.

J'aurai donné 5 étoiles mais j'ai remarqué un point qui me dérangeais, quand vous tourné l'étau sur 360 horizontal, c'est pas trop fluide... ca bloque de temps en temps.... la conception pour manœuvrer le bas de l'étau est très basique, j'ai du rajouté des ressorts sur les boulons pour que la plaque garde une tension vers le haut car l'étau a tendance a sortir de sa base quand on tourne celle-ci sur l'horizontal.....par la suite et comme la photo j'ai fait des mords sur les boulons pour que la base ne sorte pas de son contour... pour le reste, le temps va le dire... mais je suis content quand même. I would have given 5 stars but I noticed a point that bothered me, when you turn the vice on 360 horizontal, it's not too fluid... it blocks from time to time.... the design to maneuver the bottom of the vise is very basic, I had to add springs on the bolts so that the plate keeps a tension upwards because the vise tends to come out of its base when you turn it on the horizontal..... afterwards and like the picture I made bites on the bolts so that the base does not come out of its contour ... for the rest, time will tell ... but I'm happy anyway

muy buena herramienta, el precio inmejorable