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How long things take: one to two weeks on almost everything, two to three on the heavier machines. A few items ship from a US warehouse and go to US addresses only. Here is whyOne to two weeks. Why?
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$159.00
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Fractal vise, stainless steel

$159.00 USD
$159.00 USD
Sale Sold out
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Color: Yellow
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Two to three weeks, tracked. Shipping is free.
30-day returns
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  • 30-day returns

Description

Some parts have no flat sides. A watch case, a ring, a cast bracket, a piece of carved bone. Put one of those in an ordinary vise and you are clamping on two small points, so it either slips or you crush it trying to stop it slipping.

Before anything else, so nobody is disappointed when the parcel opens: this is not a part for the drill press. It does not bolt to the machine, it is not an upgrade to it, and it must never go under a spinning bit. This is a vise that sits on your bench, next to the machine, and you work in it with your hands — engraving, filing, setting a stone, polishing a case. Buy it because your hands could use a third one, not because your drill press needs something.

Four jaws, not two, and that is the whole point

This vise carries two kinds of jaw at once. One pair is flat, for square stock and anything with parallel sides. The other pair is fractal: a stack of stainless segments that slide independently, close in until each one meets the part, then lock as a set. The jaw becomes the negative shape of whatever you put in it, so the grip spreads over the whole contour instead of two contact points.

What that means in practice is you stop swapping tools. Square work goes in the flat pair, a ring or a bezel goes in the fractal pair, and the vise stays on the bench either way.

There is a spirit level built into the body

A small bubble level sits in the casting between the jaws. It is there so you can set the vise flat on a bench that is not, before you start filing or engraving. Nobody else in this price bracket puts one in, and the seller does not make anything of it either — we are pointing at it because it is the detail that tells you who this was designed for.

The numbers, and where they come from

  • Opening 90 mm (3.54 in) on the outer setting, 45 mm (1.77 in) on the inner one.
  • 160 mm (6.3 in) long overall.
  • Stainless steel body and jaws.
  • Non-slip silicone base.
  • M6 holes drilled through the base so it can be bolted to a bench. The screws are not in the box — the seller says to use your own, and we would rather tell you that now than have you open the carton and go looking.

These figures are the maker's, read off his own dimensioned photographs, not measured by us. We have not had one of these on the bench and we have not ordered one. Jaw height and weight he does not publish, and we are not going to lift those off a similar-looking vise and present them as this one's.

Where it belongs in the shop

Think of the bench as two halves. On one half the machine drills holes, and everything that clamps to it — the drill press vise, the sliding stages, the base plate — lives there. On the other half you do the work that only hands can do, and this is what holds the part while you do it.

The two halves do not compete. A person who owns the drill press still needs somewhere to hold a ring while he cleans up the hole he just made.

We had this page wrong, and here is what it said

Until today this page described a vise with two fractal jaws made of thin blades, claimed an anvil face on the back of the body, and said the supplier published no dimensions at all. All three were wrong. The vise has four jaws in two styles, there is no anvil on it, and the dimensions were sitting in the supplier's own photographs the whole time. The page also mentioned the level nowhere, which was the most useful thing about the tool.

We are leaving the correction here rather than quietly swapping the text, because if we got this much wrong once you should be able to see it.

Straight answers

Will the jaws mark the part? They are steel, so on soft gold or a polished case you still want leather or tape between. The design spreads the pressure out; it does not stop steel being steel.

Can I bolt it down? Yes, through the M6 holes, with your own screws. Or leave it on the silicone base, which is what most people do.

So what does hold work under the drill? The drill press vise. That one mounts to the machine and holds the part square, which is the job this one does not do.

What is in the box

One vise. That is the seller's whole list, and ours.

Delivery

Free and tracked, to the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada alike. Two to three weeks. This one is heavy stainless and comes from a workshop rather than a parts warehouse. We hold no stock and we have no warehouse of our own: the order is picked and posted after you place it, which is why we give a range and not a date.

30-day returns from the day it arrives. Return postage is yours, the price of the item comes back in full.

Shipping is free on every order, to the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, tracked, with no minimum. A few items ship to the United States only, and their page says so. Orders are processed within 2 business days.

After that the number depends on what you bought, and the line under the price gives it. Most of the catalogue takes one to two weeks, and the heavier machines two to three. We hold no stock and we have no warehouse of our own: the order is picked and posted by the supplier after you place it, which is why every page gives a range and not a date.

Australia is not slower. An earlier version of this page said three to four weeks, on the assumption that further away means longer. It is the opposite: the parcels leave China, and China is closer to Sydney than to Philadelphia. The carrier quotes Australia no slower than the United States, and it costs us less to send. So the Australian figures here are the same as the American ones. What we cannot claim is that we have watched it happen - we have not shipped an Australian order yet, and the day we have real tracking from there these become our numbers instead of the carrier's.

On the plug, we have to correct ourselves. This page used to say our supplier sells an Australian-plug version of the adapter at the same price. That was wrong, and we are leaving the correction here rather than deleting the sentence. It came from a different machine in a different supplier's catalogue. The listing this machine actually comes from has no plug option at all. We asked the supplier straight out and they answered that they fit a compatible plug for the destination country - which is an answer, but it is theirs, not something we have checked. The plug block further up this page says what we will do if what arrives does not fit your wall.

You get a tracking number by email as soon as the parcel is scanned, not before. A link that sits at label created for a few days is normal on this route.

Returns: 30 days from delivery, unused and in its packaging. Nothing is excluded - there is no rule here about sale items. If it arrived damaged or does not hold tolerance, we pay the return label. If you simply changed your mind, the return postage is yours and the price of the item comes back in full. Email support@arvonelle.com before sending anything back.

Will it plug into my outlet? Voltage, yes: the supply is rated 100 to 240 V, which covers both 120 V American mains and 230 V Australian mains, so no converter and no transformer. The plug is the part we cannot promise yet. The machine has no plug option we can select when we order it. We asked our supplier and they answered in writing that they fit a compatible plug for the destination country - we are quoting them, not claiming it, because we have not yet had one in our hands. Our sample is on order. If what arrives will not go into your wall, tell us: we post you the right adapter free, or refund you in full with the postage on us. An earlier version of this answer said the supplier sells a separate US-plug and Australian-plug version at the same price. That was wrong and came from a different machine; we are leaving the correction here instead of quietly deleting it.

Can it mill? As it ships, no. Milling needs an ER11 collet spindle in place of the drill chuck, because side load pulls a bit out of a chuck. That spindle is a real part and we are sourcing it. Until it is on the shelf we do not sell collets or end mills either.

Do your vises bolt to the press? On the $129 machine, no. We took one apart: its base has four screws holding the rubber feet and one unthreaded hole in the middle, and nothing else. Several pages on this site used to say otherwise and all of them have been corrected. Two things fix it - the 120 x 150 mm base plate, which replaces the original base and carries tapped holes, or the collet drill press at $149, whose base comes with two slots and a bolt circle already in it. The bench vises are a different thing entirely: the clamp-on ones, the engraving ball vise and the toolmaker's vise are bench tools and must not go under a spinning bit. Every page says which it is.

Do I pay tax or duty? In the United States, sales tax is added at checkout where your state charges it, and the total you see is the total. In Australia, consignments under AUD 1,000 normally carry 10% GST collected by sellers whose Australian turnover passes AUD 75,000 a year; we are well below that, so nothing is added at checkout and nothing should be asked of you on delivery. If a carrier ever asks you for a fee on a parcel from us, do not pay it - send us the notice first and we will sort it out with you. We are not going to claim we cover all duties everywhere. We cover what we control and we tell you about the rest.

What if a part breaks? For twelve months, tell us which part and we post a new one free. No return, no inspection, no photograph of the packaging. That applies in Australia too.

Can I cancel? Yes, within 24 hours, no questions. After that it is usually already moving.

Why trust a shop you have never heard of? You should not, on our say-so. Check instead that every page tells you what the tool will not do, that each product carries its own delivery number for your country, that we say which figures we measured and which we were told, and that when we get something wrong - the plug, which spindle fits, how long Australia takes - we say what the page used to say.

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If something goes wrong


If your order arrives damaged or defective, email support@arvonelle.com with your order number and a photo. We replace it or refund it — you don't have to argue for it.