Mini vise from PVC - video

[Jon]

Mini vise from PVC. By Vang Ha. 7:06 video:

[mklotz]

The perfect size to hold 6 mm steel while you heat it with a torch to soften it for bending...Oh, wait.

Combine this with a set of styrofoam hammers and some balsa wood chisels and you've got a perfect package to sell on those trendy sites where they make cute stuff out of leaves and twigs.

Plastics have their place in the shop; this isn't one of them.

[Jon]

Yeah, this particular one is a bit of a stretch. Highly creative builder though.

[Frank S]

Ha,ha,ha, While I've yet to see a Styrofoam hammer. I have seen high density urethane foam hammers, Balsa-wood chisels might be interesting.
In most cases plastics do not fare well in a metal fab shop, but a plastic vice might have a purpose in an environment where other non metalic materials might be used as the preferred medium IE model cars model airplanes working on cell phones printed circuit boards ETC. None of which are of much interest to me though.
I place a PVC vice in the same category with a table saw, a drill press a belt grinder and other machines made out of wood or plastic. Some people make them and use them with good results. Heck I have even seen a metal lathe made out of wood in a museum that was over 300 years old so why not a plastic vice? LOL

[Don42]

Neat! Perfectly adequate "third hand" for grabbing things to view under a microscope, or for tinning leads or soldering splices, or even silver brazing or welding small things with a Lil' Torch where the joint is being made an inch or more from the vise, e.g. welding thermocouples in #24 thermocouple wire. I have several small Palmgren drillpress vises that I use for small work, but there are times when it would be very useful to be able to close the vise on work pieces while using both hands to position said work pieces. I have a sturdy Wilton bench vise for bending rebar...

In addition to the pushbutton, actuation could also be accomplished with a foot pedal switch or even a photocell triggered by a head-mounted light for those situations where even three hands don't quite seem to be enough.

Your other PVC devices like the transmission and the differential are very clever, wonderful devices for showing others how such things work. It shows what an easily tractable material PVC can be for rapid prototyping and making of some useful objects. Unlike 3D printing, no computer or solid modelling skills required.

Well done, Vang Ha! Keep posting!