I bought myself one of these Chinese Renzetti knock offs to have a look at as it was reasonable money. £54 from Elite Flies on FB. Caimore do the same for about £60. I have no connection with either seller, or China for that matter.
Anyway, I thought I would do a bit of a write up for anyone that might be interested, or thinking of a first vice. This is just my observations, and suggestions to get it a bit more serviceable.
This is what you get for your money, a vice, pedestal base, and bobbin cradle.
Straight out of the box there were 2 minor issues :
An o ring on the centre section hadn't been placed in properly when the vice was assembled, so was hanging out all gnarled up.
The jaws had been incorrectly assembled and the cam lever was the wrong way round, this meant to tighten the jaws you had to pull the lever down.
A two minute job to split the jaws and flip the cam over. While apart you can see the cam runs on balls, and the cam itself is also of steel.
Although this vice is a clone of the Renzetti traveller, the jaws more resemble the saltwater traveller as they are made from 1/2" bar. Standard traveller jaws are 3/8" bar. The painted finish is'nt too bad at all.
Overall fit and finish is good. The jaws, arm, body and knurled nuts are very good, base quality is pretty good with clean chamfered edges.
The box it comes in has a hole in the corner so the box cam be used as a base. It's not really rigid or heavy enough to keep the vice solid, even with the base put in as ballast. A bit pointless IMO.
Only real issues quality wise is the knurling on the plastic capped screws is a little rough..
And the plastic washers that sit Inbetween the locknuts had an internal burr. The one on the left has been cleaned up with a Stanley knife blade.
And although you get a bobbin cradle, there's nothing to support it as you swing it in and out of the way. With use it will very quickly work its way down the stem.
To rectify this, a quick fix is a couple of o rings on the stem to keep the cradle at its desired height.
I set about splitting the vice to change the damaged o-ring, so took a pic of all the components laid out.
This is the vice reassembled, and the order the components go. This next part may be of interest to people that already own this vice.
When the vice was being reassembled, I noticed there is a little bit of play as the shaft passes through the centre hub. There needs to be some, but it makes the shaft a little wobbly. You can address this by tightening the locknut closest to the centre a little more. This takes up the 'slop' a little, but has the disadvantage of making the shaft too tight for normal use. Not so tight you can't use it, just a little on the stiff side, even when greased.
There's a slight difference between this vice and the renzetti, in as much as the renzetti only has one o-ring recessed into the centre 'head' of the vice. This double o -ring arrangement on this clone doesn't help with the play between the shaft and vice head, as there is a point on either side of the head where compression can occur, and this won't 'lock up' the play.
Using the renzetti design, I moved some of the components around, and it's much better.
I removed the o ring from the jaw side of the head, and replaced it with one of the plastic washers.
The washer came from between the small locknut and adjacent spacer, as per the picture below.
Regarding the jaws, I have to say I'm very impressed. Hook hold is good, and tightening the cam is smooth, and you don't feel like you are forcing anything. I found the best way to set the gap screw is to have the cam come to a soft stop when it's in line with the jaws and the hook is in place. Pushing the cam up into final position holds the hook solid.
I can't say I have read or heard about any issues with these jaws wearing or breaking.
Some pics below of a #22 through to a #4/0. The jaw angle is quite steep, it gives good access to smaller hook sizes.
The only other thing I would say about this vice is regarding it's overall size - it is after all sold as a travel vice. Jaw height from the table top is 16.5cm. This is a little bit lower than I usually have, I have my jaws around 21cm.
The pedestal base is quite small. The footprint is 4"x5" and it weights 1lb 9oz. It's just enough to anchor it, but if I was using this vice full time I'd prefer something a bit larger and heavier.
A simple solution if you were that way inclined would be to fix the whole lot to a larger base. Unfortunately the mounting boss is a permanent fixture to the base, so removing this part to fix to something else isn't an option.
Fixing the whole lot to a larger base of some kind would also address the working height. There's enough height between the jaws and table top for access/swinging bobbins etc, it's just some might find it a little low.
Overall, I have to say, for the money it's excellent. I haven't seen anything else come close for the price in terms of build quality and functionality.
When compared to your typical Ebay £30 Indian rotaries, it knocks spots off them in every department.
Even compared to a renzetti traveller it's good. I would rate this in terms of build quality at 3/4's of the renzetti, but at a third of the price.
As said, no connection to any sellers, but if you were looking to start tying, or upgrading from your cheap starter vice, I personally wouldn't look anywhere else. :thumbs:
Anyway, I thought I would do a bit of a write up for anyone that might be interested, or thinking of a first vice. This is just my observations, and suggestions to get it a bit more serviceable.
This is what you get for your money, a vice, pedestal base, and bobbin cradle.
Straight out of the box there were 2 minor issues :
An o ring on the centre section hadn't been placed in properly when the vice was assembled, so was hanging out all gnarled up.
The jaws had been incorrectly assembled and the cam lever was the wrong way round, this meant to tighten the jaws you had to pull the lever down.
A two minute job to split the jaws and flip the cam over. While apart you can see the cam runs on balls, and the cam itself is also of steel.
Although this vice is a clone of the Renzetti traveller, the jaws more resemble the saltwater traveller as they are made from 1/2" bar. Standard traveller jaws are 3/8" bar. The painted finish is'nt too bad at all.
Overall fit and finish is good. The jaws, arm, body and knurled nuts are very good, base quality is pretty good with clean chamfered edges.
The box it comes in has a hole in the corner so the box cam be used as a base. It's not really rigid or heavy enough to keep the vice solid, even with the base put in as ballast. A bit pointless IMO.
Only real issues quality wise is the knurling on the plastic capped screws is a little rough..
And the plastic washers that sit Inbetween the locknuts had an internal burr. The one on the left has been cleaned up with a Stanley knife blade.
And although you get a bobbin cradle, there's nothing to support it as you swing it in and out of the way. With use it will very quickly work its way down the stem.
To rectify this, a quick fix is a couple of o rings on the stem to keep the cradle at its desired height.
I set about splitting the vice to change the damaged o-ring, so took a pic of all the components laid out.
This is the vice reassembled, and the order the components go. This next part may be of interest to people that already own this vice.
When the vice was being reassembled, I noticed there is a little bit of play as the shaft passes through the centre hub. There needs to be some, but it makes the shaft a little wobbly. You can address this by tightening the locknut closest to the centre a little more. This takes up the 'slop' a little, but has the disadvantage of making the shaft too tight for normal use. Not so tight you can't use it, just a little on the stiff side, even when greased.
There's a slight difference between this vice and the renzetti, in as much as the renzetti only has one o-ring recessed into the centre 'head' of the vice. This double o -ring arrangement on this clone doesn't help with the play between the shaft and vice head, as there is a point on either side of the head where compression can occur, and this won't 'lock up' the play.
Using the renzetti design, I moved some of the components around, and it's much better.
I removed the o ring from the jaw side of the head, and replaced it with one of the plastic washers.
The washer came from between the small locknut and adjacent spacer, as per the picture below.
Regarding the jaws, I have to say I'm very impressed. Hook hold is good, and tightening the cam is smooth, and you don't feel like you are forcing anything. I found the best way to set the gap screw is to have the cam come to a soft stop when it's in line with the jaws and the hook is in place. Pushing the cam up into final position holds the hook solid.
I can't say I have read or heard about any issues with these jaws wearing or breaking.
Some pics below of a #22 through to a #4/0. The jaw angle is quite steep, it gives good access to smaller hook sizes.
The only other thing I would say about this vice is regarding it's overall size - it is after all sold as a travel vice. Jaw height from the table top is 16.5cm. This is a little bit lower than I usually have, I have my jaws around 21cm.
The pedestal base is quite small. The footprint is 4"x5" and it weights 1lb 9oz. It's just enough to anchor it, but if I was using this vice full time I'd prefer something a bit larger and heavier.
A simple solution if you were that way inclined would be to fix the whole lot to a larger base. Unfortunately the mounting boss is a permanent fixture to the base, so removing this part to fix to something else isn't an option.
Fixing the whole lot to a larger base of some kind would also address the working height. There's enough height between the jaws and table top for access/swinging bobbins etc, it's just some might find it a little low.
Overall, I have to say, for the money it's excellent. I haven't seen anything else come close for the price in terms of build quality and functionality.
When compared to your typical Ebay £30 Indian rotaries, it knocks spots off them in every department.
Even compared to a renzetti traveller it's good. I would rate this in terms of build quality at 3/4's of the renzetti, but at a third of the price.
As said, no connection to any sellers, but if you were looking to start tying, or upgrading from your cheap starter vice, I personally wouldn't look anywhere else. :thumbs:
