Exploding jaws...

[Guest]

I was tying flies for the salmon fly swap today, when the jaws on my Thompson Cobra vise exploded and threw shrapnel all over the place. It's a good thing I was looking down folding a hackle when it happened. A couple of pieces hit me in the forehead and chest, the rest flew all over the room.

 

I do torque the jaws down tight, but I never expected this to happen. There must have been a flaw or crack in the tempered steel, that's the only explanation I can come up with. Now my problem is who do I contact to get a new set of jaws? Thompson is out of business and I haven't heard of anyone pcking up their inventory. I'm not real hopeful about finding parts.

 

Now I've switched to my back-up vise, D-K Kingfisher, a vice I don't really like. I have a couple of options; buy that Nor-Vise I've been thinking about or a HMH Pro. Oh well, it's only $$$.

[Guest]

I don't know if this place does any of the warranty work on Thompsons but they've been really helpful for me when I needed a part for my original model A.

 

 

Email them at: [email protected]

 

Address:

 

Adventure Corporation

P.O. Box 8

Sycamore, Il. 60178 USA

 

It might take a day or so for them to answer but they will get back to you.

 

Hope this helps,

Fatman

 

 

[Guest]

Wow. I've had the jaws snap farther back, but never like that. Man, glad you are ok.

 

Hey, I'm about to place an order with HMH in a couple weeks. If you want to toss in on it, let me know. Can give you a price on the pro.

 

 

[dontheo 0]

That's wild. Yesterday while I was loading a hook I wasn't paying attention and just caught the tip of the hook in the jaws. It shot it out across the room and I heard it skittering across the wood floors. I was thinking about it hitting something or someone or even deflecting back at me. The velocity was unreal. Never did find the hook. Glad your okay. Sounds like I better add safety glasses to the long list of tools and stuff I have on the bench.

[lanvaettir 0]

I snapped the jaws on a Regal. I guess it's more common with that type of vise. I started wearing glasses while tying after that. Fly tying can cost an arm and a leg but an eye is too much!

[Dble Haul 0]

TB, I've heard that your flies are dynamite but that's just plain ridiculous.

[Guest]

is there anyway that the hook popped out? then the jaws would slap together insanely hard and possibly shatter into a million peices. If the hook stayed in, I would imagine they might yield and/or crack, but shatter, that just seems pretty strange to me.

 

Either way, glad to hear you and your ojos are alright. Man, that would freak me out.

 

steve

[Steeldrifter 0]

Good thing you wear them coke bottle bi focals huh TB?

[SDHflyfisher 0]

msuiseman has a point i know hammers will do the same thing if you hit them together

 

and yes my bro's friend did this

[dabalone 0]

During heat treatment the steel in these vises can be become very hard and needs to be drawn back through annealing (or softning) if not done correctly the steel stays much to hard and brittle. The pressure that can be exerted by cam action is tremendous at such a small point.

[dontheo 0]

That makes a lot of sense after seeing that hook shoot out of the vice. There was actually a loud snap when it did. I could see how that might cause the jaws to shatter.

[appalachian angler (tn.) 0]

That is kinda scary! I have launched a few hooks myself out of my Regal rotary but jaws exploding....shivers! Maybe in the near future vises will come equiped with disclaimers stamped in the bases. I better quit putting 3/0 hooks in my midge head! In all seriousness, thank God you didn't loose an eye in what I hope was just a freak accident! I will definately be more contientious when working my vise as Regals do impart a great amount of pressure on hooks. I wasn't aware Thompson went out of business. Thanx for the update.

 

A.A.

[Guest]

I just wanted to update on what has transpired since I started this thread. I took Fatman's advice and contacted the Adventure Corporation. They have taken over Thompson's inventory and will honor any warranty claims. I contacted them on monday and received a set of replacement jaws in saturday's mail, pretty good service by anyone's standard! All they asked was that I send them the pieces of the broken jaws so they could see what went wrong.

 

I don't know if I can trust the Cobra vise with large hooks any longer, but it is an excellent vise for tying trout flies, so I'll be using it for that purpose only. I just bought a new HMH Pro for tying in larger hook sizes.