HAHAHA!!!!
Cherry pick your testing procedure much?
Seriously, when side loaded, which will deflect or bend, tube or solid, and which will break without either happening, assuming equivalent dimension, material, and force applied?
I also want to throw out the fact that almost all of the Wilton’s were built of nodular iron, and few of the Reeds were. That said, when I see a broken vise, it is never the mobile jaw that is broken. A lot of things probably break on the way to the jaw breaking, and you are long into abusing the tool at that point.
You brought up the jaw is hollow on the Wilton. I’m going to guess the engineer knew how much strength he needed there, knew the limits of the material he was using, knew he wanted the vise hollow there for one reason or another, likely related to manufacturing, and tested until he had a profile that got him what he wanted. And then went on to produce them for 75 + years, right up to today.
Are there bunches of broken mobile Wilton jaws out there? You bring up a fair point, but, observation doesn’t seem to validate it.
Best,
Ted
