This Highly-Rated Harbor Freight Tool Is Over $500 Cheaper Than Its Competition

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There are a few Doyle tools worth buying at Harbor Freight, and at least a couple to avoid, and the Doyle 6-inch swivel vise with anvil and pipe jaws is worthy of consideration if you need a heavy-duty vise. 

Harbor Freight has it priced at $199.99, regardless if you purchase in-store or online. The online checkout process lists two delivery options for my location in northeast Oklahoma: Flat rate shipping takes five to seven days and adds $23.94 to the price, while express shipping delivers the 68-pound Doyle vise to my door in two to four days for $99.55.

Harbor Freight, known for listing competitors' prices for comparison, suggests the Wilton 1765 vise lists for $1,187.45, $987 more than the Doyle. While we can find the Wilton Tradesman 1765 vise priced as low as $790.49 from multiple sources using Wilton Tools' Buy Now button, including Amazon with free shipping, that's still over $500 more than Harbor Freight's Doyle vise, even with flat rate shipping. One exception is if we use Harbor Freight's express shipping; then the Doyle vise is only $490 cheaper.

We don't recommend buying home improvement tools based solely on the cheapest price. However, with 383 customer reviews to its credit as of this writing, the Doyle vise holds a 4.9-star rating, with 99% of customers recommending it to others.

The Doyle 6-inch swivel vice, one of Harbor Freight's top-rated tools, features replaceable hardened-steel jaws that actually measure 6.5 inches wide (6 ½-inch is also cast into the side of the vise body) with an advertised 6.5-inch maximum jaw opening. However, we'd advise caution clamping anything approaching 6 inches in the vise jaws as there aren't a lot of threads left to engage the spindle nut at that point. The Doyle vice is made from 60,000 PSI ductile cast iron, and it provides up to 9,900 pounds of clamping force.

The Doyle vise mounts to a workbench or stand through four holes equally spaced around the base. To enable rotating the vise 360 degrees, loosen the two handles securing the body to the base without removing them completely. An anvil measuring 3.6 by 4.5 inches is located on top of the vise's body.

In addition to the Doyle's 6.5-inch jaw opening, the vise has a 4.25-inch throat depth, which allows it to accept pipe and round stock up to 6 inches in diameter using the pipe jaws located below the main vise jaws. The pipe jaws have a minimum holding capacity of 1-inch in diameter.

The specs provided by Wilton don't have the same level of detail as Harbor Freight's documents. Still, the Wilton Tradesman 1765 has listed dimensions of 6.5-inch jaw width, maximum opening of 6 inches, and a 4-inch throat depth.

The Wilton 1765 features similar mounting and 360-degree swivel features as the Doyle, and authorized retailer specs indicate the Wilton vise is made of the same 60,000 PSI ductile iron. Both vises come with lifetime warranties and enclosed spindle nut designs to discourage contamination and loss of lubricant in the rotating mechanism.