"Lew Hodgett" wrote

One of his "Postcards" was a story about the machine shop who invented
"ViceGrips".

Story went to great lengths to show all the unusual ways they jerry
rigged "ViceGrips" to solve problems.

Most of the odd ball special "ViceGrips" brought to market were an
outgrowth of solving these unique clamping problems in their own shop.

Yep, years ago I took a welding class. The instructor, who wrote out
textbook, was a big fan of vicegrips. He had boxes of them modified for
every purpose imaginable. A requirement for certification from his program
was to make up some vice grip "helpers". He was big on jigs and these
modified visegrips really helped out with unusual welding and fabrication
problems. Particularly in the field and welding non square materials. He
even had a few designed for metal artists.

I brought in some visegrips and welded different shapes to them. Also cut
off portions of them and welded extensions to them. I made up several of
them for my own use. I probably saw at least fifty different configurations
of these specialty clamping devices in this class.