The VISES of Garage Journal

[ALLFAST]

Post drying, baked in the sun for two hours, greased and assembled, and back to the carpet for a comparison shot. Pardon any duplicate pictures!

I’ll detail what I did with my preparation and clear coat this evening. Thanks for watching

Thank you friends

 

[QuackHunter99]

My recently acquired Prentiss 209 / 210 2.5” jaw vise

Picked this up in an auction a few weeks ago that managed to go unnoticed. Very happy to own it as it’s my first Prentiss and also first sub 3” vise.

 

[Shiftless]

QuackHunter99:
Welcome to the group and congrats on finding such a nice little vise. Looks to be in great shape. Your first post, your first sub 3” Prentiss… you’re off to a great start.

 

[CRSINMICH]

Quack: That one is in great shape with no indication of Prentiss Disorder on the end of the slide. Well done and welcome. Here's a cut from a 1922 catalog.

 

[micahd1997]

Any Rock Island fans out there? Beautiful little watch fob I picked up a while back. It appears that the previous owner sprayed a clear finish on it to prevent patina.

The likeness of the depiction to a real-life Rock Island vise is incredible.

 

[Outlawmws]

Any Rock Island fans out there? Beautiful little watch fob I picked up a while back. I

Awesome find!

 

[SP3]

W. Bingham Co. Cardinal - the latest vise rehab project. Cleaned, did some fettling to make it fit/work a little smoother, made new jaw faces (just smooth). Now time to glass bead bare, prime, paint. I'll post again when it's ready to reenter the workforce.

 

[Maui]

Monarch 225 with 6 1/2" wide jaws. This is a bruiser of a vise.

 

[micahd1997]

Awesome find!

Thanks, @Outlawmws! I've seen a couple others over the years, and I've always wanted one. Very cute, effective piece of advertising

 

[micahd1997]

Monarch 225 with 6 1/2" wide jaws. This is a bruiser of a vise.

Congrats, Maui! I've only seen a few others, but yours is the first with cast-in jaws that I've ever come across which means that it's certainly pre 1911. The 6 1/2 jaw #225 was the largest sized Monarch that Prentiss ever made. I've attached a couple shots of two Prentiss catalogs - One is Prentiss' catalog X from 1902 and the other is Prentiss' catalog 49 from 1906. By 1906, Prentiss had started advertising their vises with the detachable jaws and the trapezoidal cladding pieces on either side of the dynamic jaw support. Yours lacks both, so I'd guestimate that your 225 is certainly near turn of the century.

 

[genog]

Here's the yellow Charles Parker 985 that I picked up a week and a half ago from my friend Bill
It's posted on page 2,315 (post # 92,570)

I'm not a big fan of Prissing-Up these ole boys, so I just stripped off the old yellow paint and oiled him up with Watco Natural oil finish
It's got the "Veteran of many years in a working shop" look to it
I like it

 

[ALLFAST]

If that old war horse turns up missing, you know the #1, and #2 places to check first.

That looks very nice. What kind of jaw faces are on there Geno?

 

[Outlawmws]

If that old war horse turns up missing, you know the #1, and #2 places to check first.

 

[ALLFAST]

 

[Offthewallds]

Hey there folks!

I got lucky today and nabbed this trio for a song. 3.5" Wilton, 4" American Scale, and the unknown "Big Red". Couple of questions for y'all:

Are Wiltons all nodular (ductile) iron as a rule of thumb or were some made with grey iron? She's got a busted lower lip on the jaw I'd like to repair. If it's nodular, it's weldable.

Second Q, can anyone identify "Big Red"?

Thank you!

 

[JeeperAz]

Estate sale find from today. Can anyone identify this small jewelers(?) style vise? Google is no help.

Only markings are:
O - GON
and
R - 10

 

[Outlawmws]

Are Wiltons all nodular (ductile) iron as a rule of thumb or were some made with grey iron?

Thst one is certainly Gray iron.

Second Q, can anyone identify "Big Red"?

Asian

 

[Offthewallds]

Thst one is certainly Gray iron.


Asian

Cheers, thank you! Gonna be much easier to just grind off the remainder of the lip, chase out the broken screws, and make a new plate for the jaw.

 

[micahd1997]

Estate sale find from today. Can anyone identify this small jewelers(?) style vise? Google is no help.

Only markings are:
O - GON
and
R - 10

Nice! Near spitting image of a Pyramid. I don’t personally know much about them except that they’re foreign.

 

[JeeperAz]

Nice! Near spitting image of a Pyramid. I don’t personally know much about them except that they’re foreign.

Thank you. That helps! There is a resto on youtube of a pyramid that shows the detail I need.

 

[Maui]

Congrats, Maui! I've only seen a few others, but yours is the first with cast-in jaws that I've ever come across which means that it's certainly pre 1911. The 6 1/2 jaw #225 was the largest sized Monarch that Prentiss ever made. I've attached a couple shots of two Prentiss catalogs - One is Prentiss' catalog X from 1902 and the other is Prentiss' catalog 49 from 1906. By 1906, Prentiss had started advertising their vises with the detachable jaws and the trapezoidal cladding pieces on either side of the dynamic jaw support. Yours lacks both, so I'd guestimate that your 225 is certainly near turn of the century.

Thanks for the literature Michad! I was wondering how large the biggest Monarch vises were. I had no idea this was the largest they made. The funny part of this story is that this is the only Monarch vise I have ever owned. I picked it up near Niagara Falls earlier this year for very little.

 

[Shiftless]

Speaking of Monarchs, here is a pic of mine. It’s my only “through the bench“ swivel mount vise. I have it on display on one of my shelves so I had to drill a hole through the shelf. Gotta love the huge cast iron wing nuts on these vises.

 

[Overanalyze]

Decided to cold blue everything. Soaking in oil overnight after blueing.

 

[Maui]

Nice Shiftless! The only through the bench swivel mount vise I own is a Reed 33 (it's the early version of the Reed 3C). Since the swivel base was missing, I had to machine one from scratch. I machined it from a case carburizing steel, and had it cased during heat treatment. It came out beautiful.

 

[Overanalyze]

Does anyone know if the center bolt is a 7/8-9 thread? My hardware store only goes up to 3/4" bolts and it's bigger than that. They had a 1" weighing down their flyers and that was too big so assuming 7/8"...I have to order one.

 

[Overanalyze]

Found a 7/8-9, definitely not the right one. Looks like a fine thread. Once I get that, it's ready to bolt to my workbench!

 

[IRQVET]

Round two, returned the other Chinese CMAN vise after the seller misrepresented it (Made in USA) and picked up this guy instead (Made in Japan). SMOOTH operation on this one.

 

[RTM]

Found a 7/8-9, definitely not the right one. Looks like a fine thread. Once I get that, it's ready to bolt to my workbench!

If you can get a soft wood dowel or scrap of wood, you can thread it into the hole to get an approximation of the thread pitch in the dowel, then hunt. Cheaper than buying a thread gauge. Beware tho, with the vintage of that vise, you may not be able to match the thread diameter & pitch at the local Ace or Big Box store, or anywhere, without having one custom made.

 

[48windsor]

Nice vises.
I dont know about anyone else but I learned yrs ago , to mount a vise with back jaws even with bench!
If it is back and you need to put something tall or vertical, it just wont work

 

[bsoup]

Here's my first vise restoration... go easy on me.
Craftsman 391-5181, 5" Jaw
Picked it up at an estate sale and now it will work great in the garage

 

[Jayman17]

Nice job on that one @bsoup!

 

[bsoup]

Nice job on that one @bsoup!

Thanks! I think I'm addicted... I already want to do another

 

[Mike007]

I can't believe this NOS 600S followed me home. I don't need another vise. I have a 400, 1765 and a Ridgid F45. It was on Craigslist for a long time in a location I really didn't want to travel too. Which was bothering me. So a friend suggested I shoot the seller a low offer so I could move on. Welp, he accepted. What could I do?

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Here are a couple of vises I picked up at a swap meet yesterday. The first is a Wilton 835 bullet. Crappy institutional green paint needs stripped but I can see this one is in great shape and will clean up nice. Keyway date of 7-46. I do like the early acorn swivel nut vises. It had a scrap of masking tape on the barrel where a bit of the original decal remains. I'll probably strip and paint this one a teal color.

The other is a 4-1/2" combination vise by the Ridge Tool Co, a 43 CPN steel slide vise. I think this one will get stripped bare and given the BLO treatment. Not much sign of abuse except for the rust so I'm sure this one will clean up nice also. The steel slide is narrower than what a cast slide would be which gives it a different look from most vises this size. Ed.

 

[SP3]

Just needs some lubricants and screw retaining bits installed and it's ready to work.

 

[deezil]

Little Japanese British Pattern ERON 3" No75 It was missing jaw and used without that jaw for years. As it was when I got it, and then after I spruced it back up. Made some Brass soft jaws for it. This will endup in my reloading room. All the ERON's in the British pattern and the Morgan clones they made are very high quality Bench Vises.

 

[Outlawmws]

that Eron came out great!

I've got a small Wodan I want to do something with...

 

[deezil]

4.5" 5" 6" and 8" Palmgrens. 5" Irwin Record on the end hiding out.

 

[Patrickm82]

Little Japanese British Pattern ERON 3" No75 It was missing jaw and used without that jaw for years. As it was when I got it, and then after I spruced it back up. Made some Brass soft jaws for it. This will endup in my reloading room. All the ERON's in the British pattern and the Morgan clones they made are very high quality Bench Vises.

Very nice!

 

[micahd1997]

4.5" 5" 6" and 8" Palmgrens. 5" Irwin Record on the end hiding out.

Beautiful lineup. Did you restore each of those, or are they as found?