The VISES of Garage Journal

[RickP330]

RickP
I have seen early Parker meatballs having the threaded steel spindle cast inside the meatball. I have some pics while repairing a Reed 109 meatball that was casted. Also see the Reed 106 handle end with the steel handle end cast inside the cast ball ends. The spindle on the Reed had a flat teardrop shaped so they would not spin when used .

Then along the way a weld was done trying to weld steel to cast. Check to see if your meatball is cast before talking to your welder. Most vise makers friction welded the spindle to the meatball when both are steel. I’m sure your meatball will hold up for many more years even if it’s loose.

KMScott,
Thank you so much for that. That is EXACTLY what I was looking for and hoping what the situation was (and why I love GJ). As an engineer I have a saying that my favorite solution is to do nothing.
I agree with you; I'll just use it as is. And if it breaks, I'll deal with it then.
I suspect you are right, the end meatball may be cast, but there is what looks to be a turning center machined into end. I'll study it a little more tonight. Thanks again.
Rick

 

[RBarnes]

NIce Wlton patent pending on ebay.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Bravo to whoever snagged this Reed 308. I thought it would sit for a while at that price with a missing spindle and jaw insert.

 

[four.cycle]

^ I would not want to be driving to Hoquiam today!

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

^ I would not want to be driving to Hoquiam today!

I was going to hit him pretty low given the missing parts. I think someone actually did me a favor lol.

 

[four.cycle]

^ The "Hum-Dinger" is 89 miles from my driveway... but my chainsaw isn't running so there's no way I'm venturing out that way today.

 

[four.cycle]

for that kind of money (but a lot more driving time) you could have a triple play

 

[ararat]

Bravo to whoever snagged this Reed 308. I thought it would sit for a while at that price with a missing spindle and jaw insert.

It's already got the anchor chain on it.

 

[RickP330]

You know you guys are all A-holes. There was a day I'd walk past a vise and not even given it a second look. Now I have to inspect everyone I see. This one is in our generator shop. Nice parker vice, but way too big for anything of my tastes. Plus, I just saw a nice Reed. I'll have to get a pic of that one next....

PS cylindrical knob on the handle, it's a more recent example.
PSS this used to be an old ARMY base from early 1900's so there's a lot of OLD stuff around here.....

 

[RTM]

ou know you guys are all A-holes. There was a day I'd walk past a vise and not even given it a second look. Now I have to inspect everyone I see.

Welcome to the club. I have six or so waiting on restoration, cuz the club made me realize they were great finds

 

[Outlawmws]

There was a day I'd walk past a vise and not even given it a second look. Now I have to inspect everyone I see.

I fail to see the problem...

 

[RickP330]

Now that I have a decent vise you think I would stop stalking them on FaceBook marketplace....

 

[Outlawmws]

You have been assimilated! welcome to the collective

 

[colmal]

I'm painting 4 today, and hopefully i can do some minor stuff on another, while I mull over a 6" clamp on Rededa woodworkers vice I saw last night, reasonable price and I don't have anything else like that.

Thought I'd mull things over or hope someone else buys it so I don't have to.- but youse people are right, I'm going to just buy it.

 

[Andy FitzGibbon]

Maybe 10 days to 2 weeks ago I saw this mentioned, either on GJ or elsewhere, and I have been following it, just for curiosity of what it will finally go for.

Large No. 109 Reed Mfg. Vise - 200lb | Live and Online Auctions on HiBid.com

hibid.com

The "title" is wrong, a 109 would be in the 300+lb range, and a couple of other things about this auction were odd. Despite the bent handle and a couple of drilled holes on the slide (I don't think it came that way), it looks in pretty good shape.

It's a lot of money, although this is one of the white whales for vise collectors. Possibly the Holy Grail might be a Reed 209. I don't believe I have ever seen a picture of one that someone owns, only brochure pics. The 109 I have seen a few, many here on GJ, but the 209...nope.

When I see a vise like this, bolted outside, I am sure it has gone through a tough life and has some great stories.

Anyway, I thought others would be interested in seeing what this sells for on Wednesday.

Considering it's bolted to a plow, I doubt they took it off and weighed it... the weight is almost certainly a guess. Auctioneers are generally prime examples of doing the absolute bare minimum to sell stuff. This listing actually has better photos and description than most I look at.

 

[Mgdoug3]

I made some copper jaws for my Wilton 400S today. I'll probably have to repaint my vise again and I think I'll pick black this time.

 

[Shiftless]

There was a day I'd walk past a vise and not even given it a second look. Now I have to inspect everyone I see.

Welcome to the club. I have six or so waiting on restoration, cuz the club made me realize they were great finds

I fail to see the problem...

You have been assimilated! welcome to the collective

Welcome from me too.
You‘d think after ten years of doing this I would have learned that there is an awful lot of messy work and frustration doing up these old vises in the proper way.

Guess not.

There was a C/L ad for a “heavy duty Vice” at a fair price with a couple of fuzzy pics. I thank blame friend and fellow GJ member ALLFAST for bringing it to my attention. But it was well outside my usual stomping ground. It was even past Sacramento.

Long story short… I paid for the seller’s gas to meet me half way and I still drove 45 miles each way. I’m sure the regulars here will recognize it as I did. It’s the model with 4 inch jaws from a line that didn’t last too long back in the early ‘50s and is certainly worth bringing back to its former glory. Even with the fuzzy pics I could see that the jaws were square and the handles hadn’t been beaten on. There were very few marks on the dynamic jaw where we usually see all the hammer dents, hacksaw grooves, and grinder dings.

It‘s gonna take some work to get the flat black paint off. The P.O. painted the slide, the nose, the handles and the jaw inserts along with everything else.

The first pic is from the ad
The second pic is from when I got it home today. It already got some penetrating oil on it in preparation for disassembly. The center swivel bolt on the underside has an inch and a half hex, serious hardware!
Break out the big socket for that one.

 

[fishwatcher]

Welcome from me too.
You‘d think after ten years of doing this I would have learned that there is an awful lot of messy work and frustration doing up these old vises in the proper way.

Guess not.

There was a C/L ad for a “heavy duty Vice” at a fair price with a couple of fuzzy pics. I thank blame friend and fellow GJ member ALLFAST for bringing it to my attention.

Long story short… I paid for the seller’s gas to meet me half way and I still drove 45 miles each way. I’m sure the regulars here will recognize it as I did. It’s the model with 4 inch jaws from a line that didn’t last too long back in the early ‘50s and is certainly worth bringing back to its former glory. Even with the fuzzy pics I could see that the jaws were square and the handles hadn’t been beaten on. There were very few marks on the dynamic jaw where we usually see hammer dents.

It‘s gonna take some work to get the flat black paint off. The P.O. painted the slide, the nose, the handles and the jaw inserts along with everything else.

The first pic is from the ad
The second pic is from when I got it home today.

Nice!! Your favorite Craftsman 519X series!

 

[Shiftless]

Nice!! Your favorite Craftsman 519X series!

Bingo
The swivel base ones with 4 inch wide jaws are marked 05196

 

[RickP330]

Welcome from me too.

Thank you!

The center swivel bolt on the underside has an inch and a half hex, serious hardware!

Break out the big socket for that one.

inch and seven sixteenths here

 

[micahd1997]

Made 30-40 years apart, but still both connected to the same NYC St. This is a 60s-70s street sign from Lafayette St in New York City, NY. From 1910 thru the late 1940s, the headquarters and sales office of the Prentiss Vise Company established itself at 106-110 Lafayette St, NYC. Though the sign was made well after Prentiss closed its doors, I still can’t help but let my mind’s eye wander, viewing from the top of a sign pole the same Lafayette St where the Prentiss Vise Company spent the majority of their illustrious history.

 

[riscal33]

Found this in the old shop at work. Gave it the wire wheel treatment and fresh grease. It will be my weld table vise now. Do you guys know about how old this Craftsman vise is?

 

[Outlawmws]

Looks like an inlet for the Crown Era logo on the right side

 

[fishwatcher]

Found this in the old shop at work. Gave it the wire wheel treatment and fresh grease. It will be my weld table vise now. Do you guys know about how old this Craftsman vise is?

Nice find and cleanup! Here it is in a 1969 catalog. Picture from this thread.

I have one that I’m tuning up. Mine gets tight to turn if I tighten the jaws closed with any significant pressure. It loosens back up when I open it past 8” and then close it. The tolerance on the slide is very tight, so it may be because the slide has been pounded on. Filling one spot has helped. I got lots of tips on this a few weeks ago here.

 

[Calitoolman]

One brother has had a tough life. These two 6” Cardinal Speedvise were made a few years apart. I have no idea which is actually older.. one certainly has had a much more comfortable life. Anyone know which is the older? by the way, theses are great tools. Heavy as heck, still, I typically have it bolted down to a 15# t-slot plate that slides when I want it to.

Peter

Not sure if this has already been answered, but the vise on the left, the more beat up one is older. It has the older style handle that is smooth and the base casting is also slightly different. I am not exactly sure when the switch was made but from looking at old records, it was sometime in the 60's. If you look on the bottom, there should be a city, either Glendale or Canoga Park. The ones labeled Glendale are older. Granted I do work at Cardinal Tool and should probably know more, but these were made well before my time.

 

[Shiftless]

Anybody have a tip on how to remove the tiny brass pins that hold the Craftsman badge on?
The (epoxy?) primer that the P.O. used before painting my 5196 has made restoration of the plate impossible. I need to get a new one from somewhere when I get done with the rehab.

I remember somebody cut slots in the domed heads and then twisted them out with a small screwdriver. Is that the best technique or L??

 

[Outlawmws]

I'd first see if the holes they drilled for the pins were drilled through, and if so, then setup a "drift punch" pin - broken drill bit - on a bar and use that to drive them out from the inside.

If they didn't drill through, I've levered them out with one or two wood chisels - I buy "dead" wood chisels to use for sacrificial work I don't want to inflict on my "good" ones. Like using them as a "Can opener" for removing steel barrel tops...

 

[RTM]

If they didn't drill through, I've levered them out with one or two wood chisels - I buy "dead" wood chisels to use for sacrificial work I don't want to inflict on my "good" ones

I did this on the one pair I've removed, highly recommend keeping **** sharp chisels at hand for stupid stuff you aren't supposed to do with chisels.

 

[larry4406]

Nice find and cleanup! Here it is in a 1969 catalog. Picture from this thread.

I have one that I’m tuning up. Mine gets tight to turn if I tighten the jaws closed with any significant pressure. It loosens back up when I open it past 8” and then close it. The tolerance on the slide is very tight, so it may be because the slide has been pounded on. Filling one spot has helped. I got lots of tips on this a few weeks ago here.

When I cleaned up my Prentiss, I had binding of the slide as well. I hit it with a quick spray of primer paint and slid it till it bound. The scraped off paint identified the offending areas which I stone by hand. Rinse/repeat till it slid out fine and operates fine.

 

[Shiftless]

When I cleaned up my Prentiss, I had binding of the slide as well. I hit it with a quick spray of primer paint and slid it till it bound. The scraped off paint identified the offending areas which I stone by hand. Rinse/repeat till it slid out fine and operates fine.

That’s the way to do it, spray paint, dykem, felt tip marker ink…whatever.

 

[fullthrottle24]

Anybody have a tip on how to remove the tiny brass pins that hold the Craftsman badge on?
The (epoxy?) primer that the P.O. used before painting my 5196 has made restoration of the plate impossible. I need to get a new one from somewhere when I get done with the rehab.

I remember somebody cut slots in the domed heads and then twisted them out with a small screwdriver. Is that the best technique or L??

I did the slot technique with great success on a craftsman 5169. Used a dremel with a cut off disc. I believe they are drive rivets with spiral thread.

 

[Shiftless]

I did the slot technique with great success on a craftsman 5169. Used a dremel with a cut off disc. I believe they are drive rivets with spiral thread.

Thanks for confirming
I think I’ll try outlaw‘s chisel technique first and then, it that fails, go with the slots. I have more than one Dremel tool and many little one inch or so cut off wheels.

 

[KMScott]

Shift, just take your time with a chisel. Work your way around the aluminum tag and it might bend a little but easily flattened again. I pulled mine out like Outlaw mentioned. If you damage the rivets then buy new ones from McMaster Carr.

 

[Shiftless]

Thanks Kevin,
BTW, that’s a BEAUTIFUL 5191

 

[Shiftless]

Update on the 5196…
Using the chisel approach that Outlaw first suggested, I was able to remove the pins holding down the badge. Just for the record, I used a quarter inch wide garage sale chisel.

I didn't damage them or lose them which was a real possibility considering how small they are.

In this pic you can see the results of my attempts to remove just the black spray paint and hopefully uncover some original grayish blue factory paint. Nope…not gonna happen this time. Perhaps somebody sand blasted the vise and applied that off white paint or primer before applying the black.
I plan to strip off all the paint and apply light blue. First I have to get the jaw inserts off so I can soak them in hot Simple green. The old Phillips head screws will have to be drilled and then it’s screw extractor time. Now I’m soaking the screw heads with jaw faces up in puddles of penetrating oil. That will help, I hope.

Here you see the vise body clamped into my Wilton C1
The removal of the badge pins was much safer and controlled once I got the Craftsman securely held in place. I started removing the pins with the vise body laying on my workbench but with pushing the chisel against the tiny pin heads I imagined a super sharp quarter inch chisel plunging into my arm and decided to take the one minute of time to clamp the workpiece into my C1.

Further evidence of one of our favorite sayings…

“You definitely need a good vise to fix a vise.“

 

[bhydro]

.

 

[Outlawmws]

Comparison between my unmarked vise and the Simplex Utility vise Lugz spotted today and left behind - both 3-1/2":


Mine:

The real tell-tail is the quick release locking lever:

 

[Shiftless]

Details of how I remove stuck jaw screws…

Drill a 3/16 hole in the middle to a depth of approximately 1/4 inch (Use cutting oil)
insert extractor and pound it in with a hammer
Keep tapping on the extractor while turning counter clockwise with a half inch combo wrench.
Once the extractor is bottommed out in the hole, if the screw is still stuck, switch from the combo wrench to a 24 inch breaker bar with half inch socket.

As you can see from this close up, the slightly tapered extractor cuts it’s way into the sides of the hole and with the reverse spiral, runs deeper with each bit of CCW turning and cuts into the sides of the hole and locks in quite nicely.

 

[impactims]

Alright, so I’m in the market for a medium duty, medium sized vise.

Will be bolted down to a 1/4in steel table.

Will be used as needed for a variety of light to medium duty tasks.

Indoor use.

Not sure what else to add.

Anyone have anything they are looking to sell or perhaps what new vise would you recommend? I am aware I could just look through a Wilton catalog. I’m not a big fan of their entry level (we have them at work) and their top of the line is great (have them at work too) but I’m not going to spend that much.

 

[larry4406]

Comparison between my unmarked vise and the Simplex Utility vise Lugz spotted today and left behind - both 3-1/2":


Mine:

The real tell-tail is the quick release locking lever:

What is this stamping on the slide? Looks like Baker?