Vintage hydraulic bench vice

[MendoRob]

My father picked up this bench vice sometime in the early 70s. It’s a Colombian model 104, but what’s unusual about it is that it is hydraulically operated. When we got it it was just the vice with a little pipe stub sticking out the bottom.

My father and I fabricated a hydraulic unit for it out of a 1.5 ton bottle jack.

It’s great to use because you can position your work with both hands, and then clamp it tight with the foot powered power pack.

I have not been able to find any information about this vice. Was it a normal vice with a hydraulic kit added? Has anyone ever seen one like this before? Any idea when it was manufactured?

Would love to know more about this marvelous tool.

 

[MendoRob]

Sorry it’s model 604, or maybe 1604

 

[Beerhippie]

Wow! Ingenious job of making a bottle jack into a power pack for it!

I can't tell you anything about it, other than I want one.

 

[TurnipTruck]

First Post...

All this talk of cool old vises made me crawl under the house and dig out the Columbian 608 vise I "saved" from the metal bin 20 years ago.

It has a unique feature about it that I haven't seen on any other vise, let alone a Columbian.

Story is, OSHA came through and freaked that our tool room had a HYDRAULIC vise and would not leave until we disposed of it. We "disposed" of it and I snagged it and took it home. From what I can tell, it was converted to hydraulic by some old machinist that worked at the refinery.

Here is a picture of part of it. Notice that it has no place for a handle. The rest (including the foot pump) is at work getting cleaned up. I'll get it put back together and get pics of the whole thing.

View media item 9956

As promised, pictures of my hydraulic Columbian 608.

View media item 9959
View media item 9960
View media item 9961

The guts of the Hydraulic Columbian...

Pins pulled off the block plate on the end of the slide. The hydraulic ram presses on this block.

View media item 9973
The business end with the slide removed. back side of the hydraulic ram. The giant spring sits over the ram and rides on the shoulder on the ram.

View media item 9974
Back side and piston side of the ram.

View media item 9975
How the hydraulic hose hooks to the ram and allows the vise to still rotate. I added the quick disconnect just to keep it from leaking all over the floor.

View media item 9976
Hydraulic ram all nekkid. The best I can figure it is just a solid rod inside a pipe with an oring slot machined in it. There is nothing to keep the piston in the cylinder if it moves too far.

View media item 9977
Underside of the slide showing the spring.

View media item 9978
That's about all there is to it. If anyone wants more detailed pictures of particular area, just let me know.

 

[Beerhippie]

OSHA... how could a foot-pedal powered hydraulic vise be any more dangerous than a screw-driven one? Should be safer, if anything, as both hands are free to hold the work.

Now if it were power-driven....

 

[MendoRob]

I have never pulled mine apart, although it does leak some hydraulic fluid, and I was thinking to take it apart and bring it to hydraulic place to replace seals, but I think this is the same construction as mine. I know there’s a long spring in there, I can hear it make a twangy sound sometimes during operation. And last night when I took the photographs I noticed that there is a row of pins in the side near the base. One was loose, so I tapped it back in. Still not sure if this is a bigger unit than the one bolted to my workbench.

 

[MendoRob]

Can you show detail of the model number?

 

[MendoRob]

From your naked picture, it appears that the piston rod is fixed to the back part with four pins, while the hydraulic cylinder is the traveler built into the slider part of the vice…

 

[Packard V8]

Thanks for sharing. I've never seen one of those.

I have a couple of Studebaker hydraulic bench vises. They originally were supposed to have the foot pump and controls. Lacking those, I hooked one up to an electric pump; not gonna get an OSHA seal of approval on that.

 

[MendoRob]

Thanks for sharing. I've never seen one of those.

I have a couple of Studebaker hydraulic bench vises. They originally were supposed to have the foot pump and controls. Lacking those, I hooked one up to an electric pump; not gonna get an OSHA seal of approval on that.

Wow that’s a beautiful piece of kit. Any idea how old that one is? It shows three petals, I guess that’s fast, slow, and release?

 

[JZiggy]

Gee thanks guys, now I need a hydraulic vise.

 

[MendoRob]

Gee thanks guys, now I need a hydraulic vise.

Apparently there are a number of YouTube videos on how to make one yourself, but I feel blessed to have this classic one!

 

[slowtwitch73]

If the hands free clamping is what interests people, there are foot vises... in theory. I've been looking for one forever and haven't had any luck. T&O and Dake sold them... maybe some others.