Still waiting for pics....
LOL. Ok, guys. Sorry to make you wait. But I HAD to get that written report done. Thankfully it's finished now. So, on with the pics of my first-ever
BIG bench vise.
(just remember, you ASKED for these pix, and there are a LOT of them!)
So I drove to rural KY, to meet a lady who had this big ol' bench vise for sale. My newly-favorite GJ pal
B100 had alerted me that this vise was listed for sale on Craigslist, not too far from my home
(about 2.5 hours or so). I had called the lady, and we agreed to the price, and scheduled a pick-up time a few days later.
When my wife and I got to the area and reached our turn-off point from the KY state highway, the road
quickly became more narrow, and then MORE narrow, and then even more skinny. It was so narrow that I had to take two stabs at one sharp to make the radius with my 4-dr Silverado pickup truck!
When I got there, she had enlisted the assistance of a gentleman to be there and help out. I met them inside the barn/shop, and could see right away that this place had been the shop of someone who did a LOT of tinkering around with mechanical things.
And then,
I spotted it sitting there on the floor. Yep, this was a
BIG vise!
The shop was dark and dingy, and I wasn't sure if the little camera I had brought along would have enough flash power to light it up for photos. Moreover, this thing was gonna be HEAVY, and I dreaded trying to pick it up, even with the other guy's help.
(I can still do limited heavy lifting when I must, but whenever I do, I really pay for it later that night, you know?)
Thankfully that old engine hoist in the background worked perfectly, and a teenage girl grabbed it like an old hand, whipped it into position, and began lowering the boom to pick it up. But they couldn't find a chain anywhere. Eventually we found a short piece, but it looked WAY too lightweight for this lift. Yet, that was all we had, and we got away with it. I focused my attention in making sure that no one got underneath that thing, and that we didn't hit any chuckholes in the barn floor while rolling it. They had made the chain too long, and were planning on jacking it way up in the air to clear my tailgate, and then rolling it across the floor. I convinced them to roll it with the vise very close to the floor, until we reached the truck.
(My tailgate was pointing up at an angle, due to the earthen ramp leading up and into the barn!)
Here is a pic just a few minutes after we set down in the bed of my truck.
Yeah, once I got it out into daylight, I could see that this was indeed a pretty big bench vise.
Careful examination in daylight revealed no cracks anywhere that I could find.
Note how straight and nice that big ol' handle is!
Sorry this pic didn't focus well on the tape measure. It reads exactly 8" wide. I'm sure other guys have bigger vises, but this one is my all-time biggest vise, ever.
No chips missing from the slide, and thankfully, NO evidence of anyone ever having used the slide as an anvil!
It's a Ridgid 81P, made in Elyria, Ohio. Says, "
STEEL SLIDE" on the dynamic jaw.
Closer photo of the model number side shows a "
U" character under the model number:
This vise seems to have been used VERY little. As you have seen, the paint looks to be in pretty good shape, considering. And close-up photos of the teeth patterns in the jaw-inserts shows little or no wear.
Is that middle bolt broken off in the hole? I dunno, but I'm not gonna bother it. It's been in there a long time, and it's not hurting a thing! LOL
Look at the minimum signs of wear on the bottom of the slide, where much of the
(original?) paint remains.
I found two tiny spots of very slight "damage" to the jaw inserts. Maybe someone used an acetylene torch on something held in this vise? In any case, the spots are
certainly not bad enough to cause me to want to do anything about them!
Tonight I had more time to look it over carefully, and noticed some
"dirt" accumulated along the edge of the mounting flange. But when I looked at it closer, it wasn't dirt. Some
MO-ron has tried to weld this thing to a bench or stand, at some time.
Sheesh! 
I noticed that the mounting-bolt holes don't really look like they have been used much...certainly not in a VERY long time. You don't suppose that some
MO-ron intended to just weld it down, and not even use bolts to secure it...
do you?? 
And, as you can see, the welder was not too skilled at his or her craft. I think it would be easy to grind away and fill the low places back in, but I doubt that I will do that. I don't think most folks will ever notice it, and it adds to the story of this vise...
don't you think?
Ok, so now you have the story and the photos of Lump's first ever BIG old vise. I have about 20 or more vises now, and must decide which ones to keep and use, and which to sell. Hmmmm...decisions, decisions!
Thanks so much for the lead. 
.