The VISES of Garage Journal

[va.grouseman]

I watched that Parker to Macgee.---Was a really nice one but went past my limit. They don't pop up too often, especially in that shape with both wrenches.

 

[flavc3]

does this number mean the yr or just a part no.??

 

[FMC1959]

Outlawmws, I am sure I saved it but I can't find it, could you post the link to your Craftsman vise thread?

Thanks

 

[va.grouseman]

Here's the Sawyers---Tom Jr. and Tom the 3rd.---Jr. weighs 154.6 lbs. with 6 inch jaws and Tom 3 weighs 27.8 lbs., with 3 inch jaws.---Haven't found Tom Senior yet, he weighs 300 lbs..---It's just a matter of time.






Jaws almost smooth on Jr., but don't look worn.











Lockdown on Jr. came out rust colored and I don't know why.---I need one of those bent wrenches for the lockdown if anyone has one for sale, like is on the small vise.---I think it is a 3/4 inch.---I will make sure.

 

[72CZ]

does this number mean the yr or just a part no.??

My 974 1/2 has the same number on it's retainer.

.

 

[McBrownie]

does this number mean the yr or just a part no.??

Best guess is a part number. Number 39 is in many different models.

VA, those are cool Sawyers. Hope you find the big one soon.

Btw, PAGE 1000!!!!!

 

[JeremyBurke]

Jeremy, are those both the same size as well? Looking forward to the side by side restore comparison!

Yes sir they are both very nice 4" reed made vises. The craftsman is the older style and based on the catalogs from your craftsman vise thread it dates from 1943-1945 range. The reed has the same patent number but has the newer flattened main screw hub. So newer but not that much.

I hope I can get it done in time for a side by side comparison. The craftsman is going to my dad's house for his 70th in early October.

 

[macgee]

Wow, this 1000 page is flying.

Congrats to GJ, this thread and its members

 

[balane]

Just wanted in on page 1000.

 

[flavc3]

thanks guys.....this is my first vise that I am trying to restore.....hopefully she won't look half bad

 

[macgee]

I watched that Parker to Macgee.---Was a really nice one but went past my limit. They don't pop up too often, especially in that shape with both wrenches.

With all my heavy frugalness, I thought this vise was worth it, at least to me. It's perfect for what I do and was willing to pay for it.

Being on the second date with girl, it would have been hard to interrupt and explain to her to sit and wait so I could stare at my phone/computer to put another bid in.

Now I hope, she's worth it.

 

[oldldh]

Well, we've made it to page 1,000...

Where's the thousand pounds of vises???

Remember, one of you has three Craftsman 5168's stashed under the stairs/workbench/chained down in the back yard...

Get 'em out!!!

 

[bigcaddy]

Nobody has that many Craftsman vises stashed under their bench

I'm shocked this thread has gone 1000 pages but the real question is can it go 2000?

 

[exmaxima1]

Just wanted in on page 1000.

Ditto

 

[KMScott]

Here's to the next 1000

 

[oldldh]

I'm with Reverend Scott of the Church of the Flying Chips!!!

 

[Outlawmws]

Outlawmws, I am sure I saved it but I can't find it, could you post the link to your Craftsman vise thread?

Thanks

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2308593




And on the topic of 1000lbs of vises, it takes me 13 to do it.

All are over 4" wide (As of today)

 

[va.grouseman]

Previously posted by Macgee.

With all my heavy frugalness, I thought this vise was worth it, at least to me. It's perfect for what I do and was willing to pay for it.

Being on the second date with girl, it would have been hard to interrupt and explain to her to sit and wait so I could stare at my phone/computer to put another bid in.

Now I hope, she's worth it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If you knew just about when it was going to end, you could have faked a no. 2.---Any girl understands the fickleness of the gastro-intestinal system.

 

[macgee]

Previously posted by Macgee.

With all my heavy frugalness, I thought this vise was worth it, at least to me. It's perfect for what I do and was willing to pay for it.

Being on the second date with girl, it would have been hard to interrupt and explain to her to sit and wait so I could stare at my phone/computer to put another bid in.

Now I hope, she's worth it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If you knew just about when it was going to end, you could have faked a no. 2.---Any girl understands the fickleness of the gastro-intestinal system.

Touche

 

[macgee]

I was on another thread on Gj and opened the link, low and behold Lowes has a picture selling a new item with a small vintage vise in the pic. Not sure it would be my first choice to hold a gold ring like that but it's a cool vise.

Can anybody identify the vise?

 

[PghJKB]

I was on another thread on Gj and opened the link, low and behold Lowes has a picture selling a new item with a small vintage vise in the pic. Not sure it would be my first choice to hold a gold ring like that but it's a cool vise.

Can anybody identify the vise?

Looks like a Bergeon, but I need to see the left side to confirm.

Seen this style described as Boley like, but Boley's anvil is flat, not a round knob like this one. (Not that I have anything against round knobs...)

JKB

 

[Geurt]

I just finished restoring another York 80 vise. To celebratre page 1000 of this awesome thread a picture of it with a York 60 and York 100 I did earlier.

 

[jakemac]

Well, page 1000 has come and gone - and no picture of 1000 lbs of vises.

Now do we wait for page 1500 ?

 

[wrenchguy]

With all my heavy frugalness, I thought this vise was worth it, at least to me. It's perfect for what I do and was willing to pay for it.

Being on the second date with girl, it would have been hard to interrupt and explain to her to sit and wait so I could stare at my phone/computer to put another bid in.

Now I hope, she's worth it.

439 ??? i thought these were 449's. maybe tedster has a 439 after all. missing a bunch of brain cells this summer.

just saw the posting,, iffen anyone has a nice 439, i'd trade a nice 449 4 it. does anyone have any parker advertising 4 the 439?

 

[wrenchguy]

Well, page 1000 has come and gone - and no picture of 1000 lbs of vises.

Now do we wait for page 1500 ?

I'd suggest that anyone wanting post 1000 lb collections of clamping goodness do so now and that way to me it'd be easy to find these collections starting about page 1001. Someone could bring up demomans post of his 8"ers and above he'd win. At my age i'm really visual, can't type,spell or construct a simple sentence, but appreciate everyones informative post.
I'll make a attempt o gather mine up to photo iffen some one else will.

have a great labor day.

 

[alinc100]

With all my heavy frugalness, I thought this vise was worth it, at least to me. It's perfect for what I do and was willing to pay for it.

Being on the second date with girl, it would have been hard to interrupt and explain to her to sit and wait so I could stare at my phone/computer to put another bid in.

Now I hope, she's worth it.

There is a very easy to use program called EZ sniper that will go in and bid in the last seconds for you.Costs a few bucks to get started but will save money and get your items.
Might be worth a try for you so you can stay focused on other things.
To be fair you should post a picture of the girl.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

Well, page 1000 has come and gone - and no picture of 1000 lbs of vises.

Now do we wait for page 1500 ?

Maybe no 1000# vises but this thread has been a great read.
Happy Labor Day weekend vise (vice) friends.

 

[McBrownie]

I was on a roll with my Parker 203 and your comments on that vise inspired me to give my 974 a face lift. After standing at the paint aisle for a while looking at Safety Red and Safety Blue and Hunter Green, I went with a more subdued blue/gray color called Moonlight Shadow. It's a Valspar Outdoor paint which is what I used on the 203. It takes a while to fully dry (days), but it seems durable. At least more so than the Rustoleum hammered that was on there. That was chipping away quickly.

Here is the "way before" picture from last year:
View media item 39378
The first "after" picture with Rustoleum Hammered Gray and the practically mandatory RitzBlitz replacement handle. At least I think a handle replacement is a must for this generation of Parker:
View media item 39940
and now with the Valspar. To keep Oldldh somewhat on my side, I did do the lettering in a color called "Chili Pepper Red". It goes really well with the blue gray. I don't what it is with iPhone cameras, but this color is more blue than it looks in the pictures. The pictures make it look almost like generic machine gray. Must be the lighting. Oh yeah, I went with gloss on this one too.
View media item 42904View media item 42905View media item 42906
Happy Labor Day everyone

 

[zkling]

On this 5" Shop King I decided to stay a little more traditional and go with the original factory color scheme. It was hard for me not to choose some wild paint combination.

.

That looks awesome (as usual). Did some of them not have a hardy hole?

View media item 42906
Happy Labor Day everyone

That looks great, I really like the lettering. What method/tool did you use to polish up the handle?

The only thing I see for sure that was made by Wilton is the base. Wilton made that base from 1941 to about 1954. The tail housing pins are high up from what I see and I've never seen a Bullet dynamic without a keyway. Looks like a very well made vise in very good condition. We can only guess on that one. A Wilton Prototype is my guess also.

Thanks for the thoughts (all of you), wilton prototype sounds good to me. The paint is drying as we speak, dang humidity.

I've got a 4" and a 2-1/2" that are VERY similar, if you look close you can see "pat pend" on the 2-1/2".
I have no clue as to the origin of either of them...
Good luck,
Take care!
ZOOM

Wow, awesome, I knew someone on here would have a BTDT situation.

Those are cool too. Are they well made vises? All I can guess is some smaller company was attempting to make Wilton clones at some point.

Granted I've never owned a real wilton bullet, but this seems very stout and well made all around. It operates smoothly in all movements. What ever it is.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a odd, oval slide?, parker 32 I picked up at a garage sale for a buck. It will get a full cleaning and paint. Mechanically it is in really good condition, but lots of rust. They were surprised I wanted it.

 

[McBrownie]

That looks great, I really like the lettering. What method/tool did you use to polish up the handle?

Thanks! The method I used for the handle was to write RitzBlitz a check. It's replacement and is much better than the original handle, in my opinion. I don't like the look of the "swedged" ends on the originals.

For the spindle knob, I knocked off the rust off with a wire brush on bench grinder. Then, since I don't have a lathe, I use 1" wide sanding belts like a shoe shine boy. I probably started with 100 grit and ended with 320. Then I used a buffing wheel on a bench ginder with cleaning/polishing compound. They shine up pretty fast and it is much easier to do without a handle in the way. On my 203 a couple of pages back, I didn't want to replace the handle, so I had to work around it. Hand sanding and a dremel with the little drum sander attachment worked well on that one. Then buffed it just like this one.

 

[drivesitfar]

Geurt: Kudos to you for having a post of some awesome vises ready for the 1000th page. that is one of the cleanest benches I've seen in a while and the 3 red York vises look like they found the right home.

Mac: Nines goes to garage sales and maybe auctions with his girl and that might be a great place to find one if you are looking for one to understand your vice for vises. nice looking Parker and don't blame you for wanting to own it.

VA: i laughed so hard when you posted that message to Mac that i almost woke up everybody that was sleeping in at my house. also i really like the Oswego Sawyer vises and i hope you find the big guy to add to the vise build.

All: so i lurked or you could say was led here by Google for years looking up information on a vise or a tool i was thinking of using or buying. so i joined GJ at about page 500 on my favorite thread the Vises of Garage journal. I've really learned so much and i'm sorry if at times you might have got tired of what sounded like a dumb question, but i am still learning. thanks to so many of you for pointing me in the right direction or answering my questsions. you are all a great bunch of guys (and gals).

Heres a list of my top 15 vises I own and the 16th found its way onto a pallet and it's on its way to my door as we speak (thanks Jason). others might have their favorites and would love to hear about them and better yet post a few pictures. i'm still working on cleaning up the shop so i can get these and a few other vises cleaned up to mount or pass on and appreciate any help you all can give me either here or on the Vise Repair 101 thread i started that has a heckuva a list of vise company names in case some of you haven't seen it. please post before and after pictures of your vise restorations with the process and challenges so we all can try to get these old tools working as well as they can.

this list is in no particular order of favorites and at the current time i think it might take me 7 vises to get 1000 pounds and maybe 6 once the 4C gets here from Texas.

Vises from around the world:
1) Leinen 112 pound 6 inch wide jaw Germany
2) FPU 30 pound 3.25 inch wide jaw Poland
3) Paramo No. 4 60 pound 4 inch wide jaw England
4) Wilton 606 SJ 190 pound 6 inch wide jaw USA
5) Rock Island 577 150 pound 6 inch wide USA
6) Reed 4C 190 pound 6 inch wide jaw USA
7) Wilton C2 112 pound 5 inch wide jaw USA
8) Craftsman 5196 77 pound 4.5 inch wide jaw USA
9) L M & V 160 pound 6 inch wide jaw USA
10) Parker 956 132 pound 6 inch wide jaw USA
11) Reed 2C 82 pound 4 inch wide jaw USA
12) Wilton bullet 42 pound 4 inch wide jaw stamped 10/46 USA
13) Wilton baby bullet 5 pound 2 inch with power arm and clamp USA
14) Rock Island 851 swivel jaw 40 pound 4 inch jaw USA
15) Prentiss 19 swivel jaw 42 pound 4 inch jaw USA
16) Prentiss 26 swivel jaw coachmakers 42 pound 4.5 inch jaw USA


here's a few pictures of some of my favorites and maybe a few of yours too.

 

[KMScott]

Nice job McBrownie, you are whipping out some quality vises. I like Ritz's handles, far superior to the ones I make. Wish I had room for a lathe. Keep them coming.

 

[GETRIDAONE]

I didn't make a 1000 lbs. with six, I was at 979 lbs. I would have to toss in another 100 pounder to get me there. I going to tend to my back now
Everyone have a great Labor Day

 

[oldldh]

I didn't make a 1000 lbs. with six, I was at 979 lbs. I would have to toss in another 100 pounder to get me there. I going to tend to my back now

We'll give you an "E" for effort...

I like the way you've got them all "properly" lined up...

But they're saluting with the wrong "Hand"...

 

[macgee]

There is a very easy to use program called EZ sniper that will go in and bid in the last seconds for you.Costs a few bucks to get started but will save money and get your items.
Might be worth a try for you so you can stay focused on other things.
To be fair you should post a picture of the girl.

The sad thing, is I do use a snipe program but realized my bid amount was going to be too low (I wasn't thinking) and needed to increase it.

Snipe programs are awesome and allows you to go on with your life instead of staring at a computer I use them weekly but hate to admit mines a free one and only bids 10-15sec before the auction ends which is an eternity on eBay. I'll need to rethink it.

Maybe one day I'll have her holding a vise in a pic, a mini vise that it as she's a bit dainty.

439 ??? i thought these were 449's. maybe tedster has a 439 after all. missing a bunch of brain cells this summer.

just saw the posting,, iffen anyone has a nice 439, i'd trade a nice 449 4 it. does anyone have any parker advertising 4 the 439?

Nope, this one is a No.439. I never knew these existed and could not find any information on the internet about them. Regardless of the model number I wanted one. It's killing me that I lost it.

Has anyone seen these before?

 

[va.grouseman]

Nice iron Drivesit and Get.

 

[va.grouseman]

Macgee.---I have two #474s, 67 lbs., but the #439 was 75lbs.---C.P.'s numbering system is kind of odd.---From #436, a 185 lb. combination vise, to #439, a 75 lb. rotating vise.---Seems like an odd leap.---To answer your question, that's the only one I've ever seen.
And speaking of 436s, there is one on E-bay right now.---Probably need a KMScott upgrade.

 

[ZRX61]

The twins...574 & 594. Resto'd one, the other is how I found it. I'm tempted to replace the matching Morgan 40 & 140 on my bench with these, but I'd need to secure the bench to the wall with that much weight on the front. I'm also conflicted as the Morgans both came out of Lockheed Skunkworks, one in Burbank & the other in Palmdale. I know a friend would just about trade his T33 for the Morgans, but I really want to keep them...

 

[ZRX61]

The other twins, 504 1/2 & 604 1/2.... hopefully going to a new home today or tomorrow.

 

[wrenchguy]

Macgee.---I have two #474s, 67 lbs., but the #439 was 75lbs.---C.P.'s numbering system is kind of odd.---From #436, a 185 lb. combination vise, to #439, a 75 lb. rotating vise.---Seems like an odd leap.---To answer your question, that's the only one I've ever seen.
And speaking of 436s, there is one on E-bay right now.---Probably need a KMScott upgrade.

tedster posted a 439 awhile back. how do you guys search the find? when i try it just takes me to some radom page that ain't got anything i searched 4.