My Grandfathers tools

[WhiteLightning]

Hey all. Figured I'd share this with you guys who are into older tools. My Grandfather passed away several years ago. Since then, I acquired his two bench vises and restored them as shown below. I use them both heavily and I am sure my Grandfather would be proud.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I asked my Uncle if he had any of my Grandfathers old tools. He said 'sure do, come and get them'. I was pleasantly surprised to see this pile waiting for me.

The plan is to go through them this week. I will post my findings!

 

[jd_1138]

Nice tools and vises.

 

[WhiteLightning]

Can you tell me what paint product and color you used on those vises? I've got a Vaughan-made Craftsman ball peen that has remnants of a similar color on it. I'd like to repaint the head at some point.

Sure. After sandblasting, I used a Rust Oleum Primer. Then Rust Oleum Hammered 'Verde Green' was used. The Verde Green is a match for older Wilton vises, and I just loved the color.

 

[JUNK-MAN]

Nice tools and vices! I like those old Craftsman boxes, I'd like to get one myself.

 

[1950mercury]

Nice work gramps would be proud. I like that larger vice thats not going to break

 

[Cope]

I have a C 43 1/2, the big brother to the small Columbian vise. They are nice vises for their size. Congratulations on your windfall, your Grandfather would be proud of you and your uncle is too.

 

[lbgradwell]

Congrats! Grandpa tools are the best of all tools!

Sent from my Galaxy 4 using Tapatalk

 

[nomonkeybus]

Great tools and boxes, don't never let them get away

 

[Gasgt1]

Great to have family tools

 

[ArtDeco]

Fine job on the vices. Definitely want to see what you post.

 

[Cope]

If you want to play detective, you can date both vises.

http://scuttle.dayid.org/wiki/index.php/Columbian_Vise

 

[devoncoolman]

Its nice your uncle gave them to you.

 

[jakemac]

If you want to play detective, you can date both vises.

http://scuttle.dayid.org/wiki/index.php/Columbian_Vise

The first one is a Columbian #804. Possibly mid-1930's or earlier.

 

[WhiteLightning]

Thanks everyone. I'm as anxious as you are to see whats in there. This week is fairly busy- won't be until Thursday or Friday until I get to them.

Forgot to mention......the larger vise is a 4". It's thick plate welded to the top side. The handle was bent, so my friend (5mall5nail5 on here) used his lathe and made me the handle ends from stainless ball bearings. The smaller vise is a 3" and is a workhorse for the size. One of these days I want to get a 4" or 5" Wilton bullet.....just because I've always wanted one. It too will be painted verde green.

More pics of the vises.......

 

[WhiteLightning]

The first one is a Columbian #804. Possibly mid-1930's or earlier.

Any references showing this?

 

[woody 73]

Good job of vise restoration.

 

[jakemac]

Any references showing this?

Check out this post by rusty65, and the next 2 posts :
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4187038#post4187038

.

 

[pendragon1998]

Very handsome job. You honor your grandfather.

 

[WhiteLightning]

Check out this post by rusty65, and the next 2 posts :
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4187038#post4187038

Thanks for the link!

 

[zhome888]

Nice job on the vice rebuilds. I didn't expect them to come out so good.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Wow, some amazing stuff! Looking forward to seeing the rest.

 

[uncletater]

did your grandfather work for IBM? The green briefcase toolbox looks like what the customer engineers carried back in the day.

 

[BK13]

Nice work on the vises, man! And cool toolboxes!

 

[WhiteLightning]

did your grandfather work for IBM? The green briefcase toolbox looks like what the customer engineers carried back in the day.

After serving in the war I know he repaired typewriters at some point, and was a locksmith also. Not sure on companies/etc.

I am planning on digging into this stuff Thursday night and snapping a bunch of pics.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

It's great that your uncle had these tools, didn't let them deteriorate over time and then gave them to you.

Plenty of postings here on how poorly this gets handled in other families.

Cheers

Jim

 

[WhiteLightning]

It's great that your uncle had these tools, didn't let them deteriorate over time and then gave them to you.

Plenty of postings here on how poorly this gets handled in other families.

Cheers

Jim

To be honest, they've been in a crawl space for MANY years (decades) and untouched. It was like opening a time capsule......the look, smell, etc.

To keep the suspense up......I did see an old Weller sabre saw in there, and some old looking hand tools.

 

[longlivepunk]

Love this! Those old boxes look awesome! I recently had something similar (given a deceased guy's old tools) which got me some nice boxes and a few good finds, but mostly ****. [emoji14] Cool to have stuff that was your granddad's! When mine passed I was a little kid and my aunt and uncle sold all his stuff.

 

[TonyCH]

Great result on the vises!

 

[jeffmoss26]

After serving in the war I know he repaired typewriters at some point, and was a locksmith also. Not sure on companies/etc.

I am planning on digging into this stuff Thursday night and snapping a bunch of pics.

Interested to see if there is any locksmithing stuff in there

 

[WhiteLightning]

Well, it's Thursday, and I had a chance to go through this collection. There were a lot of tools I will add to my collection and a lot of old/junky typewriter parts or junky tools. I will put a number next to each picture to aid in identifying stuff. If anyone wants to know more about something- manufacturer, model, etc, just let me know.

Enjoy!

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[expatriated]

I'm 42 years old. All my grandparents are gone. 1 was a millionaire. The only thing I've inherited in my life was a small craftsman toolbox sort of like one of those and a handful of tools in it. And I wouldn't trade them for the stuff everyone else got.

Take good care of that stuff for the next generation!

 

[ffemtdisp]

Wow! Looks like the first two boxes (green) are perhaps Wizard?. I got one for Christmas in 1973. They look just like it.

And the grey box looks like my father's small box.

Small world

 

[lowbucktruck]

That looks like an electrician's pocketknife in pic 14.
It is almost like a time capsule, when you look at the things your granddad kept in those boxes. Nice of your uncle to let you have all that.

 

[uncletater]

Ok Looking at your pics. The green brief case is an IM CE tool kit. (Customer Engineer)
My grandfather was the production manager for tose electric ball typewriters. My dad was a CE and just gave me his CE tool kit. Hang on to that. It is filled with history and quality tools.

My dad tells stories of back in the day when he would go on calls to clients offices with a suit on and that same case. He explained that IBM didn't want the repair guy to look like a repair guy. It was an image thing. Here is the repairman walking thru the office to go fix a machine and most of the workers wouldn't even notice that he was there due to the way he was dressed.

I guess IBM wanted to have the image that their machines never broke.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Thanks so much for sharing all these pics!!

 

[Delfonik]

Awesome pics.

 

[Flivver250]

Very nice. Gramps would be pleased.

 

[montanafordman]

Very cool stuff! Passed down tools are the best. Incredible job on the Vise too! I like the Weller soldering iron. Even simple stuff like that it seems they cannot make a quality version of these days. The Stanley screwdrivers are cool too. Nothing too special about them but it seems any tool collection 30+ years old is likely to have one if its not craftsman. I have one from my granddad and I know my dad has a few of those old Stanley drivers. Thanks for sharing!

 

[WhiteLightning]

Here are some other tools that I had gotten from my Uncle about a year ago....likely pulled from another tool box of my Grandfathers

 

[getahammer]

In pic 15, what are those ( look like stubby screwdrivers ) But look like odd tips. Can't make them out. BTW You should be proud of them. My grandpa would want to know what in the hell was I thinkin spending that kind of time on something I was gonna hit with a hammer or spill paint all over it. To him it was just another tool.