The VISES of Garage Journal

[topop101]

Is that a weld all the way around the slide?

it's grease.

You ever work on one of these balane


Or any one else have info on JET vise's

 

[Blue Frog]

Well, from my perspective it looks like a great buy and so hope someone from this forum is able to grab!! Looks like it's in great shape.

Shoot me a PM if you want to contact the seller.


He also has a 100 lb Vulcan Anvil for $350 OBO






Blue

 

[trijeff]

Blue, great looking out and I hope a member here is able to benefit!!! The jaws look really unabused, honestly the whole vise does!

 

[jrobb316]

oh no, if my paycheck shows up tomorrow I may have to inquire. That slide does look welded however.

 

[454ragtop]

Kinda looks like a weld on my monitor too. If driving any distance, I'd ask specifically about that spot before taking the trip.
Jim

 

[jrobb316]

I sent a message. It says he read it but has not responded. Its either a weld or someone greased the **** out of it and thats where the buildup ends.

 

[drivesitfar]

All: no huge parker on my list. Balane bought a nice one for $20 that he is into almost $400 and he has major skills I don't pocess (yet). Big reed Prentiss Holland's or Pittsburgh RR vise is my next college kids name. There might be one or two I missed, but thanks for posting.

 

[balane]

Topop. I have not ever worked on a Jet vise. I had an opportunity to buy one at a decent price but I passed because it can be difficult to sell non-US made vises and these are from Taiwan. However, it felt like a nice vise to me and I wouldn't have any problem using it as my own. I think they're probably OK vises.

 

[drivesitfar]

Pop: i agree with Balane that Jet vises are very well built and probably in Japan and then Taiwan and like everything probably China now. i have seen a few to buy and because they had some abuse to their jaws by one of the prior owners i don't own one. if a pristine one shows up i'll buy one and keep it because i do have other Jet tools that are awesome like their bench grinder, planer and a few other ones i own.

it seems to me that the #'s on their sides were like European vices with the metric size of their jaws and just not positive about that.

ALL: if that 8 inch Parker needs new jaws Kevin might still have the plans for them in his files that i think he sold for more than the seller is asking for the vise. just saying if you need to work on a Parker it ain't cheap, but they are good vises. here's what a $2500 Parker 958 looks like with Kevin's new jaws on it.

 

[bagged89s10]

Ok I got a a crazy amount of stuff today for $170.

Parker 974 to flip
Heinrich 6"to flip
Heinrich 4" for my drill press

Ton of indicators, parallels, transfer punches, bits, taps, small machinists vises, micrometer, bunch of bins, and the toolbox that all the drill bits are in. Lots to sort thru and figure out what's what. Most will be going on eBay.

Here are the 2 Heinrichs. 4" and 6"

I uncovered the logo on the 6 which was protected by decades of grease and grime.


And 2 Brown & Sharpe 752 Toolmakers vises.

 

[vintage nut]

Finally all caught up.
Did a bit of vise work yesterday, took apart the double swivel rock island and started cleaning it up. Ran into a problem on the dynamic jaw, one of the screws snapped off, and it was by far the most stubborn to remove screw either my dad or I has ever seen. Tried atf and acetone, nothing. Tried heat and seafoam (which has never failed me) and nothing. Using new Butterfield easy outs we kept drilling it out and going to bigger sizes, until there was finally no screw left, and between an old tap, center punch, and scribe, we managed to pick out all the little bits of screw, and avoided needing to helicoil or timesert it.

While penetrant was soaking I degreased the other parts with the purple super clean (almost as good as oven cleaner, not quite, but way cheaper) and decided to try cleaning them up with my bead blaster. It worked really well, and I'm definitely bead blasting every vise that will fit in there! (so no morgan lol)
I'll get some more pictures as I bead blast the rest tonight.


you can never have too many tools

 

[McBrownie]

ALL: if that 8 inch Parker needs new jaws Kevin might still have the plans for them in his files that i think he sold for more than the seller is asking for the vise. just saying if you need to work on a Parker it ain't cheap, but they are good vises. here's what a $2500 Parker 958 looks like with Kevin's new jaws on it.

Speaking as someone who has been burned before, I completely agree. As much as I would like a Parker Swivel Jaw, I'm steering clear of this one on eBay. It ends today and is currently at about $80 with shipping included, but a look at the jaws spells trouble. They look worn and welded in place.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PARKER-HEAV...277?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4cc0959d

 

[454ragtop]

Speaking as someone who has been burned before, I completely agree. As much as I would like a Parker Swivel Jaw, I'm steering clear of this one on eBay. It ends today and is currently at about $80 with shipping included, but a look at the jaws spells trouble. They look worn and welded in place.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PARKER-HEAV...277?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4cc0959d

Bet the reserve is over $100. Looks like the seller did his best to hide the welded jaw insert on the swivel jaw in the pics, and no mention of it in the ad.

 

[bigcaddy]

Bet the reserve is over $100. Looks like the seller did his best to hide the welded jaw insert on the swivel jaw in the pics, and no mention of it in the ad.

Is there a chance he mated an older rear jaw on a newer vise? Did every parker have replaceable jaws? They could be welded but if not, it could be an early non-removeable jaw casting

Ive seen some Frakenstein vises before that its a possibility that he made 1 functioning vise out of 2 broken ones


Just my .02

 

[drivesitfar]

Vintage: sorry to hear the jaw screw(s) were a pain on the Rock Island 851 swivel jaw vise i handed you. those 100 year old vises don't want to be messed with i guess and maybe why i haven't started my assembly line to restore all of mine yet. someday soon as the Honey Do list gets whittled down a bit.

TOP: i don't see the weld you mentioned on your Jet, but picture wouldn't enlarge easily. it does look like it's been an outdoor vise so probably has a few issues. we had a Jet vise up here on Craigslist for maybe 4 months for $75 that might be the one Balane saw that i said had some issues on the removable jaws. if the jaws were ok i would probably own it if Balane didn't beat me to it first which he does more times than i can count or know of. if that Jet is cheap and the stand comes with it i hope you buy it if it checks out so we can see what you think.

McB: i know those swivel jaw Parker vises don't come up often and at that price, but might i remind you to take a look at the Vise Repair 101 thread at posts 117-124 of an awesome (not cheap) restoration of a Parker vise by some very talented members of this forum. don't press the buy key just yet and how did he break that swivel pin like that. he made a nice replacement so the guy is handy.

ALL: i think that could be crud or weld spatter on the dynamic of the big orange 8 inch Parker so before paying for it and having it shipped i'd definitely get more pictures and maybe have the seller remove the crud or show you the underside of the slide to see if it's welded and brazed.

 

[sbosecker]

FMC and Sbose, since those are cast in numbers, and the plate would have to be stamped out and installed each vise, (you can see the pop rivets holding to the pattern) I doubt they are serial no's; it would be too expensive to replace the plate each time for each casting.

Probably either a mold/pattern number, or possibly a date code or Lot code for a batch of castings.

Outlawmws,

I sent an query to the Yost Vise folks via their website. I received the following response:


Unfortunately, the casting number on the side of the vise that you mentioned does not help determine the age of the vise. If you send in a picture of the vise, I may be able to help you determine the age a little better.

I was a little surprised that they couldn't give a date range based on a casting number but...

...as you suggested it must be an individual mold number and each mold could have been cranking out pieces for years.

EDIT: I sent them a picture of my vise and this was the response:

Thanks for the picture....

As for the age - the best we can do is a range. 2003 - 2008.

This fits what the seller thought regarding the age as he indicated it had been mounted on a truck bumper that was a 2007 model.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[zkling]

Speaking as someone who has been burned before, I completely agree. As much as I would like a Parker Swivel Jaw, I'm steering clear of this one on eBay. It ends today and is currently at about $80 with shipping included, but a look at the jaws spells trouble. They look worn and welded in place.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PARKER-HEAV...277?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4cc0959d

Or mention of the crack going up the back of the slide.

 

[vintage nut]

Drives, it's just part of the challenge and I don't mind at all! Far from the first broken screw I have had to remove. All part of the fun of restoring old tools and machines!

you can never have too many tools

 

[jreb10]

BC: while you have that 5197 out before you hire the Sherpas to haul it back into the dark rust free corner can you get me pictures and measurements of the vise nut (spindle). I appreciate the time you took and costs and energy involved to measure the holder, but it's my vise nut that is missing the screw and piece behind the slot and it's also busted in half.

here' the vise nut (spindle) of my 5196 to show what i'm asking about.

thank you very much.

DIF, I wonder if your 5197 vise nut may be the same part as my 5191 nut. The reason is that when I look at my 4" 5191 the handle seems really big, much bigger than the one on my 3.5 " 5195. So maybe the used the same handles/vise nuts on multiple sizes.



Just in case, here are a few shots of my 5191 vise nut. It has a number stamped on it, that I read as a "W" with a dash in the middle, like an "A". Below it is "5V7814". Perhaps you vise nut has a number on it?






Let me know if it matches and we can look it over more closely.

 

[454ragtop]

Is there a chance he mated an older rear jaw on a newer vise? Did every parker have replaceable jaws? They could be welded but if not, it could be an early non-removeable jaw casting

Ive seen some Frakenstein vises before that its a possibility that he made 1 functioning vise out of 2 broken ones


Just my .02

Take a look at the next to last pic, sure looks like a welded insert to me, can just make out the cracked slide that zkling mentioned too. Very careful not to have any pics straight down on the slide either.

 

[drivesitfar]

Jreb: i'm pretty sure my 5197 is bigger than my 5196 screw and vise nut and my 5191 i sold to another GJ member was smaller even though it was stout like you mentioned. Big Caddy might be the expert since i think a good portion of his vise museum is 519x's so let's wait to hear what he says.

I've got my 5197 behind maybe 20 tons of old steel and it might be a while before i can get to it.

thanks for the post

Vintage: that's the spirit and take pictures of your sandblast booth if you would for the vise repair 101 thread when you post up some more pictures. sorry to hear your truck took a lot of your vise and tool funds, but happy to hear you were able to fix the problems yourself and save the cost of going to the dealer or local mechanic.

 

[bigcaddy]

DIF, I wonder if your 5197 vise nut may be the same part as my 5191 nut. The reason is that when I look at my 4" 5191 the handle seems really big, much bigger than the one on my 3.5 " 5195. So maybe the used the same handles/vise nuts on multiple sizes.



Just in case, here are a few shots of my 5191 vise nut. It has a number stamped on it, that I read as a "W" with a dash in the middle, like an "A". Below it is "5V7814". Perhaps you vise nut has a number on it?






Let me know if it matches and we can look it over more closely.

Give me some time and ill try to get measurements for all of the 51xx vise sizes i own. Then we can see the similarities of them all. Would that make everybody happy?

 

[t4runner]

I picked up this vise today I bought a bunch of stuff with it for $160, so I cant say what I paid for it but anyway it has a decal that says Hi-Test Quality on it and I seem to remember one like this that was suppose to be made in Poland. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[drivesitfar]

Big C: only if you have time and your muscles or minions are up to the task. no hurry on my end as i mentioned because i just stuck a bunch of NOS 50+ year old steel in front of everything.

ever hear of alloy 400 bolts in your dealings with Uncle Sam? I've got a few that came individually wrapped that might work well for an outside vise mounting of a behemoth if i find one.

T4: since i'm online posting a response to my southern California vise inspector i'll let you know that it is a Polish made vise by Bison. does it have a FPU marking on it? how wide are the jaws? also i bet you already noticed that the rear jaw moves while the front jaw stays in place. one of my favorite vises BTW.

 

[drivesitfar]

BC: it might be time for you to start selling or sharing some of your duplicate 519x's because not sure anybody else has all of them to ask to do this. or if you want to be popular and keep us informed keep buying, restoring and holding on to them because they are like gold.

 

[bigcaddy]

BC: it might be time for you to start selling or sharing some of your duplicate 519x's because not sure anybody else has all of them to ask to do this. or if you want to be popular and keep us informed keep buying, restoring and holding on to them because they are like gold.

There may be a day where i start selling off some excess 51xx becasue i'm amassing quite a few.

I already measured the 5195 i have in my office and when i go by the shop, ill get the remaining measurements

 

[trijeff]

Just called a guy on a Reed that turned out to be a 6", was thinking bigger. He said he has a guy that has a few 8"s and also something 3X the size of his Reed, he thought it was at least 10" if not 12" - I call BS (to myself, of course - want to see what it really is) but has ANYONE ever seen something bigger than a 9"? I didn't/don't think they exist but WOW if so. Not holding my breath but will keep you posted if something interesting turns up.

 

[CwazyWabbit]

It'll be a wood vise built into a bench if it has 12" jaws trijeff


EDIT: btw a Record 49 has 10" jaws and weighs 250lb

 

[drivesitfar]

TJ: here's a homemade bigger one I think VA posted a while ago with maybe a 1000 pound anvil next to it.

I think i remember a guy making a Youtube video of his 10 inch steel vise which weren't no little thing.

your magnet and the force are working well for you and Lu in vise country these days. so go pick up the 6 inch Reed with your Prentiss 98 in the back of your truck and watch the guy's eyes for fun?

BC: thanks

 

[meatsis]

I met a guy in rhode island that was selling an 8 inch prentiss that came out of an old mill by him. He said he had a parker with 10 inch jaws that weighed in excess of 450 pounds. I never saw it so i dont know if there was any truth behind it. Sure would be cool to see though.

 

[bigcaddy]

I don't think anything on paper, except that huge railroad vise, has exceeded 9" I've seen other custom jobs over 9" but nothing like a standard, production model "bench vise"

 

[vintage nut]

Here's my bead blasting setup for drives.
The cabinet is your standard harbor freight sort of bench too bead blaster. My neighbor used to restore british motorcycles, but he's starting to slow down, and gave me this as thanks for keeping his lawn mowed for him. The thing on the cart under it is my heat treating kiln. I have a shop vac hooked up to it to keep the dust down, and the air is supplied by my 220v air compressor that lives under a workbench. It produces about 11cfm, which is about the smallest that you would want to use. It cycles on and off while blasting, but any smaller probably wouldn't keep up.


you can never have too many tools

 

[bigcaddy]

The biggest "vise" produced was the Blackiston patented "Pittsburgh Railroad Vise" that was made for train yards to work on train axles. Not exactly your everyday equipment for around the house.

 

[CwazyWabbit]

This BC

 

[dngrmse]

Maybe so, but I bet if someone gave you one, you would make some room for it.

The biggest "vise" produced was the Blackiston patented "Pittsburgh Railroad Vise" that was made for train yards to work on train axles. Not exactly your everyday equipment for around the house.

 

[bigcaddy]

Maybe so, but I bet if someone gave you one, you would make some room for it.

I might start working on trains if somebody were to hand me one

 

[trijeff]

That railroad vise ad has GOT to be missing a decimal, I am thinking 69.5 pounds. It says it opens 15 inches and, if you extrapolate that scale to the rest of this vise, then the jaws must only be about 6" or so tops. The picture with the guys working on it must be to try to show how strong it is or something, an advertising gimmick. But I will eat my hat if there was ever something that big created that isn't some custom one off-jobby as mentioned above.That type/size of handle wouldn't even be practical if the vise were that big. Someone show me a picture of one and then I'll believe it but, until then, calling total BS on a factory produced 695# vise.

EDIT: And PS, I am hoping I am wrong (I've got some pretty tasty looking hats) ... would LOVE to see a factory vise that big.

 

[drivesitfar]

TJ: I've been saving the same ad and one of our members that owns that awesome Parker 958 actually has a Pittsburgh vise only i think his is just a 6 incher.

NO BS it's even on Demo's list of ones to buy before he meets our maker and you know he has a big vise or maybe a few.

one of my favorite Railroad pictures is tagging along with the Pittsburg vise ad since i'm posting pictures.

Vintage: thanks for the pictures and the 411 and feel free to post on the 101 thread if you have time.

 

[bigcaddy]

The closest we have seen in VA Grousemans salesman sample. Many people have been wanting to see one in the wild but nothing yet.

The Craftsman 5198 was a myth, only to be read about in old ads, until Oldldh found one that ended up with me and another member grabbed one a few months ago in Jersey or PA.

If you have ever seen a train axle up close, you bet they made a vise that large to be able to manipulate it/work on it.

 

[bl00]

Here's an article from 1907 about the Pittsburgh vise. Hopefully the attachment is readable. They also advertised a version with a rear swivel jaw at 725 lbs.