The VISES of Garage Journal

[drivesitfar]

Bl00: thanks again!!

i saved that new Pittsburg vise ad. 725 pounds that is out there and would love to see one in person or a cool picture of one on somebody's bench. that would also be some bench.

 

[Outlawmws]

So how does one season a hat for consumption? Does it need to be aged to tenderize it?

 

[Lobo74]

Already posted this in another thread but I'm a little inpatient. However, if it's not the right thing to do in this forum I only need to be told once. I did check the FAQ and couldn't find any prohibitions for posting in more than one thread.

Checked out a Reed bench vise in a 2nd hand shop today. Reed Mfg. Erie USA
No. 103 1/2 No. 207. Both of these numbers were on the vise. Looked in really nice shape. No rust, did not look beat up. Asking $90.00. Any info on this Vise would be helpful. I did look at an early post in another thread and I'm making this out to be a Machinist Vice with swivel base. But the data sheet on the thread only listed the swivel models up to 204. Again it looked really clean. What might a reasonable offer be and would this be a good vice for my garage. I plan to use it. Thanks.

 

[drivesitfar]

Lobo: really hard to give values without pics or condition. If no broken parts, welds, or cracks its surely worth $90. Post pics or show us after you buy it. 3.5 inch jaws on old us made vises will work in most any members garage.

 

[Lobo74]

Thanks much. I will definitely post pics if I pick in up. I'll probably stop back tomorrow and make an offer.

 

[CwazyWabbit]

So how does one season a hat for consumption? Does it need to be aged to tenderize it?

Hatatouille (serves 4-6)

• Skin and pluck your hat, being careful not to lose any of the succulent juices.
• Soak the hat in 2 pints of ostrich milk mixed with the yolks of 17 goats' eggs.
• Place the hat in 42ml of water, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 3 weeks.
• While waiting you might like to practise your macarena skills
• Serve with your arm straight and your eye on the ball.

 

[trijeff]

So how does one season a hat for consumption? Does it need to be aged to tenderize it?

Like I said, I HOPE it happens. Once someone, ANYONE comes up with an actual example of one of these my diet is hat free. Really hard to hide a 700# vise so, if they exist, someone should be able to do it. The California State Railroad Museum is right down the road from me, I'm definitely going to stop by and ask about this.

 

[trijeff]

Hatatouille (serves 4-6)

• Skin and pluck your hat, being careful not to lose any of the succulent juices.
• Soak the hat in 2 pints of ostrich milk mixed with the yolks of 17 goats' eggs.
• Place the hat in 42ml of water, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 3 weeks.
• While waiting you might like to practise your macarena skills
• Serve with your arm straight and your eye on the ball.

 

[CwazyWabbit]

Seems Blackiston built a big car to go with his vise ..... http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/01/19/the-sad-strange-case-of-the-1912-blackiston/

 

[bczygan]

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.

You guys saw this patent, right?
http://www.google.com/patents/US877699

 

[va.grouseman]

Teriyaki flavored straw hat jerky.---You've just got to try it to believe it.

 

[bigcaddy]

Here is the start to the 51xx info. I'll start with a 5195 (3.5) jaws
Rear nut

Length of base 2.561
Height 2.484
Light of threaded portion. 2.345

Op Rod. .750 OD, .565 (9/16) between thread thickness

Handle thickness. .500 (1/2")

 

[topop101]

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.

Drives That is a really neat photo. The over head crane hoisting the train was a monster. As a vise collector and crane operator that picture says more than a 1000 words. Thanks.

 

[BluCamaro]

I picked up this vise today thanks to rmsg0040 in the "GTA Ontario Hot Deals" thread.

Before:


After some scrubbing with Simple Green...

Not bad for $20


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigcaddy]

5196/5197 & 5191. (4"/4.5"/4" Fixed base)
Rear nut

Length of base. 2.954
Height. 2.967
Length of threaded portion. 2.581

Op Rod. 7/8" OD. .705 between thread diameter

Handle diameter. .626. (5/8")

 

[bigcaddy]

5198. 5" jaws

Rear nut

Length of base. 3.550
Height. 3.784
Length of threaded portion. 2.862

Op Rod. 1" OD, .755 inside thread diameter

Handle. .755 (3/4")

All of the nuts varied slightly due to them being case and finished on a grinder but they average all the same

Hope this helps everybody.

 

[drivesitfar]

Blu: isn't it great to have help and no you didn't pay too much for that Record vice.

Top: you're welcome and i'll see if i have a few more saved

BC: so the 5191, 5196 and 5197 main screws and vise nuts are all the same size?

thank you very much

TJ: start looking for some candy hats and if you look in the thread you might find VA's Pittsburg vise that is a small salesman's sample. Your Prentiss #98 is still a big guy but you might have to include the weight of the stand to get closer to the Pittsburgh RR vise.

 

[bigcaddy]

Blu: isn't it great to have help and no you didn't pay too much for that Record vice.

Top: you're welcome and i'll see if i have a few more saved

BC: so the 5191, 5196 and 5197 main screws and vise nuts are all the same size?

thank you very much

TJ: start looking for some candy hats and if you look in the thread you might find VA's Pittsburg vise that is a small salesman's sample. Your Prentiss #98 is still a big guy but you might have to include the weight of the stand to get closer to the Pittsburgh RR vise.

Yup. The only changed for the 3.5 or 5" sizes.

 

[Outlawmws]

Hatatouille (serves 4-6)

• Skin and pluck your hat, being careful not to lose any of the succulent juices.
• Soak the hat in 2 pints of ostrich milk mixed with the yolks of 17 goats' eggs.
• Place the hat in 42ml of water, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 3 weeks.
• While waiting you might like to practise your macarena skills
• Serve with your arm straight and your eye on the ball.

Teriyaki flavored straw hat jerky.---You've just got to try it to believe it.

 

[FMC1959]

Already posted this in another thread but I'm a little inpatient. However, if it's not the right thing to do in this forum I only need to be told once. I did check the FAQ and couldn't find any prohibitions for posting in more than one thread.

Checked out a Reed bench vise in a 2nd hand shop today. Reed Mfg. Erie USA
No. 103 1/2 No. 207. Both of these numbers were on the vise. Looked in really nice shape. No rust, did not look beat up. Asking $90.00. Any info on this Vise would be helpful. I did look at an early post in another thread and I'm making this out to be a Machinist Vice with swivel base. But the data sheet on the thread only listed the swivel models up to 204. Again it looked really clean. What might a reasonable offer be and would this be a good vice for my garage. I plan to use it. Thanks.

You saw it in person? There is a humungous difference between a 103 1/2 (at 29 pounds) and a 207 (at 204 pounds).

If there are no cracks or welds and it is a 207, don't offer, give them $90 and you can run out the store screaming you just robbed a bank! (Might be hard running out of a store with a 204 pound beast, but adrenaline should kick in at this point).

If it is a 103 1/2 (no swivel on this model), it is a nice vise, my guess is you can find similar in the $50 or less range.

 

[FMC1959]

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.

B100, you are the champ with all of these brochures! Interesting to read all of the measurements listed, pretty much everything you can think of except the jaw width!

Also, I remember before Oldie had found the 5198, many thought Sears may have listed in their catalog but never produced any. Well for this vise, they definitely mention having some on display in major cities, so they did produce some. Gotta figure there are some lying around in some old railway warehouses. (or at least hope!)

 

[vintage nut]

Could always make a hat out of bacon or something... LOL

you can never have too many tools

 

[oldldh]

The last three lines in the article posted by B100, give a clue almost as big as the "Railroad Vise"...

My Grandfather was the Chief Engineer of the Woodward Iron Company, in Birmingham, AL...

Right up the road from their factory...(They made cast iron ingots, cast iron pipe, and railroad rails...)...

Was TCI (The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway Company...)...located in the Bessemer and Ensley area of western Birmingham...

A little trivia...

The "Bessemer Process"---of injecting air into the molten steel to remove impurities---the invention of the Blast Furnace---did, I believe take place in Bessemer at either TCI or the U.S.Steel plant...hence the name "Bessemer Process"...

Lots of steel plants in the west end of Birmingham...

Why you ask...???

The central region of Alabama is, I believe, the only place on the planet, where coal, iron ore, and limestone, are found in very close proximity...

Coal---Iron Ore---Limestone are the three ingredients required to make iron and, after adding a blast of air...Steel!!!

And now---the reason for this history lesson...

As you know, Yrhmblsrvnt is an old fart, I'll be seventy next month...

I went to work with my Grandfather one day, when I was four or five (before 1950)...and I have a vague memory of a "roundish" vise in the Locomotive Shop that was twice as tall as I was, and twice as big as the Normal Railroad shop vise...I could hang on the normal vises...but they had a locomotive axle clamped it the "roundish huge vise"...and I'd hurt myself, if I messed with the "Big Dog"...I do remember that the big one was holding the axle in the vertical position, because I leaned up against it, and got grease all over my clothes...and a pounding from my Mother, when I got home...

I'm not saying it was the 695/725 pound Railroad Vise, but it damn sure could have been...

 

[bagged89s10]

Already posted this in another thread but I'm a little inpatient. However, if it's not the right thing to do in this forum I only need to be told once. I did check the FAQ and couldn't find any prohibitions for posting in more than one thread.



Checked out a Reed bench vise in a 2nd hand shop today. Reed Mfg. Erie USA

No. 103 1/2 No. 207. Both of these numbers were on the vise. Looked in really nice shape. No rust, did not look beat up. Asking $90.00. Any info on this Vise would be helpful. I did look at an early post in another thread and I'm making this out to be a Machinist Vice with swivel base. But the data sheet on the thread only listed the swivel models up to 204. Again it looked really clean. What might a reasonable offer be and would this be a good vice for my garage. I plan to use it. Thanks.

I wish you took pictures on the vise so we could help more. But if the vise was a No. 103-1/2 it would be a fixed base vise. It would make sense for a swivel Reed vise to be a No 207 if they made that model. And that would make it have 7" jaws.

The 10x Reeds are Fixed base vises and 20x Reeds are swivel base vises. The "x" digit in the model being the jaw width.

 

[trijeff]

All you guys and your talk!! LOL!!! Post an actual picture of the vise with something showing scale to prove it is the 700# monster and I will start chomping away. The patent that is referred to a few posts back isn't the same vise at all, that is a pipe vise. In fact, I challenge anyone to find that Blackiston patented the type of regular bench vise shown in in the ad. Seems like he was to busy running down pedestrians in his 30mph super car

All of that said, I am HOPING HOPING HOPING to do some hat eating because I want to see that monster. And I likewise hope you fellas know this is all in fun and a search of the truth, no trying to get in a fight with anybody or get flamed too bad.

 

[drivesitfar]

FMC: we are not in a Reed vise rich area here in the Pacific NW just ask Balane and others and i think as often as i look the only Reed 103.5 for $50 i saw for sale was a non swivel and a 3 hour drive 2 years ago. if you try to buy one on ebay i'm guessing they go for $150 or maybe less plus shipping which might be another $40.

so if you can find Reed vises for $50 would you be willing to buy them all within an hours drive and hold them for me?? that might give me a good excuse to make a road trip and meet you in person or swap you something i have that you can't find.

some of us don't need another vise so $50 might be realistic price for a Wilton, Reed or other old vise if you are at the right place at the right time and spend many hours looking for them. i was thinking that $90 would be a decent deal for a nice Reed assuming the condition is good because that is still under market in mine and a lot of areas in the US.

BC: thanks again and maybe i can free you up from having to have so many of those 519x vises some day since they are not common even up here in Craftsman land. let me know if i have something you might like that maybe i can live without to help improve your museum.

 

[topop101]

The last three lines in the article posted by B100, give a clue almost as big as the "Railroad Vise"...

My Grandfather was the Chief Engineer of the Woodward Iron Company, in Birmingham, AL...

Right up the road from their factory...(They made cast iron ingots, cast iron pipe, and railroad rails...)...

Was TCI (The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway Company...)...located in the Bessemer and Ensley area of western Birmingham...

A little trivia...

The "Bessemer Process"---of injecting air into the molten steel to remove impurities---the invention of the Blast Furnace---did, I believe take place in Bessemer at either TCI or the U.S.Steel plant...hence the name "Bessemer Process"...

Lots of steel plants in the west end of Birmingham...

Why you ask...???

The central region of Alabama is, I believe, the only place on the planet, where coal, iron ore, and limestone, are found in very close proximity...

Coal---Iron Ore---Limestone are the three ingredients required to make iron and, after adding a blast of air...Steel!!!

And now---the reason for this history lesson...

As you know, Yrhmblsrvnt is an old fart, I'll be seventy next month...

I went to work with my Grandfather one day, when I was four or five (before 1950)...and I have a vague memory of a "roundish" vise in the Locomotive Shop that was twice as tall as I was, and twice as big as the Normal Railroad shop vise...I could hang on the normal vises...but they had a locomotive axle clamped it the "roundish huge vise"...and I'd hurt myself, if I messed with the "Big Dog"...I do remember that the big one was holding the axle in the vertical position, because I leaned up against it, and got grease all over my clothes...and a pounding from my Mother, when I got home...

I'm not saying it was the 695/725 pound Railroad Vise, but it damn sure could have been...

Outstanding story OLDMade my day.... Night

 

[Lu-Max]

Should we refer to it as the "Vice Ness Monster" or more simply "Visesquatch"?

 

[bigcaddy]

Oldie-corn

 

[drivesitfar]

Oldie: cool story and maybe you did see that Pittsburgh RR vise. sure sounds like it.

LU:

TJ: hats come in all kinds of flavors

 

[joe.striper]

Got this delivered by another GJ member this weekend. Athol 624 1/2. Nice piece, needs restoration.

Can anyone post a pic of the internal spindle setup. Mine is far from complete and I want to straighten that up first.

While cleaning it up I found this label. Pretty cool.

Thanks

 

[drivesitfar]

Joe: there are several Athol vise tips on the 101 thread and a few of the members have designed a pipe with a couple cut outs in it to hold back the spring and remove the pin. i don't have any pictures of my Athol handy, but here's one of the inside of the vise (spindle) nut on my old Starrett that is sitting on another GJ member's bench in case that's what you are looking for.

 

[joe.striper]

Joe: there are several Athol vise tips on the 101 thread and a few of the members have designed a pipe with a couple cut outs in it to hold back the spring and remove the pin. i don't have any pictures of my Athol handy, but here's one of the inside of the vise (spindle) nut on my old Starrett that is sitting on another GJ member's bench in case that's what you are looking for.

Thanks Drivesit...I saw what I need. For some reason my vise is missing the spring and Washer. Don't ask me where it went. I'll look at the 101 thread to try and find what spring I need to pick up. I've used that 'tool' before, made mine out of PVC pipe, but this new Athol has NOTHING on the spindle so I was flying blind here. Thanks!!

 

[jrobb316]

Joe: there are several Athol vise tips on the 101 thread and a few of the members have designed a pipe with a couple cut outs in it to hold back the spring and remove the pin. i don't have any pictures of my Athol handy, but here's one of the inside of the vise (spindle) nut on my old Starrett that is sitting on another GJ member's bench in case that's what you are looking for.

I just used a 45 degree needle nose pliers as a pry bar to remove spring tension and pull the pin. Same to reinstall it. Was quick and easy.

 

[Craptain]

Great story Oldy. I. Believe you actually saw the real thing.

But one little thing you made a mistake on is the Bessemer process. I come from the real home of steel and the process. Sheffield U K.
At school we were well educated on local history.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer_process

I think Bessemer AL was probably named after the process rather than the other way round.



Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[Lu-Max]

drivesitfar: FYI my Dawn has the exact same spring setup (except the washer is held in place by a heavy duty cotter pin that I plan to replace with a small steel rod), and I was trying to figure out how to compress the spring when I put it back together. That tool will work perfectly.

 

[oldldh]

Great story Oldy. I. Believe you actually saw the real thing.

But one little thing you made a mistake on is the Bessemer process. I come from the real home of steel and the process. Sheffield U K.
At school we were well educated on local history.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer_process

I think Bessemer AL was probably named after the process rather than the other way round.



Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

You may be right...

I'm old...

But, not that old...

 

[va.grouseman]

All you guys and your talk!! LOL!!! Post an actual picture of the vise with something showing scale to prove it is the 700# monster and I will start chomping away. The patent that is referred to a few posts back isn't the same vise at all, that is a pipe vise. In fact, I challenge anyone to find that Blackiston patented the type of regular bench vise shown in in the ad. Seems like he was to busy running down pedestrians in his 30mph super car

All of that said, I am HOPING HOPING HOPING to do some hat eating because I want to see that monster. And I likewise hope you fellas know this is all in fun and a search of the truth, no trying to get in a fight with anybody or get flamed too bad.

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



Trijeff,---Here's one that just hatched.---Weighs 5 lbs.---When it reaches maturity, they can weigh between 5 and 600 lbs., and have been rumored to weigh as much as 695 to 725 lbs.---No one knows what the life expectancy is on one.---By the time one is found it may be 250 years old.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Oldie: one more thing you might have gotten wrong. When it's story time you are supposed to light the vise signal so we all know to make popcorn and assemble.

 

[bluebolt]

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.

I would start looking in Alabama at the old Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad company steel plant in Fairfield Alabama and surrounding area, This is now known as US Steel Fairfield Works plant and the plant is still in operation. The 1907 article mentions vises going to the new plant and this is the closet one I could find date wise.