The VISES of Garage Journal

[AnotherJarhead]

AJ: you did a fantastic job spiffing up that big Wilton 600. it's one of my favorite Wiltons because of the size and the jaw design. just an FYI you'll have a hard time finding another $1300 vise for $75, but the hunt is half the fun. now that you have that one might i recommend a baby bullet and maybe a swivel rear jaw vise to use in your garage? if i could only have 3 vises that would be close to what i would put at the top.

good luck and read a few pages and know that a vice for vises is a real thing because they are an amazing tool with many uses and so simple in design.

Got to admit those little baby bullets are "cute". Keep seeing them on Ebay going for way more than I'd spend. Would like to luck into one of those one day for a cheap price. Up next though is the stand for the 600. Got a good idea in my head what I'm going for just need to get it done. After that, to keep the wife happy, I need to finish the engine swap on the golf cart that was in the background of those pictures.

 

[topop101]

Freshened up

That's as clean as it gets nice work!

 

[AnotherJarhead]

Topop101...love your avatar. I think I might get that made into a T-shirt design.

 

[Fretters]

"What happens in the garage, stays in the garage"

Seriously, SWMBO is very tolerant of my habit, as long as it doesn't creep into the house, at least for too long. And she has her own collection habits, so....

Same here. I do occasionally take a while to tell her about having purchased something though, because I know that there'll be at least a withering stare to suffer. The delay time seems to be proportional to item size else collection travel distance, as a rule.

 

[Evergreentree]

What's everyone's thought on fpu?bison a$s8ackwards vises? I can pick up one for $50. The guy is checking for identification marks. What should I look for? but say if it is a true fpu, how's the quality, durability, etc. it's not my style, but I am part polish, and my son may like how it looks like a turtle. Riiiiight, I may buy it for my son.

I'm not really wondering if it's worth 50, just wondering about what people think of quality and craftsmanship, etc

It's either a 5 or 6"

 

[Fretters]

Good quality gear. Do a search for FPU on here and you'll see the logo somewhere. It's a hard one to describe, but I seem to recall it's triangular or thereabouts with a notable U in it.

 

[Evergreentree]

Every time I go to search, find posts, I get nothing. No matter what it is I'm searching for. I don't get it.

 

[Rileysan]

Every time I go to search, find posts, I get nothing. No matter what it is I'm searching for. I don't get it.

I have the same issue. I have to search everything in order to get any results

 

[TreePointer]

Every time I go to search, find posts, I get nothing. No matter what it is I'm searching for. I don't get it.

Forum search engines are notorious for not being as effective as large search sites like Google.

Try a search like this on Google (or other search site): FPU vise site:garagejournal.com

Performing searches with small words or short strings of characters also aren't very effective with some search engines. Some search engines require you to enter a string of at least four or five letters, so a search for just "FPU" will not work. Instead of "FPU" try "FPU vise" or "FPU Polish vise" (without the quotes). Then try with quotes.

Some engines use the plus sign to ensure that certain strings of characters are included in the search example:

+FPU vise
+FPU +Polish vise

Google has replaced the plus sign with quotes, so the previously mentioned keyword searches will look like the this:

"FPU" vise
"FPU" "Polish" vise

 

[CRSINMICH]

Evergreentree: I passed on a 6" FPU like this one today. It had slight condition issues but It seemed well made. He only wanted $80 but I just couldn't pull the trigger. I don't regret passing on it too much - yet. By the way the logo was a backward F next to a forward P the stems of each letter were elongated downward with a slightly enlarged U around the stems like rockers on a chair. Not sure why I passed. It would have been my first 6 incher. It just didn't pop my cork.

 

[BFBOB]

EVERYONE

Here is the Wilton 9400 I purchased for parts yesterday. THE PARTS ARE ALREADY SPOKEN FOR. If that changes I’ll repost this.

I’m posting today because I’ve never seen a vise this abused. I thought it would be fun to get some of your guesses as to what happened to it. Jokes and absurd answers are encouraged. There are no incorrect answers because I don’t know how it got this way

WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS VISE?

Someone dropped a railroad vise on it??
like the one in post 38754?

 

[CRSINMICH]

Someone dropped a railroad vise on it??

BOB: That would do it. It does look shattered.

 

[KMScott]

Definitely got inspiration from a lot of the vises here. Picked up some good tips while searching through the threads.

Nice job on your restore AnotherJarhead. Does the handles on the swivel lockdowns come off? Swedging the ends are pretty easy. This is how I make mine. Keep up the good work.

 

[drivesitfar]

EG: Check bison and maybe check europe's eBay. I love my little 3 inch fpu and might not ever sell it.

Fretters & Outlaw: Good advice for sure.

 

[Evergreentree]

Thanks crs and drivesit. I think I'd rather a smaller fpu. I would like more smaller vises, yup, and 1 really big one. I'm stuck in the 4-6" vise rut right now.

 

[AnotherJarhead]

Nice job on your restore AnotherJarhead. Does the handles on the swivel lockdowns come off? Swedging the ends are pretty easy. This is how I make mine. Keep up the good work.

You sir, have skills like many others here. Far surpassing mine. Again, limited in some areas of tools so I have to use my limited thinking skills to come up with something that'll work for me. Swedging (I kept Googling peening because that's what I thought it was called) as you've done would be difficult for me so I ended up coming up with my version. They're flared out enough that they stop nicely at the lock down as does the handle on the screw. Saw some vids on youtube that I would've liked to try but couldn't even attempt for lack of machining equipment. For what I had to work with though, she came out pretty good.

 

[Outlawmws]

OK this is a rehash of a vise I posted a couple of years ago, that I cleaned up for my daughter to use for jewelry making; mostly she does Wire based stuff.

She and SWMBO are finally putting together their "art room", and a heavy oak desk (that she's named "Groot") I got for her is her work table. She's clamped the vise to the "breadboard" and is at work on a piece for one of her classes (combining art with homework!) and I took a shot of the vise in it's new home.

 

[Shiftless]

Evergreentree: I passed on a 6" FPU like this one today. It had slight condition issues but It seemed well made. He only wanted $80 but I just couldn't pull the trigger. I don't regret passing on it too much - yet. By the way the logo was a backward F next to a forward P the stems of each letter were elongated downward with a slightly enlarged U around the stems like rockers on a chair. Not sure why I passed. It would have been my first 6 incher. It just didn't pop my cork.

EGT:

Here is a close up of the logo found on a 4 inch one for sale in Los Angeles (asking $100)

 

[CRSINMICH]

EGT:

Here is a close up of the logo found on a 4 inch one for sale in Los Angeles (asking $100)

Yeah, that's it. How was my description? Was that what you pictured from what I wrote? The one I saw today was caked with greasy gunk. You could only see that there was something under there. I tried making a rubbing of it using a pencil and a scrap of paper. It worked fairly well. Well enough that I could make out that at least part of it was letters. I used the pencil point to scrape out some of the gunk until I could see all three letters. The vendor used his Smarty Pants phone to Google FPU vise and found two on Ebay. One for $125 or $175 and another for $500. To his credit he didn't immediately raise his asking price.

 

[va.grouseman]

Originally posted by Rileysan.

I still haven't figured out how to tell my wife I've started collecting vises. She tolerates my acquisition of tools at estate sales, et al, but vises are in a different category simply because of the real estate needed to store them. Perhaps you can give me some advise on how to reveal my vice?
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Riley, you think you have problems.---My wife works as a carrier at the local PO.---Now UPS and FedEx is allowed to drop ship at the PO, up to 80lbs.---I can't get away with nothing.---I can't smuggle in anything without her knowing about it, cause she has to lug them home.---And when I buy a monster, they deliver it after she has gotten home.---I have resigned myself to get prepared for the third degree, stink eye, and tongue lashing.---So I have to really want what I am buying, cause I know it's going to cost me the price of the vise, shipping, and the wife.---The first 15 wasn't to bad, the next 25 raised some questions, the 40 after that saw some pretty serious sparing.---I have no idea how many there are now , I just try to get them out of sight and out of mind as quick as possible these days, then do something real nice, take her out to dinner, buy her something.---But I think she is hep to me and taking advantage of it.---Of course if I would start selling off she'd mellow out.

 

[jpickar]

Hey what happened, I lost my notifications!

 

[thursday]

Identifying help. I can't make out what type of C model Wilton this is. Ad says 5" jaws model 101055, but I can't find anything on google. I can see the C but not the following

 

[noisenormajean]

Identifying help. I can't make out what type of C model Wilton this is. Ad says 5" jaws model 101055, but I can't find anything on google. I can see the C but not the following

Original photo:

After some research and using process of elimination, I've decided that it's likely a Wilton C2.


Let us begin with the smallest of the Wilton Combination vises, the C0 (3.5" jaw), we see 101167/101166.

Looking at the C1 (4.5" jaw), we see 101169/101170. The second photo is better.

Looking at my C3 static (6.0" jaws), we see 100524.

Which brings us to a C2 (5" jaw), we see 101059.

By the looks of this C2 (also 101059), the last digit has worn very badly and could easily pass for the number 5.

I submit that due to wear, the seller is misreading the number as "101055" instead of the correct 101059 which would make the vise a C2. Furthermore, the seller has stated that it has 5" jaws, which strongly suggests that it is a Wilton C2.

But I could be wrong.

All photos were accessed from GJ forums. That is all. Thank you for your time.

 

[omowright]

Good morning.

I have not yet bought a serious vise. This thread has helped me to know, not only about good vises but many of the pictures showed beautiful and well arranged workshops to be copied (am I allowed?).

Thanks a lot guys. I can acquire from you, for practical work, what I didn't from school and training ...

 

[CRSINMICH]

Noisenormajean: Very nicely laid out. Were you, or are you, a teacher? I was but I'm now retired. You seem to be a natural at it. Well done indeed. What are you doing up so early? Grading papers?

 

[hondacivic247]

Maybe someone can help I'm looking to buy my first vise to put on my small welding table, I wad looking to buy a wilton cause that's all we have in the shop at work qnd I really like them. I was thinking of going with the multipurpose one they offer I like how the jaws swivel on it incase I need to have it hold something to weld on. Anyone know if it's **** or something decent??

Came across one on Craigslist for 65 bucks it's a bit rusty but could be cleaned up and snagged for $50

 

[CRSINMICH]

omowright: Welcome to this thread. To my knowledge, you are the first member we have had from Africa. Certainly you are allowed to copy workshops you find here. Are you a trained machinist or are you an interested novice like myself.? Are there apprentice programs in Sierra Leone? Please tell us about life in Freetown. Keep posting!

 

[CRSINMICH]

Hondacivic: I think they're all at work now so you might have to be patient about getting an answer. I'm retired so I don't have that problem. Were you talking about a Wilton Bullet that has a rear swivel jaw? If so here are some posts that might be of interest. The first is on page 1929 post #38577. It's from a member named Evergreentree who had just bought a Wilton with a swivel jaw. Next, here is a link to the Vise Repair thread. Evergreentree is asking for help getting the swivel pin out of his Wilton. It starts on post #2236. Happy hunting.

Click on this:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5314200#post5314200

 

[omowright]

omowright: Welcome to this thread. To my knowledge, you are the first member we have had from Africa. Certainly you are allowed to copy workshops you find here. Are you a trained machinist or are you an interested novice like myself.? Are there apprentice programs in Sierra Leone? Please tell us about life in Freetown. Keep posting!

There are training programs by the national transport authority. I am a novice but have done many years as an electronics technician and believe that apart from the "wrenching and bolting", cars are almost all electronics now. With the manufacturer's manuals and Haynes repair manual, I am doing everything on my car myself. Due to a lack of "electronically oriented" mechanics, my friends are asking me to "look" at their OBD II cars.

Main problem here is that I have to ship everything, even degreasers, in from overseas so I need as much inforation as possible before venturing with my money.

Thanks for the wecome. I've gained so much already and will try to keep posting ...

 

[drivesitfar]

OMO: once you find threads talking about the tools or machines or whatever you are looking for if you don't find them just ask questions and i'm sure we'll help if we can. also if you find what you need and are happy maybe post a WELL DONE or some other good words so the posters that post a lot know somebody found their post or thread interesting. also welcome and i've seen a lot of members from South Africa so you might even have neighbors on the forum if you stick around.

Thursday: NJ's post is awesome and just by looking at the Wilton on that cart i'm about 99% sure it's a C2 so check it out and if it's not damaged it is one of the best vises Wilton makes. good luck

NJ: AWESOME POST

 

[CRSINMICH]

Drives: Really? There are members from South Africa? I like to look at where people are from. I've seen Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, Irish, Netherlands, Canadians, Poland I think, Germany and somebody from northern Europe - Sweden, Finland up that way. Are there any members from South America? I honestly didn't remember anyone from Africa. I'll have to look closer. I spend most of my time on this thread so maybe the more distant members are on other threads. Does anyone keep track of where members are from? Maybe we could have a world map with pins indicating members. The International Brotherhood of Vise Men. I like it.

 

[oldldh]

The International Brotherhood of Vise Men. I like it.

Don't let it become confused with the ---

International Brotherhood of Vice Men!!!

There are several Police Agencies looking for those guys...

 

[CRSINMICH]

Don't let it become confused with the ---

International Brotherhood of Vice Men!!!

There are several Police Agencies looking for those guys...

International Brotherhood of Tool Guys then? Or the more PC International Siblinghood of Tool Folks.

 

[drivesitfar]

CRS: once you get a little deeper in the RABBIT HOLE you'll find out a lot of things you didn't know.

yes several members from Brazil, Russia and i talk with one in Garage Gallery that posted pictures of the North Pole not too long ago that he drove his DODGE to so i'd know where to go and see SANTA and ask him for that REED 209 or the MYTHICAL 10 inch PARKER.

cheers buddy and keep reading posts and threads.

OLDIE: i haven't asked in a while and hoping your ticker and your health are in as good of shape as your personality. YES??

 

[freudianfloyd]

Can anybody tell me about this vise? I know it is a Chas. Parker, but not sure of the model number, and cannot tell if it is all there, I can't tell if its missing a swivel base, or if that is a bolt sticking through for mounting it. I was told it has 4" jaws and opens to 4.5". Also, if you could give me an estimate on it's value. Thanks

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[JZiggy]

Picked up this little guy on CL yesterday. It's a 3.5" Wilton Cadet. Appears to be original paint and in totally non-messed-with condition. Jaws close square and tight. I'm hoping it will be a good flipper.

 

[noisenormajean]

Noisenormajean: Very nicely laid out. Were you, or are you, a teacher? I was but I'm now retired. You seem to be a natural at it. Well done indeed. What are you doing up so early? Grading papers?

CRSINMICH: Quite the opposite - "studying" for finals.

 

[jakemac]

Drives: Really? There are members from South Africa? I like to look at where people are from. I've seen Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, Irish, Netherlands, Canadians, Poland I think, Germany and somebody from northern Europe - Sweden, Finland up that way. Are there any members from South America? I honestly didn't remember anyone from Africa. I'll have to look closer. I spend most of my time on this thread so maybe the more distant members are on other threads. Does anyone keep track of where members are from? Maybe we could have a world map with pins indicating members. The International Brotherhood of Vise Men. I like it.

You forgot Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Italy, France, and Iceland. I'm sure that I've missed a few as well.

 

[Shiftless]

Picked up this little guy on CL yesterday. It's a 3.5" Wilton Cadet. Appears to be original paint and in totally non-messed-with condition. Jaws close square and tight. I'm hoping it will be a good flipper.

JZ:
Nice find!
Looks EXACTLY like the "taskmaster" vise I bought, cleaned up and gave away to my sister in law's husband who had no vise. Imagine that...a grown man with a 2 car garage, a workbench, and no vise at all.

 

[noisenormajean]

NJ: AWESOME POST

Drivesitfar: Thank you - I learn from the best. And by that, I mean you.