The VISES of Garage Journal

[joe.striper]

Hi,

I picked up this vise from a guy when I was looking around in his garage while buying some used tool cabinets. He said it was used in a production shop for many years and was his when the shop closed. After cleaning it a bit, I found the crack in the dynamic jaw brace, but no other cracks in the jaws. I can braze repair the crack, and the vise actually works fine with it, just binds a bit when fully open. At 10.5" full open, I don't think I will need that very often. Jaws are 5 1/4 wide and the rotating jaw works with some persuasion. My question is what is it? There are no markings anywhere on it. I think it's a Rock Island, but I'm just guessing. Any ideas?

I believe it is a Prentiss. They are famous for that split. Before you repair it remove it and clamp the hell out of it. When you braze it clamped it wil have no binding.

 

[Techie1961]

Found a used vise - good as new:
I am going to keep it as is and just use it.
Well, I could not resist to polish the nose...

That's a beautiful vise. Nice find.

 

[drivesitfar]

RM: I agree that it's most likely a Prentiss with the swivel base pull pin and no markings on the side. probably a Prentiss #20 and look on top of the static just behind the edge of the swivel jaw about 2 inches from the pull pin for a # and maybe Prentiss in the cast like my Prentiss #22.

here's my Prentiss #20 for comparison and i think it has 5.25 inch wide jaws like yours and the later pull pin for the swivel base. my Prentiss #26 has the pull pin.

also before you braze it sounds like you know how to cool down the vise slowly even in an oven or BBQ after brazing and pre heating? also are you planning on drilling a hole at the end of the crack and maybe making the crack bigger with a V to keep it from cracking again?

good luck

 

[Techie1961]

I found this vise at the scrap yard while I was dumping some junk and had to bring it home. I wasn't sure if it was cracked but it wasn't and cleaned up pretty nice. There weren't any jaws with it and I had a look online for replacements. Holy ****! There are 6" jaws available locally but they're about $150 for a set. I looked at Amazon.com instead of Amazon.ca (Canada) and they're about $20 in the USA.

Oddly though, they aren't the same as the jaws on my other 6" Record vise. Anyone know why they are different?

 

[McBrownie]

Found a used vise - good as new:
I am going to keep it as is and just use it.
Well, I could not resist to polish the nose...

Really nice and I totally agree with leaving the original finish. Any idea of its history?

 

[KMScott]

Joe, the compound vise you picked up looks pretty heavy duty. It aught to clean up pretty nice, does have some mistakes cut into the dynamic jaw. To be honest in my 43 years of machining I never used one. Plenty of math to figure the settings on a compound vise. Nice find, after you clean it up I bet you will find a light stamping with the maker. Maybe a Brown and Sharpe.

Va, I was going to correct you on the swivel jaw a while back but glad I did'nt. A very nice vise. Never seen one. Is it yours?

rmhartwell, that looks like a early Prentiss #21, before they started using replaceable jaws. It's a old one.

 

[joe.striper]

Joe, the compound vise you picked up looks pretty heavy duty. It aught to clean up pretty nice, does have some mistakes cut into the dynamic jaw. To be honest in my 43 years of machining I never used one. Plenty of math to figure the settings on a compound vise. Nice find, after you clean it up I bet you will find a light stamping with the maker. Maybe a Brown and Sharpe.

Found it Kevin on GJ. Here's the description 'This is a Mountable 5X5X2 Universal Vice and Tool Co Angle Vice.
Jaws grip 5X2 inches and open to 5 inches.
Tilts forward backward and side to side."

Its going on my DP table. Here's a nicer version. Obviously mine is missing its jaw inserts. If only I knew someone who made jaw inserts???

 

[drivesitfar]

RM: yes i meant to post #21 as KMScott says because i posted the picture of my #21 instead of the #20 that i posted. i won't edit and just let you know i know.

Techie: why not make some aluminum or copper jaws for it out of something you might have laying around? that Record cleaned up nicely and quick too. i would have thought it had some welds on it with all the gunked up paint. how are the screw holes in the Record's jaws? still threaded, or stripped or maybe old studs broken off in them? they look ok, but i'm wearing readers.

 

[Fraggles]

McB

The Record 6Vs was a new design, and made closer to the end of production in here, in England. This would explain why the jaw holes are spaced differently to the other 6" Records.

You could fashion some new jaws for the 6Vs or drill and tap new holes to suit the ready made jaws from Amazon.

What 6" Record vice are the jaws you show from?No.6, 25,36..?

Are you missing the spring that sits between the washer and handle?

The vice has cleaned up nicely

 

[rmhartwell]

Thanks Joe and Drivesitfar,

I can the similarity to the Prentiss from your provided pictures. I plan to clamp it tight and use a ball mill to open up the crack after I drill a hole to stop the crack at the end. I will set the piece in my warmed kiln (for melting aluminum) and let it cool slowly. This one has seen a lot of use and wear, but will work great for my needs in the garage.

Thanks again.

RM

 

[bagged89s10]

Got home from work to have a notice on the door from ups saying they missed me. I guess I forgot to sign up for the signature waiver. Wtf
Oh well, I fixed it for future deliveries. Now I have to wait until Monday to get the Wilton I bought.

On a positive note, I had time in between meetings so I stopped by Joe's. I was able checked out some of his awesome recent vise acquisitions.

 

[paigej]

I bought it from another picker when I picked up a 4.5" Yost vise today. He had purchased it in the summer for 60 and I pd him 100. He never removed the original tag sale price. Make sense?

Figured it was something like that. Must be nice having minions

 

[joe.striper]

Figured it was something like that. Must be nice having minions

Dont think of them as minions, instead think of them as unindicted co-conspirators.

 

[Shiftless]

Dont think of them as minions, instead think of them as unindicted co-conspirators.

Unindicted co-conspirators...

Love it!

 

[dansem]

Inner working of Parker 92 (Hall's original patent slightly different configuration):

 

[mike_paxton]

There are no markings anywhere on it. I think it's a Rock Island, but I'm just guessing. Any ideas?

Agree that it looks like a Prentiss.

As suggested,look in the area behind the dynamic jaw to see if the No. is there.

For visual of this, look at the 3rd post in below link and in the 2nd picture in that 3rd post, you will see info on that vise around the dynamic jaw area.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=202526

Mike

 

[Cima96]

Cima: welcome to the group and nice looking vise. i normally see the German's Leinen or the Polish made Bison FPU with that design. i guess all of your countries over there has their own version.

personally l really like that style vise and wish we had a few more over here to buy.

Thank you for your appreciation, of course I know also Leinen and Bison Vices but in Italy they are a bit rare especially because of the prices and weight related to the dimensions (a leinen 125 cost 456€ and weight 28kg ), so mechanics and machinists usually buy something cheaper but whose quality is sufficient for what they have to do. According to what I have seen in the workshops I can say that one of the most common vices that people buy is the FZA A70 ETERNA. It's a vice with the rear sliding jaw and made of forged steel, it's a bit cheaper than the MA6 because the body of the tool is composed by two forged pieces welded together (it's not single piece made of expensive cast steel) and this simplify a lot the manufacturing process without reducing the quality.
Anyway I think also vices made of cast iron are very good, especially they're better for fileworks, sawing, scraping and so on because they have the property of reducing vibrations and this is a good thing for the operator that has to bear a lower stress during the handwork, especially Leinen and similar i think are the best for this.
The last thing I want to say is that in Leinen vices the only german feature you can find I think is the name, today the brand "Leinen" is a property of the "Morsificio Italiano" whose headquarter is near Padova and that own also "FZA", "Braun-MCP" and "URSUS".
If you want to have a look this is the website: http://www.fza-morsificio.com/index.htm

 

[Techie1961]

Techie: why not make some aluminum or copper jaws for it out of something you might have laying around? that Record cleaned up nicely and quick too. i would have thought it had some welds on it with all the gunked up paint. how are the screw holes in the Record's jaws? still threaded, or stripped or maybe old studs broken off in them? they look ok, but i'm wearing readers.

You read my mind. I was thinking that since this isn't as solid as my No 6, I would use it for more finesse type work. The holes are stripped but I figure I'll just tap em out for 5/16-18 like most vises are. They were 1/4-20 from the looks of it.

McB

The Record 6Vs was a new design, and made closer to the end of production in here, in England. This would explain why the jaw holes are spaced differently to the other 6" Records.

You could fashion some new jaws for the 6Vs or drill and tap new holes to suit the ready made jaws from Amazon.

What 6" Record vice are the jaws you show from?No.6, 25,36..?

Are you missing the spring that sits between the washer and handle?

The vice has cleaned up nicely

Thanks Fraggles, that helps a lot. The other vise that I have is a No 6 like you suspected. The spring was just outside of the shot that I decided to use for the post.

 

[mike_paxton]

ALL: anybody else have and use one of these?

drivesitfar:

I like the Wilton 7" woodworking vises and the optional quick release. Many were used in school shop classes in our area.

I usually take cotter pin off the plate on the back where the two sliding rods and the screw go through, unscrew the two sections and then wire wheel the sliding rods and screw, followed by a little fine sandpaper with some oil on rod to clean them smoother, then lube including the quick release and put it all back together.

I'm a woodworker, but a lot of guys use woodworking vises as an inexpensive vise for other things in the shop.

Mike

 

[va.grouseman]

Previously posted by KMScott.

Va, I was going to correct you on the swivel jaw a while back but glad I did'nt. A very nice vise. Never seen one. Is it yours?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yea KM I wanted to go into Photobucket and make sure of the model number but Photobucket wouldn't load yesterday.---So I went by memory which means I had a 50-50 chance of getting it right, which means I had absolutely no chance of getting it right.

Yea I bought the 646 off of Pinch-Point.









BTW, did you happen to notice those pretty new jaws on that 326.---Look familiar.---Got the 326 off of Autopts.---The 326 is a nice piece of iron.

Should have bought me one of those 926s last year.---They were in never used/mint condition and naturally priced pretty high.---Didn't think I could stand the jar, but now you never see them come up for sale.---If they do, there gone in 60 seconds.---I'm still grieving.

 

[drivesitfar]

VA: more pictures of your chain gang saved to my laptop. have you posted a family picture yet because it's about time for a poll to vote on vises of the year?

Mike: thanks for the 411 on cleaning my quick release Wilton. it's headed to another GJ member's house and you might recognize his cool wood bench.

RM: good luck getting the swivel jaw loose and working on your prentiss and I guess i did post my prentiss #20 so here's the #21 that isn't in great shape that probably has the 5.25 inch jaws. what does your vise weigh. i think my #20 weighs about 70 pounds and the #21 is about 100 and the #22 is 165 so they go up in weight quickly with small jumps in jaw width.

 

[drivesitfar]

Dansem: i'm not sure where you found that drawing, but i saved it to my laptop and i'm sure Meatsis will enjoy it if he hasn't seen it yet.

Also welcome to the group and you can post catalog pictures, drawings and vises anytime to help us. thanks for the timely post of the drawing for the Parker 92.

Cima: thanks for all the great information and again welcome to our group.

Techie: sounds like you'll have it up and working on a bench by the end of the weekend. good luck

 

[Bottlecapdigger]

Drive, yea that's my 326, and apologies to Bottlecap, I transposed those Starrett numbers again in my head and that was my first mistake, cause I got no brain left.---I should remember those 926s, because I'm still kicking myself for procrastinating last year on 6 NOS 926s a guy had on EBay, and when I decided to pull the trigger on one, he had sold the last one. ---The swivel-jaw is a 646.---Sorry for not correcting this sooner, but right after I realized the screw-up, we lost internet and everything just locked up.---we're catching some pretty bad weather here, and it's messing with everything.---Again apologies to Bottle-cap.


Here's my 326 like Drive said.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=518748&d=1453463422.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=518749&d=1453463422


And here's a 646, complements of Pinch-Point.

. Not a problem Grouseman. Say do remember what the 926s sold for on eBay. Just wonder what they sold for. BCD

 

[Gert]

Drivesitfar – GarageJournal opened my eyes for quality vises. I search several dutch equivalants of craigslist. There’s not much interest in used vises here and only a couple of old US made vises are offered a year. So it’s a real search. Most vises are for sale for multiple weeks and no bids. Heuer vises are offered very often, but prices are way to high. I paid 20 euro for the Starrett, that’s about $21,50…
KMScott – Glad to show them. The Rock Island 574 is at the sandblaster right now and will be finished within a few weeks. It’s fun bringing them back to life although I am not as fast as most of you.
Oldldh - I have no idea how all this old US iron gets across the Atlantic. When buying them I ask how they get here but none of them knows…
Techie – Thanks, it’s a nice vise indeed. And no work needed to make it work. Just ‘plug and play’.

 

[PghJKB]

Dansem: i'm not sure where you found that drawing, but i saved it to my laptop and i'm sure Meatsis will enjoy it if he hasn't seen it yet.

Also welcome to the group and you can post catalog pictures, drawings and vises anytime to help us. thanks for the timely post of the drawing for the Parker 92.

Cima: thanks for all the great information and again welcome to our group.

Techie: sounds like you'll have it up and working on a bench by the end of the weekend. good luck

Here is the original Hall patent courtesy of USPTO

JKB

 

[va.grouseman]

Bottlecap, the first one went for $1100.00 with $200.00 shipping, and that's the one I should have bought.---The first one is usually the cheapest and then everyone wants in on it and the price goes up.---Best I remember the latter ones went for $1500.00 and $1600.00, but probably went to local Canadians.---That's where they were located and why it was $200.00 shipping for me and probably much cheaper shipping for them.---Still should have bought one.---A NOS, 926, over 200 lbs., quality vise would be worth a mite more retail.

I bought a NOS 800S Wilton for $1300.00 and shipping finally cost me $1450.00.---Guy on EBay had 4 of those.---I bought the first one and the last one went for $1950.00 plus shipping.

That 926 you have is a rare bird.---You're in a small fraternity with that one.---Their on my very short list.

 

[dansem]

Re: Parker 92

Page 194 Buck & Hickman 1902 Catalog

 

[diagnosis]

I'm waiting for a post on a Samsonia 'perfect' vise someone picked up in Peterborough today, to show up here.....

 

[Hemi49]

Vise racks

Today I got to spend some time working on the vise storage rack in my garage...Got the lowest shelf installed along with placing a few vises to keep it from blowing away........There will be 2 more full length shelves and 2 half length shelves.......My garage has been a real mess lately so it will be nice to get things better organized....
Hemi

 

[Gert]

Hemi - nice vise racks.

 

[Gert]

Look what I found:
Rock Island no 24 automatic swivel vise!

Wanna tell you a story
About a vise I found
When it comes to clamping
Oh, she steels the show
She aint exactly pretty
Aint exactly small
155 lbs, 6 inch jaws, 27 inch long, automatic swivel base and jaw.
You could say she got it all !! (could not resist to throw in some ACDC)

Especially rust. Everything is rusted solid. Both the swivel jaw as the swivel base don’t move. One cast-in jaw is missing. Handle needs work. This vise is going to be my biggest challenge.

Question:
How does the automatic swivel base work? Seems like it will swivel when not clamping but not sure about that.
Any other information on this Rock Island is appreciated – google shows nothing, nor does dayids great wiki…

 

[CwazyWabbit]

Re: Parker 92

Page 194 Buck & Hickman 1902 Catalog

Do you have the 1902 catalogue?

 

[CwazyWabbit]

Look what I found:
Rock Island no 24 automatic swivel vise!

Wanna tell you a story
About a vise I found
When it comes to clamping
Oh, she steels the show
She aint exactly pretty
Aint exactly small
155 lbs, 6 inch jaws, 27 inch long, automatic swivel base and jaw.
You could say she got it all !! (could not resist to throw in some ACDC)

Especially rust. Everything is rusted solid. Both the swivel jaw as the swivel base don’t move. One cast-in jaw is missing. Handle needs work. This vise is going to be my biggest challenge.

Question:
How does the automatic swivel base work? Seems like it will swivel when not clamping but not sure about that.
Any other information on this Rock Island is appreciated – google shows nothing, nor does dayids great wiki…
......

I would guess the main nut slides towards the swivel pin when clamping something and this locks the swivel.

When I say pin I doubt it's something small in diameter.

 

[va.grouseman]

PghJKB and Dansem, here's a sample of that 94.











These pop up on EBay about once a year.


Gert, I have the same kind of RI., but smaller.---I think they have a center post like the Versa-Vise that a cam binds against as you tighten down on something, rendering it nonswiveling.---Pretty good idea.---Someone on here had a cut-away AD on one, and you could see just how they work.---Might have been B100.---If I can find it again I'll post.













All three of those on the tailgate have the same swiveling system.

 

[LXCam]

Picked up a mate to my other Wilton. But this one seems to be a bit more stout.

 

[Mr_P]

Does this look like a Parker to anyone else? Could be a nice restore for someone in southern California for $65 on CL ....

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...landempire.craigslist.org/atq/5406298566.html

 

[LXCam]

Does this look like a Parker to anyone else? Could be a nice restore for someone in southern California for $65 on CL ....

]

I'm not sure if it is or not but seriously??!! I've been on the hunt for a couple years for a vice project that was reasonably priced. And just today I picked up that ^^^^ 600N, but paid good money for it

And you go and post a vice that's 15 minutes from me

 

[Outlawmws]

It probably is a Parker, However, that bolt on brace was never a factory option. You might get lucky and it was an add-on to prevent the D-Jaw support from breaking off, but I'd bet it's already been broken off and welded...

Inspect CLOSELY before laying out any cash..

 

[Outlawmws]

ps: it's also missing the swivel base.

 

[Outlawmws]

pps: See if the stand comes with it. That looks like it could be useful..