"Old Vise", The ad read, "$25".

[Roberts210]

I saw a CL ad on Monday night. "Old Vise, $25." No picture.

Reading the poorly written ad, it went on to say the seller had other vises to sell. Reading his other CL ads I saw ads for a C-man and a Morgan Milwaukee 38A--he wanted $125 for the Morgan.

But what intrigued me is on the "Old Vise, $25" ad is he said it was a WWII vise that the original owner had welded it so it wouldn't swivel anymore, and... "It used to be a Wilton" He'd had the ad up for awhile. But I drove 7 miles to take a look at it. Here's what I found.

Not only had the base been welded, but one jaw had been welded also--top and bottom.

No "Wilton" was cast into the body.

That jaw tho. OUCH!!

I think these are Wilton numbers:

It's got a date of 10 - 4_ Something is after the 4 but I can't make it out.

The story as told to me is that the original owner couldn't get the proper parts for the swivel base, so he just welded 'em up.
That he did!

On both sides:

So the first thing I did was to cut out the welded-in jaw. I used my Milwaukee angle grinder with a 40 thou wheel and cut a long rectangular slab out of the jaw he had welded in. I left just enough clinging to the vise, so that I could later chisel it out after I had removed the rectangular piece.

Here is the rectangular piece I cut out, and you can also how I'm starting to peel away the thin pieces that are left.

Here is the jaw I removed--in two pieces.

Here's what the jaw bed looked like after I got the welded piece out.

Wouldn't you know... the one picture I wanted to come out is out of focus. Sorry. But I ground back the weld even with the cast... iron? Steel? I don't know if Wiltons were made with malleable cast iron or cast steel.

 

[Roberts210]

Here's the out of focus picture after I cut out the welded in jaw.
I cleaned up all the weld over-lap. And the broken off screws are visible, so hopefully I'll be able to remove them and install new jaws. The jaws are 5 inches wide.

 

[Roberts210]

One pipe jaw is missing but I never chuck pipes up in my Wiltons anyway.

 

[Roberts210]

Oh... I left out that the seller, who was retiring at age 79 as a handyman, said when I got there that the vise was $30 not $25. (The ad said $25) I didn't quibble. I paid him $30. Later he called me and told me I was right, and he gave me a $5 credit toward any other tool he was selling. He said he'd had the ad up for awhile and no one had come to take a look at it when it was $30, so he lowered it.

Questions? Comments?

 

[drivesitfar]

Roberts: first off i'll talk about your Wilton 1750 that IS A WILTON made vise. more than likely it had a SNAP ON sticker on the side because it was painted red. it could have had a Wilton sticker or John Deere or several other big company name's sticker on it because Wilton made and makes vises for other companies.

since you have the skills and wanted to take on the Wilton as a sort of challenge to see if you can make it great again i wish you all the luck in the world.

that said if it was me and i walked into the old guy's shop i would have paid $125 for the Morgan 38A with the big paddle jaws or maybe asked if i could get both vises for $125.

keep posting pictures as you work your way through the vise and if you would maybe post a picture of the tools you use besides the descriptions if you have time.

here's a few more pictures of Wilton Tradesman vises and the last 3 are one of my Snap on 1750's.

thanks

 

[Roberts210]

Thanks Drivesitfar. I hear ya, but I got a great vise for my $30. Anyone know what size the machine screws are for the jaws?

 

[Roberts210]

As far as tools, all I did was cut into the welded jaw with a 40 thou cutoff wheel in my Milwaukee angle grinder. I cut from the top and also from the side. When I had alllllmost cut all the way through it both ways, I stopped cutting and pried that piece out. Then I used the angle grinder again to grind the upper corner of the top weld--I did that so when I began to pry out the thin pieces that were left, the material would break apart on my line and not break out part of the jaw. I used a chisel that I had ground down to a point years ago and just hammered it between the thin piece that was left of the jaw and the dynamic casting itself.

A little out of focus, but you can see how I've hammered the pointed chisel in between the thin piece and the jaw.

Here I've hammered it about half way out. The piece I cut out is sitting between the jaws. Then I just kept hammering it in until I had removed the thin pieces.

 

[Roberts210]

I just ordered a pair of jaw inserts for it. Thanks Drivesitfar for telling me that it's a 1750.
But since it has a date of 10 - 4_ do you think they were making Snap On vises back then?

 

[Roberts210]

How is the best way to clean the nut? It's got some sort of restriction that sometimes keeps the jaws from closing all the way. Sometimes they close and sometimes I feel an obstruction.

 

[gungatim]

nice score. are you going to cut/grind out the weld and make it functional again? it'd be some work but with some careful grinding and filing, I bet that thing will look like new again.

 

[Karl's Garage]

Good luck on it. I am sure it will be well worth the effort when finished.

 

[WWShop]

Thats a great vise and nice project for you. Keep the updates coming.

 

[exmaxima1]

Thanks Drivesitfar. I hear ya, but I got a great vise for my $30. Anyone know what size the machine screws are for the jaws?

The new jaws will come with screws. You will most likely need to grind the jaws once mounted to get the edges to align. I restored a number of Tradesman vises, and only one went together without grinding.

Fyi, that vise is not as old as the seller thought. Most likely 80's

 

[drivesitfar]

Roberts: since i don't know exactly the year Wilton started making tradesman vises, but i'd guess your vise is missing a 7 or an 8 and i think it was most likely a 1984 birthdate.

my Snap on Wilton is buried, but some of the guys change out these vise jaws almost daily so hopefully they will see your thread and give you the screw sizes you are asking about.

good luck

 

[Roberts210]

.......with some careful grinding and filing, I bet that thing will look like new again.

That's the plan.

 

[Roberts210]

The new jaws will come with screws. You will most likely need to grind the jaws once mounted to get the edges to align. I restored a number of Tradesman vises, and only one went together without grinding.

Fyi, that vise is not as old as the seller thought. Most likely 80's

Thanks. Makes sense about it being not as old as the seller thought. At one point he told me it was a 1936 vintage. Now THAT I knew was not correct.

And do you mean grind the backs of the jaw inserts to make them parallel?

 

[StillTooManyHobbies]

Nice project for you as you apparently have the time to do it. I would use another one of your cutoff disks and make the base movable again. You are doing great so far!

 

[uniballer]

Nice save. Cant wait for more progress.

 

[drivesitfar]

Roberts: this vise is fairly common so you might be able to find the parts missing to make the swivel base work like a few members have suggested. if you are able to make them all the better, but if you need to buy them or have them made the cost of this vise will get spendy quick.

as always GOOD LUCK

 

[Roberts210]

Thanks guys. I ordered new jaw inserts--$37 with shipping and tax. I may free up the base, but I might not. As Drivesitfar says, it can get spendy.

 

[Roberts210]

Any ideas on how to clean the nut? Something is stuck back in there that's impeding the screw from going all the way in, but it only happens at certain times.

 

[drivesitfar]

Roberts: take a few minutes to read some of the Wilton bullet vise restoration threads on Vise Repair 101 and there are many many others. the pin holding the vise nut in place is either one long pin or two short ones and sometimes a challenge so before trying to punch them out you should read up on what everybody does.

first off if you have a wood dowel or maybe an aluminum one to push out that dust cover off the back you might just need to do that to get the vise nut clean and see what the issue is. did you unscrew out the dynamic jaw all the way? just don't let it fall, but these usually stay in place even when unscrewed all the way and just need a little pull to take them out.

take pictures as you can and post with your questions is always the best and if you want to move this over to Vise Repair 101 where it gets a lot more member's eyes that might get you more help too.

if you have questions just ask and i'm sure you'll get getting in to the jaw screws and such that are above my pay grade or expertise soon. i try to avoid vises with broken jaws or welded ones but if you can buy new jaws for less than $40 i might have to rethink that. of course i own a few that have issues and they might have had parts i needed.

did you pull out the dynamic jaw and can you see anything in the vise nut that might be an issue?

 

[exmaxima1]

Thanks. Makes sense about it being not as old as the seller thought. At one point he told me it was a 1936 vintage. Now THAT I knew was not correct.

And do you mean grind the backs of the jaw inserts to make them parallel?

No, you close the jaws and grind down the tops and ends to get them to align. Of course, that's assuming that they indeed close square---if not, you have a bent vise...

 

[Roberts210]

Roberts: take a few minutes to read some of the Wilton bullet vise restoration threads on Vise Repair 101 and there are many many others.

Thanks. I hadn't known about that thread.

first off if you have a wood dowel or maybe an aluminum one to push out that dust cover off the back you might just need to do that to get the vise nut clean and see what the issue is.

Ok. I'll try that.

.....did you unscrew out the dynamic jaw all the way? just don't let it fall, but these usually stay in place even when unscrewed all the way and just need a little pull to take them out.

Yes. I pulled the dynamic jaw out several times.

.....take pictures as you can and post with your questions is always the best and if you want to move this over to Vise Repair 101 where it gets a lot more member's eyes that might get you more help too.

if you have questions just ask and i'm sure you'll get getting in to the jaw screws and such that are above my pay grade or expertise soon. i try to avoid vises with broken jaws or welded ones but if you can buy new jaws for less than $40 i might have to rethink that. of course i own a few that have issues and they might have had parts i needed.

did you pull out the dynamic jaw and can you see anything in the vise nut that might be an issue?

I saw jaws for the 1750 vise from $32 to $167, just depending on where you ordered them from.

 

[Roberts210]

No, you close the jaws and grind down the tops and ends to get them to align. Of course, that's assuming that they indeed close square---if not, you have a bent vise...

It doesn't appear to be bent.

 

[G-ManBart]

Any ideas on how to clean the nut? Something is stuck back in there that's impeding the screw from going all the way in, but it only happens at certain times.

It sounds like you should first remove the dust cover and see if anything obvious is floating around at the back of the vise. If that doesn't immediately solve the problem, then remove the nut. You have to drive out the two pins at the back of the body to remove it...they rarely line up perfectly, so it can be a bit of a challenge, but not impossible.


In general this thread makes me think that some folks (not you) simply shouldn't own a welder!

 

[Roberts210]

G-man, thanks I'm going to do that this afternoon. The guy was obviously a good welder--those beads around the swivel base were done pretty well. I"m contemplating cutting them out, but I'm not ready to yet.

 

[Roberts210]

The problem was both pins that held the nut in were broken and one broken pin had drifted inward and was (at times) blocking the screw.

 

[ken w.]

With all the vises I have. Most are swivel bases. I very rarely swivel my vises. They stay is the same position 99% of the time. I would say to just leave the base the way it is unless it really bothers you that much. It seems like quite a lot of work to grind it apart. Just my opinion.

 

[Packard V8]

With all the vises I have. Most are swivel bases. I very rarely swivel my vises. They stay is the same position 99% of the time. I would say to just leave the base the way it is unless it really bothers you that much. It seems like quite a lot of work to grind it apart. Just my opinion.

X2 - not worth the effort.

jack vines

 

[Roberts210]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. But I might... might just have a go at it just to test my limits, but then again I might not. I have a large Wilton Machinist's vise--the classic bullet--and I haven't swiveled it in 3 or 4 years. I've had it on my bench for 16-17 years and I can count the times I've swiveled it on the fingers of one hand.

 

[Larryjones]

This reminds me of a Wilton we had in an old shop I worked at. The swivel was welded and the base was welded to the steel work top, the dynamic jaw was welded to the shaft, about 3 or 4 degrees off and with a hefty bead that kept the jaws from closing more that about half an inch.

 

[Roberts210]

Someone tried to weld this one to a steel work top at one time too.