If I understand your area of the country correctly, there was not (is not) a lot of manufacturing there in the desert, and as such, great vises are somewhat scarce. $100 for a Wilton C1 vise would be a "you ****" deal almost any place in the country. Where you're from, that sounds like a rare opportunity ... go get it!
Brian
I actually live more in the mountains/foothills. 5000 feet elevation and we actually see snow! In Arizona! Crazy huh? Haha We have a bunch of machine shops out here so vises aren't too rare but ones of this size don't pop up too often and at that price, it seems like a decent deal. Is it reasonabale that I'm looking less forward to the drive rather than spending the $100 to get it? Haha
The missing cap can be purchased from a member of the GJ site, Kevin Scott. He machines new ones and they are much more stout than the originals. I grabbed one from him when I was cleaning up my Wilton bullet.
Here is the URL:
http://www.wiltonviseparts.net/contact-us/
As for your pickup, that's a great deal on a Wilton. That vise wouldn't have lasted 3 hours on Craigslist out my way.
Ordered up a set of swivel locks and a new machined dust cover from from www.wiltonviseparts.com. Kevin was very helpful.
As far as the color goes, I think I'm going to paint it orange with black lettering.
Nice score. I paid 200 for mine and got a deal. If there is no date on the slide, check the spindle. A lot of the newer ones have the month and date on the spindle after the part number.
I see that you got vintage style swivel clamps with hex bases: nice choice, my favorite clamps. Great job!
Nice score. I paid 200 for mine and got a deal. If there is no date on the slide, check the spindle. A lot of the newer ones have the month and date on the spindle after the part number.
Here's a picture of the lead screw. Is that what you meant by spindle? Last two digits appear to be "78"? Can't really tell if the last digit is an 8 or a 6.
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/RMM441Y' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/RMM441Y.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>
That's the part number of the spindle. If there is a date, it will be spaced after that. Such as 08 16 on my tradesman or 09 08 on my 450S. Yours might not be new enough to have it. It's at least older than 99 with the seperate rear cap. 99 and newer went to a one piece rear section with just a larger diameter dust cap.
It's looking very good so far.