The VISES of Garage Journal

[Craftfab]

Finally got this Yost 33C pretty much finished. The slide was frozen partially open when I got it and am pleased with final product. Still have to clean up the swivel locks and paint them but wanted to see it back together after weeks in pieces. And a few spots on the slide I will try to clean further.

It was coated a few times with citrus strip then evaporust soaking for 12 hours then Rustoleum Primer and a flat olive drab paint I had on shelf.

 

[Smitty]

After months of searching I finally found a replacement swivel base for my blue Prentiss no.22. I found this Frankenprentiss for fifty bucks and the swivel base is in great condition. The vise has had the swivel jaw broken in several places and when a puddle of braze didn’t work they decided to bolt it back together. I must admit it’s kind of interesting to look at.


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[MiamiVise]

The vise has had the swivel jaw broken in several places and when a puddle of braze didn’t work they decided to bolt it back together. I must admit it’s kind of interesting to look at

That actually looks pretty cool tbh. The asymmetry of the bolts really sells it.

 

[Smitty]

Indeed, they had a keen eye for detail.

 

[va.grouseman]

Looks like a PO was using a swivel jaw as a chipping vise.

 

[Smitty]

Agreed. It’s really a shame because the rest of the vise is in pretty good condition for its age. The slide isn’t cracked, the front brow it intact and the plunger for the swivel base works. the vise even has the original handle and it’s straight as an arrow.

 

[Smitty]

I put a swivel base on the C2 that I got Friday and it’s a whole new vise. The stamp was worn on the bottom so all I could read was 2 8
Does anybody have a rough date window for this model?


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[kenc184]

picked this up late last night. 'Large heavy vise, doesn't work, buyer must remove'. turns out to be a Prentiss 56 that won't turn (yet) and has lost the slide support from the static jaw. 40 minutes of wrestling with the bolts and got to bring it home for $35. Hopefully it's a fixable problem(s) and i can use it as an outdoor vise.

Hey Bob, that's the same model as my Frankenprentiss user - the one that needed all the braze welding and milling to look half decent. For $35 you got a ridiculous bargain, a 6" 120lb vise for $35 that looks in great shape? I think I paid about $95 for my p.

Edit: Wait, what do you mean by "lost the slide support"?

 

[kenc184]

After months of searching I finally found a replacement swivel base for my blue Prentiss no.22. I found this Frankenprentiss for fifty bucks and the swivel base is in great condition. The vise has had the swivel jaw broken in several places and when a puddle of braze didn’t work they decided to bolt it back together. I must admit it’s kind of interesting to look at.

Smitty: What a shame, that would have been a great vise, but it sure is worthy of the Frankenprentiss name. Whenever I start to think of myself as a bit of a cowboy I see work like that and realize I ain't so bad. At least you'll net some good parts?

 

[MiamiVise]

Hey Bob, that's the same model as my Frankenprentiss user - the one that needed all the braze welding and milling to look half decent. For $35 you got a ridiculous bargain, a 6" 120lb vise for $35 that looks in great shape? I think I paid about $95 for my p.o.s.

The frankenvise is practically a piece of industrial art. With the right provenance you can double your money.

 

[Fierljeppen]

I put a swivel base on the C2 that I got Friday and it’s a whole new vise. The stamp was worn on the bottom so all I could read was 2 8
Does anybody have a rough date window for this model?

Smitty...Your Wilton is a 2nd generation C2, which came out sometime in early 1960's I believe. The 3rd gen C2 came out in 1972, so most likely your date stamp is missing the 6, making it 1968.

We gotta get you some better beer!

 

[va.grouseman]

Agreed. It’s really a shame because the rest of the vise is in pretty good condition for its age. The slide isn’t cracked, the front brow it intact and the plunger for the swivel base works. the vise even has the original handle and it’s straight as an arrow.

Here's a fellow that I'm afraid is going to do the same with an almost unicorn.---(Why is it called a chipping vise) is the thread title.---I'm hoping he picked up some knowledge before he picked up a ball-peen.
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Southern Forester
Member

Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Southern Mississippi
Posts: 31

Why is it called a Chipping Vise?

Okay, I just bought one of the monsters, a Reed 408 to act as the big brother to my Red Seal 77 4 inch vise. I'm going to have to mount that thing one piece at a time; it's so heavy. Once that happens, I'll share photographs. In any case, I began reading more about the large vises and it seems they are referred in many case as "chipping vises."

What does that refer to?

 

[ken w.]

I picked up this Reed No. 105 R vise yesterday at an estate sale. This is one heavy vise. I also picked up the tiny red vise marked 4.

 

[Smitty]

Smitty...Your Wilton is a 2nd generation C2, which came out sometime in early 1960's I believe. The 3rd gen C2 came out in 1972, so most likely your date stamp is missing the 6, making it 1968.

We gotta get you some better beer!

Jeppen:
I thank you and my liver thanks you.

 

[Dibiase77]

Picked this little 2 inch Holland up today for $5.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044R using Tapatalk

 

[Smitty]

Here's a fellow that I'm afraid is going to do the same with an almost unicorn.---(Why is it called a chipping vise) is the thread title.---I'm hoping he picked up some knowledge before he picked up a ball-peen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Southern Forester
Member

Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Southern Mississippi
Posts: 31

Why is it called a Chipping Vise?

Okay, I just bought one of the monsters, a Reed 408 to act as the big brother to my Red Seal 77 4 inch vise. I'm going to have to mount that thing one piece at a time; it's so heavy. Once that happens, I'll share photographs. In any case, I began reading more about the large vises and it seems they are referred in many case as "chipping vises."

What does that refer to?

Hopefully he came to his senses and put the hammer down, I got the cold sweats just reading his post.

 

[Vise]

Bob - that Prentiss 56 looks well worth the effort and pans r e. Nice pick up.

Smitty - glad to see you found a base for that 22. And that bullet appears to be in harmony now. Nice pieces.

I’ve been working on this big cast iron base this weekend. Finally got those big metal protrusions on the top ground smooth. Here are some progress pics.












Next comes the top plate.

 

[Bobioz1]

Smitty...Your Wilton is a 2nd generation C2, which came out sometime in early 1960's I believe. The 3rd gen C2 came out in 1972, so most likely your date stamp is missing the 6, making it 1968.

We gotta get you some better beer!

No expert here but that doesn’t look like a 60’s Wilton bullet. I do agree about the beer.

 

[Dibiase77]

No expert here but that doesn’t look like a 60’s Wilton bullet. I do agree about the beer.

Can't beat a nice cold can of Beast Ice.

My birthday is Thursday and I plan on enjoying a few of them.

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[Smitty]

Bob - that Prentiss 56 looks well worth the effort and pans r e. Nice pick up.

Smitty - glad to see you found a base for that 22. And that bullet appears to be in harmony now. Nice pieces.

I’ve been working on this big cast iron base this weekend. Finally got those big metal protrusions on the top ground smooth. Here are some progress pics.












Next comes the top plate.

The stand looks badass. How thick is your top plate gong to be?

 

[Productbob]

ken & Vise thanks. I mean the lower extension from the static jaw or what some call the tongue. It broke off at some point in the past. Got into it a bit today and seems the problems were threefold; spacers jammed against the screw, tab screw collar had no tabs and the slide was stuck fast. got it apart and the dynamic (without the screw) now slides smoothly into the static. not sure what to do about the lack of the extension (maybe nothing?) but get a collar on it and it should be good to go!

 

[Productbob]

Craft the Yost looks good

Smitty Wilton looks complete and the new donor prentiss looks....different

Vise looking forward to the mounted vise on top of that beast of a stand

Ken hoping I don't need anywhere near as much repair as yours did. Actually it won't get as much repair because you have skills that I don't!

 

[Vise]

The stand looks badass. How thick is your top plate gong to be?

Thanks buddy. Plan to use 1/2” steel plate. Here’s a pic of what I’ve skeched out so far.

 

[Smitty]

It seems fitting for what you’re going to put on top of it.

 

[kenc184]

ken & Vise thanks. I mean the lower extension from the static jaw or what some call the tongue. It broke off at some point in the past. Got into it a bit today and seems the problems were threefold; spacers jammed against the screw, tab screw collar had no tabs and the slide was stuck fast. got it apart and the dynamic (without the screw) now slides smoothly into the static. not sure what to do about the lack of the extension (maybe nothing?) but get a collar on it and it should be good to go!

Bob,

Interesting that your 56 has the tabbed collar. My "new" 518 also has the tab collar, and it was a beech to remove 'cos someone had welded over it. I was thinking of replacing it with a "normal" collar and a set screw, do you have any opinions on the utility or not of the tabbed collar?

Had a little bit of a disaster today with electrolysis and the 518. ******* that I am, I hooked up the connections bass ackwards, then 24 hours later wondered why the vise looked worse than it started.....sigh.

Then I blew up the transformer on my venerable Schumacher 6/2 manual battery charger trying to track down an intermittent connection. Guess what? All you can buy now are "fully automatic" chargers with microprocessors, and auto voltage detection and all sorts of stuff that does not help (at least for electrolysis). Hoping to find something on C.L. going forwards, but I guess it's old school wire wheeling on this one.

 

[wrenchguy]

Bob - that Prentiss 56 looks well worth the effort and pans r e. Nice pick up.

Smitty - glad to see you found a base for that 22. And that bullet appears to be in harmony now. Nice pieces.

I’ve been working on this big cast iron base this weekend. Finally got those big metal protrusions on the top ground smooth. Here are some progress pics.












Next comes the top plate.

nice.

 

[Thistle2592]

Found this in the Men's section of Nordstroms:

 

[Productbob]

Ken going to go with a set screw collar on this one. For me they are straightforward and easier to deal with than a tab collar.

LOL on the reverse hookup; you are not the first nor the will you be the last to hook up backwards. You are probably one of the few to admit it! That's why I derust with chemicals or a wire brush, less chance of me messing that up.

It is a challenge to find a charger with manual mode nowadays even on CL. Folks are hanging on to them longer when they realize that manual option is scarce on new models.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I found this on CL on Friday. (An older reed swivel jaw!) I emailed the seller withing 30 minutes of it being posted. It said to make a reasonable offer. Within an hour I spoke to the seller and made an offer which was agreed on. She said it was her late husbands. I was on my motorcycle and couldnt pick it up right away. The seller said I could get it on Sunday. Later Friday evening the seller texts me and said that her son had already sold the vise and she didnt know. My BS detector went off and I sent a disapointed text back. She claimed her son didnt have cell service where he was and that she was sorry. Im guessing someone made a better offer and she didnt want to be up front about it. I hope that wasnt the case if it was a GJ member.

 

[kenc184]

I found this on CL on Friday. (An older reed swivel jaw!) I emailed the seller withing 30 minutes of it being posted. It said to make a reasonable offer. Within an hour I spoke to the seller and made an offer which was agreed on. She said it was her late husbands. I was on my motorcycle and couldnt pick it up right away. The seller said I could get it on Sunday. Later Friday evening the seller texts me and said that her son had already sold the vise and she didnt know. My BS detector went off and I sent a disapointed text back. She claimed her son didnt have cell service where he was and that she was sorry. Im guessing someone made a better offer and she didnt want to be up front about it. I hope that wasnt the case if it was a GJ member.

I had a similar experience recently, A wilton Bullet came up on CL for $50, looked very good under the surface rust.
I bought it, and agreed to go to the sellers the next day to pick it up.
I texted the next morning as agreed and he said he had some work out in Tracy and probably wouldn't be back till the afternoon and to text or call him then. I did and he claimed to still be out of town and "maybe do it tomorrow".
Well, tomorrow came and he was ignoring my texts and calls. A few days later the bullet reappeared on CL for $250, a few days later dropped to $175 then gone.

 

[Shiftless]

Ken:
I have heard of others who successfully used a modern battery charger to power an electrolysis rig. What they did was to wire in a 12 volt lead acid battery as the power source and use the modern battery charger to maintain voltage on the battery. Just hook up the charger and the battery in parallel. Positive to positive, negative to negative.
If I was going to use this set up, I’d put a fuse in the circuit, maybe 10 amps, to protect from catastrophe in case a short circuit developed.

If any of you guys see something wrong with this, please speak up. SAFETY FIRST !

 

[Vise]

Much thanks, Smitty and Wrench. Will post updates as I have them.

Mr. Wonderful - Sorry to hear that. Those are the stories that keep me up at night. Was that a 406?

 

[Shiftless]

Found this in the Men's section of Nordstroms:

Thanks for posting that pic.

GUYS!:
I thinks Thistle has uncovered a new avenue of sales for those of us with such beautiful “unrestored” vises that they’d rather just sell off for way more than what they would bring all dolled up.
See if the manager of Nordstrom would work a trade. Maybe a nice pair of shoes is in your future!

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Vise, no that would be even more heartbreakng. It was a 403 1/2.

Ken, Yes I noticed that the lead picture in the ad was a chinese double swiveler that has mysteriously dissappeared too.

Oh well, I guess the hunt is part of what keeps most of us going in the vise game! It makes the ones you do bring home sweeter.

 

[454ragtop]

Just refurbed a couple, a Morgan 335 and a Parker 973. More Morgan pics in this Morgan vise thread https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7943392#post7943392

 

[Outlawmws]

Ken:
I have heard of others who successfully used a modern battery charger to power an electrolysis rig. What they did was to wire in a 12 volt lead acid battery as the power source and use the modern battery charger to maintain voltage on the battery. Just hook up the charger and the battery in parallel. Positive to positive, negative to negative.
If I was going to use this set up, I’d put a fuse in the circuit, maybe 10 amps, to protect from catastrophe in case a short circuit developed.

If any of you guys see something wrong with this, please speak up. SAFETY FIRST !

It'll work fine. More than one has done this...

Found this in the Men's section of Nordstroms:

Did you get the manager and ask for a price?

 

[Smitty]

I’m starting a go fund me page to buy it and scan it for the board.


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[454ragtop]

Speaking of Ebay, strange KOZ vise https://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Unusu...298811?hash=item3d8defa8bb:g:AusAAOSw~Btc-TBV
Anyone seen one before?

Parker swivel jaw swivel base $125. pickup only in PA https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ch...985936?hash=item4201cbf790:g:4wEAAOSwF2Jc691E

 

[kenc184]

Ken:
I have heard of others who successfully used a modern battery charger to power an electrolysis rig. What they did was to wire in a 12 volt lead acid battery as the power source and use the modern battery charger to maintain voltage on the battery. Just hook up the charger and the battery in parallel. Positive to positive, negative to negative.
If I was going to use this set up, I’d put a fuse in the circuit, maybe 10 amps, to protect from catastrophe in case a short circuit developed.

If any of you guys see something wrong with this, please speak up. SAFETY FIRST !

shift, thanks for the idea. Actually, I went out for the day and hooked up a DC power supply I have. Set it to 2amps and all is well. BUT I just saw a direct replacement for my dead Schumacher on CL for $20. Heading over there shortly.
I expect he'll refuse to answer the door and put it back on CL tomorrow for $150 they way my luck's been lately.

 

[MayerMR]

Howdy fellas! Been a few months since I've checked in; busy with work and some house improvement work, but I'm trying to catch up! I haven't been totally cured of the vise bug and have grabbed a few more interesting buggers along the way. I was planning on trying to catch up all the way, but I came across this stretch of the discussion and I just had to respond as I have an example of the older Parker No. 87's as well as a recently acquired (and entirely and utterly seized) 289 1/2. I don't know how I'm going to unseize it - the damn thing is so heavy.

I'd be really interested in seeing the 436 w/ the 1880 patent date. As far as I know the really old Parker vises of this style were numbered entirely different. Fierljeppen can probably give you a better idea of around what time Parker switched to the 43x numbering on their combo vises.

Fair question...I base all of my responses on printed data. Although printed data is not infallible, it's usually more accurate than not.

In this case, I took the information from a 1965 Parker catalog, which was the first catalog to add letters to the end of the vise models. These letters were also added to the castings of the vises, as seen on post-1965 Union-Parker vises.

I don't have your 1880 patent information, but I do have a 1876 catalog scan showing Parker's patent combo vise, which seemed to change very little over the years. It's a remarkable design that has certainly stood the test of time.

I'm not too sure when this guy was made, but I do believe it pre-dates the 43x models.

Also, just to reiterate for anyone who hasn't ever seen one of these things in person, they are just...friggin' big...

VA, The plate and wing nut that you mentioned earlier for the 289 1/2. The mounting on mine was broken so I adapted a 976 swivel base to it.

GETRIDAONE - what was wrong with your plate? Mine is missing entirely.