The VISES of Garage Journal

[Outlawmws]

I’m looking at buying a 3/4” thick 60” diameter round steel table, that way I’ll have something big and sturdy for tear downs and I can take a picture captioned “The Vises of the Round Table”

It needs to rotate so you can have the one you want to use at the primary work position! (may need a "leg" with a roller or two to support that position...)

 

[Vise]

Vise

The stand looks great stripped. We are so close, I know I'm not the only one who can't wait to see pics of the stand, vise plate and vise once they are all married together.

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Thanks Chris! Hope to do a little more work on it today.

 

[Provincial]

Thanks sgs236, that is the one! I couldn't resist buying it. It is a classic industrial design.

 

[Smitty]

There’s nothing like getting hammered on a Sunday morning.y


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[Outlawmws]

I was waiting for the empty beer can punch line!


Looking good!

 

[Shiftless]

Smitty:
Looking good!
You’ve mastered the art of getting the best hammered effect from that paint.
It’s not easy.

Quick turnaround on that C1

 

[Smitty]

Outlaw
I have a no beer until 3:00 on the weekends rule unless the Rams are playing back east, then it becomes more of a guideline.

Shift
There’s a fine line between laying it on as thick as possible and having the paint start ro run. It was touch and go for a while there. This is a C2 that I got a while back. I’m going to do the C3 next and line em up for a photo. The C0 is proving to be elusive at this point.

 

[va.grouseman]

Thanks fellows for responding to my question.---Sorry about taking so long to get back to you.---I use a personal computer for all my corresponding and every time I set down to it my 18 month old grandson runs up and, wants me to pick him up so he can watch YouTube cartoons.---I have to wait till he goes to sleep.---As I said, I use a PC and only have a flip phone, no smart phone.---I'm still in the dark ages but I like it like that.

But from what you fellows have each said, it appears that the eBay postings appear different on each persons devise, which kind-of makes it hard to nail down a reason for the differences.---But thank you fellows giving me some transparency concerning it.

 

[va.grouseman]

Just one more question and I'll be quiet for a spell.---Which of these logos came first on the 51 series Craftsmans.---This may have already been discussed.

 

[Smitty]

Wilton C2 vise restoration, the vise has 5” jaws and weighs 115 lbs.


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[davethorik]

So sharp I sliced both corneas

 

[OCD]

Wilton C2 vise restoration, the vise has 5” jaws and weighs 115 lbs.

Nice!!

 

[trijeff]

Wilton C2 vise restoration, the vise has 5” jaws and weighs 115 lbs.


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There's a new sheriff in town, y'all be cool, ya' hear?

Nice, real nice, Smitty

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[PghJKB]

Just one more question and I'll be quiet for a spell.---Which of these logos came first on the 51 series Craftsmans.---This may have already been discussed.

From my experience, badge then raised letters.

BTW VA - eBay has a "private auction" setting that the seller can set. If it is set, the silliness about private bidder appears. Makes it impossible to determine if anything illegal is going on. If you ask me, all it does is promote shill bidding and money laundering.

According to a friend of mine is is a pretty high volume seller, eBay eliminated their fraud squad a while ago. All they seem to care about is getting the highest bid possible (hence their constant promotion of warning you how your bid has been topped and you need to bid again). Snipers forever!

JKB

 

[Fierljeppen]

va.grouseman...I've attached a cheat-sheet for what PghJKB said about the Craftsman 519x (badge, then raised-letters).

Smitty...That Wilton C2 is way too nice to sit on a shelf and look pretty!

 

[sch]

Athol 623

So I see a Facebook Marketplace ad offering a good looking Athol 623 for 40 bucks. I respond, and I'm somehow the first, and go to meet the guy an hour and a half away.

He's there when I arrive, and immediately asks what's the deal with these vises? He knew I was driving 1.5 hours, and had seen a similar vise on Ebay offered at $200.

So I tell him about the collectability of old American vises, etc, and a little about the relative value, with 3" vises not being at the high end of the price range. But I also tell him $40 is a good price for a buyer.

Then he tells me he's making a nice profit, as the literally pulled it out of the garbage.

He works at a transfer station, and saw the Athol attached to a table about to head for the landfill. He rescued both.

Now, this vise is in excellent shape. I haven't taken it apart yet but it eyeballs terrific. And someone tossed it in the garbage stream. Not even the scrap yard. Garbage.

[deleted rant about how ignorant people can be]

So anyway, a nice little Athol stays in the world, a dude makes $40 for having a good eye, and I experience a bit of luck and acquire my first Athol. A fine day.

 

[chrisnazzy]

Re: Athol 623

So I see a Facebook Marketplace ad offering a good looking Athol 623 for 40 bucks. I respond, and I'm somehow the first, and go to meet the guy an hour and a half away.



He's there when I arrive, and immediately asks what's the deal with these vises? He knew I was driving 1.5 hours, and had seen a similar vise on Ebay offered at $200.



So I tell him about the collectability of old American vises, etc, and a little about the relative value, with 3" vises not being at the high end of the price range. But I also tell him $40 is a good price for a buyer.



Then he tells me he's making a nice profit, as the literally pulled it out of the garbage.



He works at a transfer station, and saw the Athol attached to table about to head for the landfill. He rescued both.



Now, this vise is in excellent shape. I haven't taken it apart yet but it eyeballs terrific. And someone tossed it in the garbage stream. Not even the scrap yard. Garbage.



[deleted rant about how ignorant people can be]



So anyway, a nice little Athol stays in the world, a dude makes $40 for having a good eye, and I experience a bit of luck and acquire my first Athol. A fine day.

Nice little Athol. They are among my favorites and you got a very fair price for what looks to be a very clean example.

I have to say though, the way you wrote your post I thought you were going to say he had an hour and a half to research and was going to demand more money for it. Thankfully he turned out have some integrity!

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[sch]

Re: Athol 623

Nice little Athol. They are among my favorites and you got a very fair price for what looks to be a very clean example.

I have to say though, the way you wrote your post I thought you were going to say he had an hour and a half to research and was going to demand more money for it. Thankfully he turned out have some integrity!

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I hear you on that - I had the same thought for about a second when I arrived. But he was totally cool. No hint of wanting to re-negotiate. I told him how it can be hard to sell a vise like that if you don't have a collector nearby, because of shipping costs. I think he was genuinely curious as to why I'd drive so far for an old tool.

 

[va.grouseman]

PghJKB, and Fierljeppen, thanks for the info.---If it was discussed in the past, I missed it.---So I've always wondered about it.---I thought that maybe they were producing both at the same time so buyer would have an option.---Thanks again.



EDIT----And Pgh, I totally agree with you on the hinkyness of the hidden bidder approach.

 

[Smitty]

There's a new sheriff in town, y'all be cool, ya' hear?

Nice, real nice, Smitty

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Me only a pawn in the game of life.

 

[Smitty]

Thanks all for the kind words. My better half would like to put this vise to good use if you get my drift.

 

[Smitty]

The good news: I talked the seller down to $140 for this C2 today
The bad news: it clearly has a front jaw Issue
The good news: hopefully I can get KMS to walk me through it.



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[va.grouseman]

Smitty, you've got that hammered paint scheme down to a science.



Sch, nice save on the 623, and a good back story.---What a tragedy if it had to spend the next 300 years under a 1000 tons of garbage.

 

[Smitty]

Thanks VA, it was a lot of trial and error to get the desired effect.

 

[Productbob]

Smitty; the C2 is a beauty and the one you just picked up will be too

Sch- nice save on the Athol

Vise- your stand just keeps getting better!

 

[kenc184]

Smitty,

I don't know how you do it! Here, the guy would have three other buyers waiting to pay the asking price so it would be take it or leave it.
you must have a nice collection of wilton "C" vises now?

p.s. I am picking up a C1 next weekend, and I thought it was a decent deal, but it's not the deal you negotiate!

 

[bagged89s10]

I found an old cast iron kick press stand today. It weighs about 200 lbs so it could hold a pretty big vise. The angle grinder made quick work of the rust.

kind of like this one i have. Nice stand you have there.

 

[Smitty]

Jinx, you owe me a coke.


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[trijeff]

still wonder why these Reed jaw covers are patented in case anyone knows

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[jmhinkle]

Not sure if anyone else was watching it, but I snagged the nicer Columbian D43 1/2 from Ebay for $55 shipped. It looked clean and I've been wanting a Columbian as I was born in raised in Cleveland. I had never heard of them until this forum because everybody used Reeds that I knew of or I saw in places my dad worked. Home vises were usually Craftsmans around the neighborhood.

I liked the style with the small anvil on the back, hidden screw and built in pipe holder. I'm not a fan of the exposed screw models. I would love to have some of the monster vises you guys have, but I have no place for those. Small to midrange is all I currently need.

Now I jsut need to find a nice Morgan to complete the trio for me. Morgan is my Mom's family name and the M in JMHinkle.

 

[PghJKB]

still wonder why these Reed jaw covers are patented in case anyone knows

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Trijeff
The jaws are marked PAT PENDING, which does not indicate a patent has been granted, only that one has been applied for.

Here is a good read for the process:
https://www.upcounsel.com/what-does-patent-pending-mean

Wikipedia also has a good explanation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_pending

I have several "jaw face" patents in my vise section, but none are assigned to Reed. Reed may not have been granted a patent on this particular design. Will further research this.

PghJKB

 

[gloy]

What is the difference between the Wilton 8400 and 9400 bullets?

 

[Vise]

Smitty - that hammered finish it perfect. Nice work.

I picked up this Versa yesterday for cheap. Seems to have a decent amount of original paint, even if the name plate is missing. Looking at it, I wouldn’t have thought it originally had pipe jaws, but the orange one a few pages back implies otherwise.



Also, here’s an update on the stand. Sorry for the crappy picture. This is after 2 coats of Sculpt Nouveau Traditional black patina and 2 coats of black metal oil. Still a lot more work to do on this finish.

 

[Shiftless]

Vise:
Yes, the Versa Vises were originally supplied with pipe jaws. Here is the pic of the orange one I posted a while back. I also have a red one. Does anybody know the significance of the color change? Date of manufacture? Different factory? Subcontractor? ????

 

[va.grouseman]

Vise, the screw on a Versa-Vise is a pretty small auger so the pipe jaws for those will have a pretty narrow recessed seat.---Might be a little more difficult to find than the average open screw vise pipe jaws.---But there are 3 sets of various size on eBay right now and there's hardly a day that there's not someone selling a pair on there.---Might want to keep an eye out there, that is if you even want a set at all.--?


EDIT-----Stand is looking real good.---That thing needs a 408 Reed riding it.

 

[Smitty]

Thanks guys for the kind words.

 

[gman007]

Wilton C2 vise restoration, the vise has 5” jaws and weighs 115 lbs.

Smitty
Absolutely first class restoration! This C2 looks better than the day it came off the Wilton assembly line!

 

[gman007]

I am not sure if this YouTube video of a Reed 208 restoration has been posted here already (it looks like it was Published on YouTube on Aug 2, 2019).

I believe the guy who owns it is none other than GJ's own VISES (for those who do not know him, he has an amazingly massive collection of huge vises which are often quiet rare). He appears at the beginning of the video.

Boy there was some rough handling of the vise at the beginning but then again if any vise can take a punishment and not be fazed at all it would be a Reed 208.

 

[gman007]

Smitty - that hammered finish it perfect. Nice work.

I picked up this Versa yesterday for cheap. Seems to have a decent amount of original paint, even if the name plate is missing. Looking at it, I wouldn’t have thought it originally had pipe jaws, but the orange one a few pages back implies otherwise.


Also, here’s an update on the stand. Sorry for the crappy picture. This is after 2 coats of Sculpt Nouveau Traditional black patina and 2 coats of black metal oil. Still a lot more work to do on this finish.

Vise
Nice score on Versa vise!

The stand looks mighty nice!

 

[Smitty]

Smitty
Absolutely first class restoration! This C2 looks better than the day it came off the Wilton assembly line!

Thanks Gman, I think I’m going to tackle the C3 next.