The VISES of Garage Journal

[va.grouseman]

Shift, that's what I call a true retirement/pension/savings plan.---You'll draw a whole lot more return on those than any bank will pay.---Mine are just in piles.

 

[Shiftless]

Thanks for the compliments M635 Guy, Vise, rusty, and va.

That is my entire collection except not pictured is my user Wilton C1 on the garage workbench, an unrestored Craftsman Pipe Vise, and a 10 inch quick release Abernathy woodworking vise that came out of the workshop of an old timer who repaired stuff for the long gone PLAYLAND AT THE BEACH in San Francisco. 1913-1972 (I used to go there as a teenager)

One of the little Craftsman clamp ons is in line for renovation and will be mailed to Seattle to my first cousin twice removed who is now old enough to be raising his own family and getting into woodworking and the general appreciation of vises. I helped him find 2 vises on eBay and C/L.
The little Craftsman clamp on was found broken down in the basement of the 130 y.o. house on the family farm in Iowa. It belonged to his great grandfather. I brought it back to CA on our way home from a cross country driving vacation a few years ago. KMScott was kind enough to braze it back together for me. Thanks Kevin!


.

 

[Smitty]

Shift, you have the best vise display and the shelves look great.

 

[Shiftless]

Thanks Smitty!
With any luck, nothing will collapse.
3/4 inch MDF reinforced with fir 1x2 face frames is pretty strong.
Hoisting that C1 up above my head was not easy.

 

[bastel]

Got this interesting vise today.

It's a swivel and quick adjust/release vise that opens to the back. Must be very old, and has no name on it. You have that handle in the back that rises/lowers the rack so the worm gear is either engaged or disengaged and you can quickly adjust the dynamic jaw. The swivel lock is an eccentrically mounted bar.
I checked old german patents but can't find anything.
The ball shaped end of the lead screw also points more to british or american origin? Any ideas?

 

[rusty65]

Got this interesting vise today.



It's a swivel and quick adjust/release vise that opens to the back. Must be very old, and has no name on it. You have that handle in the back that rises/lowers the rack so the worm gear is either engaged or disengaged and you can quickly adjust the dynamic jaw. The swivel lock is an eccentrically mounted bar.

I checked old german patents but can't find anything.

The ball shaped end of the lead screw also points more to british or american origin? Any ideas?

Thank you for sharing! I saw that on your Instagram story and instantly realized the design with the handle out back was used as a quick release. Just curious what do you believe the value on such a vise is?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bastel]

Thank you for sharing! I saw that on your Instagram story and instantly realized the design with the handle out back was used as a quick release. Just curious what do you believe the value on such a vise is?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No idea. It was advertised for a non fixed price of 55 € and he said he had ~6 people messaging him. (There are other vise collectors in germany, I sometimes clash with them, but I have no idea where they are situated.) In the end I paid 60 € (I had no 5 euro bills).

 

[dannyr]

Got this interesting vise today.

It's a swivel and quick adjust/release vise that opens to the back. Must be very old, and has no name on it. You have that handle in the back that rises/lowers the rack so the worm gear is either engaged or disengaged and you can quickly adjust the dynamic jaw. The swivel lock is an eccentrically mounted bar.
I checked old german patents but can't find anything.
The ball shaped end of the lead screw also points more to british or american origin? Any ideas?

Very interesting - the lift off rack and worm has some relation to the Syers and Kenyon of the 1870s in Bradford UK area, and there were small English made bench clamp vices with 'German style' flat half oval and anvil moving rear in catalogues around 1900, but this looks different.
good find

 

[Outlawmws]

Shift, that has grown since I was there! Well done!

 

[bastel]

Very interesting - the lift off rack and worm has some relation to the Syers and Kenyon of the 1870s in Bradford UK area, and there were small English made bench clamp vices with 'German style' flat half oval and anvil moving rear in catalogues around 1900, but this looks different.
good find

Yes, when looking for patents I found DE2577 (early one!), registered 21.03.1878, which is the german patent for this wood wise by Syers by Hahlo & Liebreich in Bradford. PDF
and 42107A by some austrian guy that copied it?



Edit: I googled for patent schraubstock schneckenwelle zahnstange (german words for patent vice worm rod rack) and got bumped to dingler.culture.hu-berlin.de. Could be I didn't tell you guys about this awesome page. I found that when I looked for vise patents. Just like scientific american can be read for free on archive.org this is a digitzed version of the german equivalent. With nice high res spread images perfect for large prints to frame and hang at the wall .

The article I found was http://dingler.culture.hu-berlin.de/article/pj247/ar247125 which only shows a low res version, if you click to the full book you get a listing of all spreads Journal 247

Anyways it mentions a "Hahlo und Liebreich's Patent (* D. R. P. Kl. 49 Nr. 2577 vom 22. März 1878) " which is the english germanized patent from above being used by a vise made by "E. und P. Rottsieper in Ronsdorf" (foot note Vgl. Stephens 1872 206 * 427. Th. Hall 1873 209 * 11. 210 * 93. Lynde 1878 228 * 401. J. Thomson 1882 246 * 146.)

Then explains how it works. The vise's drawing is the upper left one but this is also the instant type, where you just move the main handle up and down to disengage and engage and tighten. Kinda close but not it.

 

[Shiftless]

Shift, that has grown since I was there! Well done!

Thanks outlaw.
Approximately doubled since then. If you look closely, you can see the black bullet over there on the Wilton shelf (next to the toddler and the babies) that you traded me for that sad condition SnapOn rollaway.

 

[B T C]

If any of the vise gurus would be interested in commenting on this, I would appreciate it. I've gotten a few takes, but wouldn't mind having a few more before I slam a beer and spring into action.

 

[Shiftless]

If any of the vise gurus would be interested in commenting on this, I would appreciate it. I've gotten a few takes, but wouldn't mind having a few more before I slam a beer and spring into action.

Any of those ideas would work. How often do you expect to clamp something vertically up from the floor? As you said, in those instances a shim would make that possible. Not ideal for regular use but once a year is not worth considering if that move let’s you drill holes in a better location.
But you don’t need all four mounting lugs through bolted. Lots of great vises have only 3 lugs to begin with.

 

[B T C]

Any of those ideas would work. How often do you expect to clamp something vertically up from the floor? As you said, in those instances a shim would make that possible. Not ideal for regular use but once a year is not worth considering if that move let’s you drill holes in a better location.
But you don’t need all four mounting lugs through bolted. Lots of great vises have only 3 lugs to begin with.

It's hard to say, but a fairly safe answer would probably be not very often, maybe never etc. On the other hand, once you get something set up where you can actually start using it you never know what might happen.

I hadn't even really considered it until just now, but I bet I could mount it with two bolts and be set for 99% of my potential use cases. I just need the vise to not twist and not lift. I can't really imagine a scenario where I'm going to be torquing the &*^% out of anything, and if I ever did the stability of the work bench would probably be a bigger concern than the stability of the vise.

 

[Outlawmws]

I always lag bolt my benches to the wall; ALWAYS. I've torqued on what is on the vise hard enough to rip the bench off the wall.

That's happened three times now (The last time I quit messing with long deck screws and switched to two lag bolts into each stud...)

The bench top is laminated 2X4's on edge (Glued and screwed) with a kitchen counter top on top of that. The next bench I build will get the same, only I'll use a 2X6 for the back (maybe bigger and make a back splash)

 

[Shiftless]

Go ahead and mount it that way. A workbench is for working on. If a year goes by and you decide to move your vise a few inches, just drill new holes and plug the old ones with dowels cut flush and sanded smooth.

Do you think my workbench still looks this good after 2 years? Hah!

Like Outlaw, my bench is lag screwed to the back wall.
Mine has a 2x4 ladder frame topped with 2x6s laid flat and screwed down, then a layer of 3/4 inch MDF, and topped with the older IKEA “butcher block” Solid wood countertop.
Works for me.

 

[tool_scrounge]

Shiftless. -

Nice vise collection. But living in earthquake country, looking at all those vises sitting on tall shelves gives me the creeps! Are they bolted down?

 

[Shiftless]

Shiftless. -

Nice vise collection. But living in earthquake country, looking at all those vises sitting on tall shelves gives me the creeps! Are they bolted down?

Thanks!
Shelving is bolted to the wall studs but the vises are just sitting on the shelves. Except for the oldie Monarch through the bench mount that is “through the shelf” mounted.
Nobody sleeps there so I’m not worried. I think museum wax would be a waste of time.
I’ve lived in the SF Bay Area all my life. Our house rattled a bit in 1989 when the section of the Bay Bridge collapsed and a multi level freeway in Oakland dropped like a stack of pancakes killing a few unfortunate people.

 

[va.grouseman]

Shift, looks like an excellent place to filet a blue catfish, or dress a hog.---But you got to be willing to loose a little bit of that nice shine.

 

[Shiftless]

Shift, looks like an excellent place to filet a blue catfish, or dress a hog.---But you got to be willing to loose a little bit of that nice shine.

That bench top looked like that for maybe one week. Now it’s dirty, stained, paint spattered and scratched up. Acetone is rough on polyurethane. I have some shallow protective plastic trays but don’t always use them.

I could lift it up, move it outside, attack it with my belt sander and apply fresh polyurethane. Maybe someday I will. No plans for that now.


.

 

[dannyr]

Yes, when looking for patents I found DE2577 (early one!), registered 21.03.1878, which is the german patent for this wood wise by Syers by Hahlo & Liebreich in Bradford. PDF
and 42107A by some austrian guy that copied it?



Edit: I googled for patent schraubstock schneckenwelle zahnstange (german words for patent vice worm rod rack) and got bumped to dingler.culture.hu-berlin.de. Could be I didn't tell you guys about this awesome page. I found that when I looked for vise patents. Just like scientific american can be read for free on archive.org this is a digitzed version of the german equivalent. With nice high res spread images perfect for large prints to frame and hang at the wall .

The article I found was http://dingler.culture.hu-berlin.de/article/pj247/ar247125 which only shows a low res version, if you click to the full book you get a listing of all spreads Journal 247

Anyways it mentions a "Hahlo und Liebreich's Patent (* D. R. P. Kl. 49 Nr. 2577 vom 22. März 1878) " which is the english germanized patent from above being used by a vise made by "E. und P. Rottsieper in Ronsdorf" (foot note Vgl. Stephens 1872 206 * 427. Th. Hall 1873 209 * 11. 210 * 93. Lynde 1878 228 * 401. J. Thomson 1882 246 * 146.)

Then explains how it works. The vise's drawing is the upper left one but this is also the instant type, where you just move the main handle up and down to disengage and engage and tighten. Kinda close but not it.

very interesting - March 1878 and this patent drawing looks very much like the production Entwistle and Kenyon bench visevice

the English patents for the Syers (first) and the E&K (a few days later) were in November 1877, if I remember correctly (then the different J Parkinson a very few years later)

I think the Massey US patent or license for the E&K type was after March 1878

 

[bagged89s10]

Here is a fast restoration. It was really dirty and frozen. I dunked it in my electrolysis tank over night and it freed right up. I dunked it in simple green for 1 day. Rinsed it, then dunked it in electrolysis for a day so it wouldn’t flash rust. Then, 2 thin coats of a 50/50 mix of Boiled Linseed Oil and Mineral Spirits applies with a brush. The excess of each coat was burnished and wiped off after about 10min. The Mineral Spirits helped it dry fairly quickly compared to straight BLO. 2 coats of Sculpt Nouveau Clear Guard once the BLO/mineral spirits was dry. I let the clear dry, then I put a coat of Sculpt Nouveau metal wax and buffed out to call it done. Dry graphite lube was used on the screw and nut and the swivel jaw although I could have just used was for the swivel jaw.

 

[Vise]

That looks fantastic!

 

[1982fxr]

In honor of these pages hitting 80,000 postings, I submit an updated photo tour of one corner of my vise cave.
The tall skinny pic is of a corner shelf with bullets 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, and 5. The 6 inch and bigger bullets exceed my self imposed 100 pound weight limit. I sold off a few heavier Reeds (4C and a 406) after I imposed my limit. That’s a C1 on the top shelf next to the Laphroaig bottle. (In the pic for scale purposes only)

I know a few of you are really digging the **** carpeting. It was on the floor when we bought the house almost 40 years ago.
I built the shelving, wired up the floodlights (I need a few more), and hung the aluminum mini blinds.
The room is a walk out basement with a door to the garage and a door to the back yard where I had a 10x10 slab poured that serves as an outdoor workshop.


.

Good God! Bottom right pic, what's the light blue one, second from the left?

 

[M635_Guy]

That bench top looked like that for maybe one week. Now it’s dirty, stained, paint spattered and scratched up. Acetone is rough on polyurethane. I have some shallow protective plastic trays but don’t always use them.

I could lift it up, move it outside, attack it with my belt sander and apply fresh polyurethane. Maybe someday I will. No plans for that now.

I think it's the natural state of a workbench top to look scruffy to an extent. That said, I was watching one of the Adam Savage videos where he fixes up a wobbly workbench, and the last thing he does, while telling the story of how it was a practice at ILM, is top the bench with brown paper and paper tape. It immediately struck me as a useful thing - you can write/trace/draw on it, it's sacrificial in a minor way, etc. and easy to change:

It's not pretty, but it's kinda cool and pretty tidy-looking. And clearly ready for work.

 

[Smitty]

Bagged
Beautiful work, well done.

 

[Shiftless]

Bagged:
That one came out great! And special thanks for detailing your process step by step.

1982fxr:
Good eye! Not too many people notice that unusual vise. It’s a Milhoff. Not cast iron...welded up from steel plate.
Friend and fellow GJ member trijeff has a way nicer Milhoff. And his rotates! Mine doesn’t. Does that make mine a half-hoff?

Here is the one trijeff redid and the last I knew, it was his user.

 

[tool_scrounge]

I think it's the natural state of a workbench top to look scruffy to an extent. That said, I was watching one of the Adam Savage videos where he fixes up a wobbly workbench, and the last thing he does, while telling the story of how it was a practice at ILM, is top the bench with brown paper and paper tape. It immediately struck me as a useful thing - you can write/trace/draw on it, it's sacrificial in a minor way, etc. and easy to change:

It's not pretty, but it's kinda cool and pretty tidy-looking. And clearly ready for work.

I do the same thing at work on an abused lab bench, but I use white butcher block paper. Works great and looks nice.

 

[Tinkerer2]

I think it's the natural state of a workbench top to look scruffy to an extent. That said, I was watching one of the Adam Savage videos where he fixes up a wobbly workbench, and the last thing he does, while telling the story of how it was a practice at ILM, is top the bench with brown paper and paper tape. It immediately struck me as a useful thing - you can write/trace/draw on it, it's sacrificial in a minor way, etc. and easy to change:

It's not pretty, but it's kinda cool and pretty tidy-looking. And clearly ready for work.

I used a white disposable table cloth from the dollar store for one of my bench tops. It's taped all around the edges like yours. I'm not all that careful with it and so far I only have a couple small tears in the top layer. It was big enough to fold before taping down. It is easily cleaned too.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

I think it's the natural state of a workbench top to look scruffy to an extent. That said, I was watching one of the Adam Savage videos where he fixes up a wobbly workbench, and the last thing he does, while telling the story of how it was a practice at ILM, is top the bench with brown paper and paper tape. It immediately struck me as a useful thing - you can write/trace/draw on it, it's sacrificial in a minor way, etc. and easy to change:

It's not pretty, but it's kinda cool and pretty tidy-looking. And clearly ready for work.

My main workbench and a couple of tool cabinets have been re-topped with vintage solid wood desk tops. To preserve them, I cover them with a sheet of masonite. To this day (7 years later), It looks the same.

 

[Smitty]

Here’s my Wilton 2” baby bullet vise collection. They all have the original paint from the factory.


Sent from my iPad using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

So that's where all of them went! very nice!

 

[Smitty]

Thanks Mr. W

 

[BBQguy]

Where does a guy find new jaws for an old vise?

Its only a craftsman. Still functional but needs some jaws.

 

[Outlawmws]

Where does a guy find new jaws for an old vise?

Its only a craftsman. Still functional but needs some jaws.

Pics and model No.?

Simple rectangular can often be made just from bar stock.

 

[Shiftless]

That’s a beautiful collection, Smitty

 

[Shiftless]

I finally got out of the house to buy a vise. Just brought it home this afternoon. This one deserves a clean up and a space on a shelf.

Does anyone have detailed info on the Prentiss vises with the brass plate emblem?

The guy who sold it to me said it belonged to his wife’s grandfather.
I wonder if he bought it new???????

 

[Ridjobradi]

Athol 324 1/2X - I got a call asking if I was interested in an old vise. They didn't take any photos or have any information on it. The good part was that it was in a barn on an old 400 acre farm.

The chain makes the vise look smaller than it is. The chain was at leadt twice the weight of the vise. I also picked up an old chain fall.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[Ridjobradi]

Athol 324 1/2X - This after stopping by the car wash, on the way home. I thought it was an Athol, due to the years of watching this forum. I wasn't sure if it was marked Starrett Athol or just Athol, until I cleaned it up. While still at the farm, I used a brush, a bottle of water, then some chemtrol cleaner and the brush. It looks like some original paint on the side.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[Smitty]

Thanks Shift. Wow, that Prentiss is a beauty.