Recent content by RobRace10

How do you like the split base cabinet? Are you using the dividers that come with the tool drawers? Thanks for your support. John :beer: As far as the split base cabinet, I like the garbage can in the right hand side, not sure the bins on the left side will be useful as my nuts, bolts and...

Here is my set of Pro Series cabinets installed. I got them through John from his website ShopStorageCabinets.com and everything went very smoothly. It did take some time to get everything leveled, but worth the time. I used a laser level on the top of the highest cabinet to get mine lined up...

Having worked at Wilton when it was a real tool company, most of the castings came out of Wisconsin and Illinois. At one point, Wilton did have it's own foundries, but they closed those back in the 70's as I recall. When the Wilton Schiller Park plant closed, machining moved to an Illinois...

The thrust washer was put in with a little grease, the reason it was added is the spindle would eventually machine the castings away from the friction and lack of lubrication. This was added after the vises jaws were expended to make the 1745,1755 and 1765, so the earlier version didn't have it...

I should have bought this one on Ebay many many years ago, I think it was a promo vise. At one point there were about 8-10 full chrome Snap-on 1750 vises made as a sales promotion for the top dealers got one. Someday one will appear.

This sat on my desk for many years, was the only one I knew of, it was used to show how they were made:

I know the Wilton SO vises go back to the early 80's, maybe farther back. they had the 1740,1750 and 1760 for sure, then some time I would say late 80's switched to the 1745, 1755, 1765 and then the 1780 I was the one that suggested the model changes adding the .5 inch to each jaw. I also know...

I'm sure they were all sold as an import vise for the automotive tool dealer market, the label was probably added later. The 600 series utility vises were USA for a lot of years.

As I recall the 845 was always an import vise and sold as one. That was when Wilton did more business in Taiwan, before China became the place to get stuff cheap.

They were made by York in the Czech Republic when I last knew.

This was behind my desk for many years. Used it to show how the Wilton Vises were made.

That was only in the early years of Wilton that it was the warranty expire date. 05/02 certainly means May of 2002 as a build date and I know for a fact since the 70's that was the case for those formats. Those vises were about $2,700 list price new in 2007, the last price sheet I have. But...

I have a new in the box Wright 4-1/2" machinist vise, made in the USA. Exact same vise accept for the name plate as a Columbian 604-1/2M3. All the replacement parts would interchange with a Columbian. 604-1/2M3 / 4-1/2" Jaw Width / 7" Jaw Opening / 4-1/8" Throat Depth / 59 lbs. The Columbian...

C-2 is a better vise for sure. The jaws are steel rather than powdered metal as are the pipe jaws. Much more mass behind the jaw inserts on the C-2.

Both of those machines are belt sanders, If I was going to buy a belt grinder, I would look at Burr King, they dominate the industrial market for belt grinders. The old Wilton Sq Wheel is also good and has some nice versatility, but I would not buy one for personal reasons.