The VISES of Garage Journal

[Beerhippie]

High Dessert Swap Meet

That sounds delicious!

BTW, you do ****. Really ****.

 

[paslemeilleur]

Thanks for a great thread - truly an education and history lesson all in one.
First contribution & apologies- picture-heavy. Recently found a Paramo no 1: a remnant of a decal still remains. Today it was dismantled, cleaned (the b&w photos are from pre-soaking) & put back together - all went well. It was rewarding to bring this old Paramo back to full working order. Intending to leave it as is, rather than repaint.
Also including my V6 bench vise, which was used to hold the Paramo dynamic jaw for the spring/ spilt pin/ lead screw work - believe this was also fabricated in England: I can't locate any manufacturing date stamps on either vise (nor any company history of Univice).
I mostly work on bicycles, so these two are ok.
There's the idea that two won't be the final total - fairly rare to find US-made vises here in England, but I have seen beautiful examples of Rock Island & Simplex at an auction site.
Thank you for inspiring so many of us.

 

[jawstight]

I'll third that remark. Currently in my area there are seven total 825's on CL. They range in price from $575 - $750.

edit: Correction. Not on CL, but rather on eBay

 

[madskiller]

Recently i purchased a Columbian 603 in good condition, but the locking pad and handle is missing. Can anyone advice me where to find these replaced parts or other alternative solution for it?

 

[tool_scrounge]

And you're not in for $14?

Tempting, but for $15 I can get a Stanley 743 clamp-on bench vise. This one is post 1958. Needs cleanup though.

 

[Shiftless]

Oregon Rock Crusher *****!

(Still has most of the original paint too)

 

[Shiftless]

Many years ago, I thought I scored a great deal when I found my one and only toddler on CL for $100

 

[CRSINMICH]

paslemeilleur: Some vice information for you.

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[dannyr]

I saw this for sale for $14 on Craigslist. Likely an import. The workbench clamp mechanism is a bit unique. Not sure of the size but likely 2-2.5” wide jaws.




https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/newbury-park-bench-vise/ktsvp8G6CmDziLcZngJo1W

think they're Soviet or Polish (pre-1989) -- I have one with same cast-in logo, similar design but rounded and steel ends to tommy-bar etc, and original silver/blue paint -- solidly made

 

[paslemeilleur]

paslemeilleur: Some vice information for you.

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Thank you, appreciated.

 

[zanyad]

ORC *****!!!

 

[RonRock]

I just bought a Wilton WVA4 Apprentice Vise for use on my Roll Cabinet. It has the swivel base with 4 mounting holes. So logic says that the 4 holes would be in a square pattern. Wrong!

So what is the reason for the odd shape? I'm assuming that it is for placement on the work surface, but I don't see any orientation that seems better than others.

 

[RTM]

what is the reason for the odd shape?

Gets it closer to the front edge. The two ears with the widest gap between them go forward, allows working long stuff over the edge vertically easier.

 

[Tabater]

think they're Soviet or Polish (pre-1989)

Hello!

Yes, these are indeed Soviet-made vises. Their jaw width is 2 3/8 inches (60 mm). They were manufactured at the Krasnogorsk Cement Machinery Plant (Красногорский завод цементного машиностроения).

The plant was founded in 1932 in the village of Pavshino (Павшино), near Moscow, and was originally named "Standard-Concrete No. 1" (Стандарт-бетон №1). The enterprise produced high-strength reinforced concrete beams, columns, pipes, and large-format slabs for the construction of the Moscow Metro and the Moscow-Volga Canal, as well as for the reconstruction of the capital's telephone network.
In the 1930s, the village of Pavshino and several neighboring villages merged to form the town of Krasnogorsk (Красногорск).

After World War II, the focus of the "Standard-Concrete No. 1" enterprise shifted to the production of machinery. This change occurred after equipment from the Messerschmitt company was brought to Krasnogorsk from Germany as war reparations. The plant was subsequently renamed the "Pavshino Mechanical Plant" (Павшинский механический завод).
Foundry and forging/blank-preparation workshops came online in 1949, followed by pattern-making and gearbox workshops in 1954. The plant manufactured kilns for drying and firing clinker, conveyors, tower cranes, and dredgers.

Production of "consumer goods" — including vises — began in 1956. Early models featured a different stamp: the initials "П.М.З." enclosed within a diamond shape (P.M.Z. — Pavshinskiy mekhanicheskiy zavod). A later version of the stamp was registered in 1961.

From 1965, the plant operated under the Ministry of Construction Machinery Manufacturing and was renamed the "Krasnogorsk Cement Machinery Plant". In addition to its previous product line, it began manufacturing cement tanker trucks and dump trucks. Its products were exported to Eastern Bloc countries, China, Vietnam, Mongolia, Iraq, Syria, Ceylon, and Cuba.

In 1991, following the collapse of the USSR, the state-owned plant was reorganized into the "Betsema" (Бецема) joint-stock company (a name formed by combining parts of the names of its founders: the Dutch conglomerate "Begemann" and the state-owned "Tsemmash"). The enterprise remains in operation today, though it has not produced vises since 1987.

I have links to the plant's website—which details its history—as well as photographs of early vises, but I will not include them in this post; I was previously banned for a similar post containing photos.