The VISES of Garage Journal

kapster · Nov 17, 2013

Alex, very nice restore on the 300. You'll find out though, its hard to only have one wilton.

Here's my score of the day, wilton c3. Date says upside down 1 of 79. the guy said he bought it used in late 70s, is he just confused or is that warrantied till date? i thought they changed that long before. We weighed it on the guys scale, said 150lbs. thought these were more like 200, or does he have a bad scale? Seems to be in really nice shape, needs a ball put back on the handle and a dust cap. He gave me the original jaws but the serrations are pretty smashed. Here it is pictured next to my 500, which I considered a big vise till now.

I actually stayed and talked with the guy for about an hour. Turned out he was a machine shop owner and Im a machinist. He had lots of advise to give about where to go from where I'm at now, as in continuing education. Felt like the conversation was worth the $250 I paid for the vise. I was hesitant to buy it but glad I did, if even just to get to talk to the guy. He even threw in some machinist stuff.

kapster · Nov 17, 2013

454ragtop said:
The wider holes go towards the front, so you can get it closer to the edge of the bench.
HTH Jim

I second that..

Outlawmws · Nov 17, 2013

454ragtop said:
The wider holes go towards the front, so you can get it closer to the edge of the bench.
HTH Jim

kapster said:
I second that..

kapster · Nov 18, 2013

Aahh, took my new vise apart today, its cracked!! The guy said if I found any cracks he would buy it back, but I don't really want to give it back. Is it weldable and still be usable? I've never heard of cast welding going very good.

Mark in Indiana · Nov 18, 2013

Hello Vise Friends,

I've just finished 3 more bookend sets in time for Christmas. Below are some before & after pictures.

I just hope they sell soon. :bounce:

Alexbn921 · Nov 18, 2013

Nice big vise kapster. Huge is an understatement. The 300 is nice, but small. I really NEED a 5 inch like a c2. Can't wait to see the c3 all nice and shiny. That ***** about the crack. Looks like a high stress area. You could try to fix it, but you will know that it is broken and that would drive me crazy :eyecrazy:

.

eastcoastdjent · Nov 18, 2013

Just picked this up this afternoon from the Father in law. Can anyone tell me the year of this model?

Mark in Indiana · Nov 18, 2013

My guess would be the early 1900s. Giving the overall style.

Chris98006 · Nov 18, 2013

I was over at my brother's house, and he had a buddy moving to Florida. He gave quite a few large heavy items to him, and a couple of vises. My brother kept the better of the two and gave me the other. It was nasty! After a lot of cleaning, grinding, etc. I applied some Rustoleum to her. I thought it came out pretty good.

I did a little research on this vise, its a Paramo, and looks almost identical to a Record. I read two different stories. One is, in England during the War Record only had one plant. Since vises were needed for war efforts, there was a scare that if there vise plant was bombed, what would they do?

The other story I heard was two brothers left Record and started Paramo.

Either way, it's pretty cool to think about a 1944 vise from England, that somehow made it to my brother's garage in Spokane WA!

kapster · Nov 19, 2013

Spoke with the guy I bought my vise from today, he said I could return it if I want to. What you guys think, return it or weld it? Cast iron welding sounds hit or miss. What a bummer, I was so proud of this vise!

Outlawmws · Nov 19, 2013

That looks like a two part crack, so go get your money back...

north · Nov 19, 2013

Chris98006 said:
*snip*

Good looking vice, looks somewhat like a buffed Record. It came out very nice.

Still functioning good?

ShadowRuleZ · Nov 19, 2013

ShadowRuleZ said:
Anyone want to guess the sizes on these? I'm not sure why one is 2x the other right now, they look about the same to me (I figured they were 3" or 3.5").

'Won' both of these and definitely paid to much now that I noticed the first one is missing one of the jaws. Oops. :dunno:

Pictures after I pick them up.

Fyrme · Nov 19, 2013

This look like a Rock Island to you? I didn't ask the guy too many questions since he is selling me the vise and a 80's 1/2hp Craftsman Block grinder for $25 delivered to me. I figured I couldn't go wrong......

jakemac · Nov 19, 2013

It looks like a mid-century Reed 204 1/2 or a 205 to me. No matter what you end up with, you got a you **** price just for one of those pieces. :thumbup:

Fyrme · Nov 19, 2013

I'll report back in the morning. Hope to take delivery around 7am....cross your fingers.

Fyrme · Nov 19, 2013

Mark in Indiana said:
Hello Vise Friends,

I've just finished 3 more bookend sets in time for Christmas. Below are some before & after pictures.

I just hope they sell soon.

I love the concept. Kinda destruction of a good vise. But at least you used cheaper exposed screw vises.

Chris98006 · Nov 19, 2013

north said:
Good looking vice, looks somewhat like a buffed Record. It came out very nice.

Still functioning good?

functions great! I took it all apart, and nothing looked very warn. Not even any welds on it! Got some pretty big smacks from a hammer, but that's about it!

Provincial · Nov 19, 2013

I posted last summer about a Craftsman vise I found in a pile of "junk" (as my wife calls it) at her family tree farm. At first I thought it was a #5176, but it is the larger 4" #5169. The post was #9027, with photos.

I did a "refurbish", rather than restoration, on this vise. It will be used at the tree farm, and since the chrome was badly rusted I didn't want spend enough on it to have the parts rechromed. I pretty much just cleaned it up and repainted it. I used metallic silver paint on everything that was originally chrome, and Krylon dark grey on the rest.

All the chrome parts were "flash" chromed, meaning they had a very thin layer of chrome with no preparatory layers of copper and nickel. I am certain that this is why these areas were rusty. All the paint seemed to have held up well. The vise has a few "battle scars" on it, but not too bad. The jaws are in perfect shape and meet up very well. The 1/2" NC square-head bolt for the swivel lock showed some wear under the head, but I filed off the burrs and reused it.

A couple of notes on design and assembly: the main screw is cast or forged, since you can see the parting line full length. The swivel lock nut has the handle held by a "groove pin." Look for the notch in the pin. That is on the big end of the pin and it has to be driven out that direction. The knobs on the end of the handles appear to be made separately, slipped over a turned-down step at the end of the shaft, and the end of the shaft peened to retain them. Notice in the photo that the dimple from the peening operation is not in the center of either the shaft or the knob. I found original paint on the rear part of the slide, which I believe indicates that the vise was at least partially assembled before painting. Since the main screw can be removed and replaced without removing the dynamic jaw from the vise, I suspect the vise was painted with the main parts assembled and the chrome plated parts and the badge added later.

I see some Columbian consumer-grade genes in this vise. The square head bolt for the swivel lock is one. The u-shaped steel slide is another.

It seems to be a pretty sturdy little vise. The jaws are 4" wide, and the throat is fairly shallow, with heavy jaw castings. I expect the swivel lock to be the weakest point. The main screw is fairly small, but it is an acme thread.

I like the Art Deco look. The vise is going to keep working for a living, but it won't see hard use. My wife and her sisters like the fact that an artifact of their Dad's is going to be in use on the place for the forseeable future. :beer:

Saiga · Nov 19, 2013

+1 for

rock island

C.BRAXMAIER · Nov 20, 2013

Chris98006 said:
I like your attention to detail. What grit paper did you have to end with?

Thanks, I end up using 120 grit..

Mark in Indiana · Nov 20, 2013

Fyrme said:
I love the concept. Kinda destruction of a good vise. But at least you used cheaper exposed screw vises.

2 of them were toasty anyway. Plus I think the exposed screw adds to the character.

Fyrme · Nov 20, 2013

jakemac said:
It looks like a mid-century Reed 204 1/2 or a 205 to me. No matter what you end up with, you got a you **** price just for one of those pieces.

Fyrme said:
I'll report back in the morning. Hope to take delivery around 7am....cross your fingers.

Turns out it is a Britman Rock Island 571. While quite small, It's in pristine mechanical condition. A little rust clean up and some paint is all she needs.

The guy delivered it to my work at 7am this morning along with a working 1/2hp Craftsman Block grinder. His CL ad was $20 for both. I gave him $26 to cover gas to bring them to me.

jakemac · Nov 20, 2013

Fyrme said:
Turns out it is a Britman Rock Island 571. While quite small, It's in pristine mechanical condition. A little rust clean up and some paint is all she needs.

The guy delivered it to my work at 7am this morning along with a working 1/2hp Craftsman Block grinder. His CL ad was $20 for both. I gave him $26 to cover gas to bring them to me.

Now you know why I don't play the lottery. :lol:

Good score ! :thumbup:

ShadowRuleZ · Nov 20, 2013

The two vises. I was hoping they'd be the same size, but no such luck. The larger is a 9450 and the smaller is just marked HD and is 4". I checked the key and didn't see a date on it, would it be any where else?

I definitely got carried away and will attend the preview next time since I think I paid close to retail for these. Smaller one is probably going to get flipped to try and pay for a set of jaws for the other one. Also have to send my 1750 down the road as well. Guess I'm going to figure out how to ship these. Anyone have a picture of how they packaged a vise prior to shipment?

Fyrme · Nov 20, 2013

I shipped my Wilton Shop King in a Medium Flat Rate box. Packed all voids with heavy paper.

BFBOB · Nov 20, 2013

I know this is old hat to most of you, but it's my first vise restoration, so here goes. I really like the art deco looking vises I've seen here, so when a Charles Parker 63 1/2 came up on eBay I couldn't resist. Got it for $48 plus shipping, probably too much. It's in very good shape, so it cleaned up pretty easily. A few hours in the electrolysis tank took care of the rust and what remained of the paint. The handle, hub and swivel lock polished up surprisingly easily on my bench buffer. I resurfaced the areas around the jaws and the anvil with 120 grit on my belt sander, and finished up with 150 on a hand block of 1/4" plywood faced with thin cardboard. I didn't try to take out the gouges, some of which look to be over 1/16" deep. That would have removed too much metal. I used a cup wire brush on my 9" angle grinder, and that shined up the slide beautifully in about 1 1/2 minutes! Then, on to paint where it sits now, waiting for the first coat to dry.
I'm using gloss paint. Semi gloss might look more original, but I'm not sure, and anyway the choices in the colors I chose were gloss and satin (might as well just call it flat).
I wasn't able to get three of the jaw screws out, so they had to stay. It had already been ground with the jaws in place, (by manufacturer?) so not a big change in appearance, just shinier!
Thanks to the member who suggested Rustoleum Regal Red. I think it'll look great. Colonial Red might be a better match to the original, but to me it looks like it's gone too far to the dull side of red and looks an awful lot like red primer. More to come!

ZRX61 · Nov 20, 2013

Mark in Indiana said:
Hello Vise Friends,

I've just finished 3 more bookend sets in time for Christmas. Below are some before & after pictures.

I just hope they sell soon.

I'd be interested in the 3 books in the green vise

Hot Chop shop · Nov 20, 2013

BFBOB said:
I know this is old hat to most of you, but it's my first vise restoration, so here goes. I really like the art deco looking vises I've seen here, so when a Charles Parker 63 1/2 came up on eBay I couldn't resist. Got it for $48 plus shipping, probably too much. It's in very good shape, so it cleaned up pretty easily. A few hours in the electrolysis tank took care of the rust and what remained of the paint. The handle, hub and swivel lock polished up surprisingly easily on my bench buffer. I resurfaced the areas around the jaws and the anvil with 120 grit on my belt sander, and finished up with 150 on a hand block of 1/4" plywood faced with thin cardboard. I didn't try to take out the gouges, some of which look to be over 1/16" deep. That would have removed too much metal. I used a cup wire brush on my 9" angle grinder, and that shined up the slide beautifully in about 1 1/2 minutes! Then, on to paint where it sits now, waiting for the first coat to dry.
I'm using gloss paint. Semi gloss might look more original, but I'm not sure, and anyway the choices in the colors I chose were gloss and satin (might as well just call it flat).
I wasn't able to get three of the jaw screws out, so they had to stay. It had already been ground with the jaws in place, (by manufacturer?) so not a big change in appearance, just shinier!
Thanks to the member who suggested Rustoleum Regal Red. I think it'll look great. Colonial Red might be a better match to the original, but to me it looks like it's gone too far to the dull side of red and looks an awful lot like red primer. More to come!

Looks great! I never get tired of seeing pictures of restoring a vise.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

jakemac · Nov 20, 2013

BFBOB said:
I know this is old hat to most of you, but it's my first vise restoration, so here goes. I really like the art deco looking vises I've seen here, so when a Charles Parker 63 1/2 came up on eBay I couldn't resist. Got it for $48 plus shipping, probably too much. It's in very good shape, so it cleaned up pretty easily. A few hours in the electrolysis tank took care of the rust and what remained of the paint. The handle, hub and swivel lock polished up surprisingly easily on my bench buffer. I resurfaced the areas around the jaws and the anvil with 120 grit on my belt sander, and finished up with 150 on a hand block of 1/4" plywood faced with thin cardboard. I didn't try to take out the gouges, some of which look to be over 1/16" deep. That would have removed too much metal. I used a cup wire brush on my 9" angle grinder, and that shined up the slide beautifully in about 1 1/2 minutes! Then, on to paint where it sits now, waiting for the first coat to dry.
I'm using gloss paint. Semi gloss might look more original, but I'm not sure, and anyway the choices in the colors I chose were gloss and satin (might as well just call it flat).
I wasn't able to get three of the jaw screws out, so they had to stay. It had already been ground with the jaws in place, (by manufacturer?) so not a big change in appearance, just shinier!
Thanks to the member who suggested Rustoleum Regal Red. I think it'll look great. Colonial Red might be a better match to the original, but to me it looks like it's gone too far to the dull side of red and looks an awful lot like red primer. More to come!

Nice job so far. :thumbup:

What color are you planing on using for the letters and go fast stripes ? I'm thinking that it would look sharp with a bright white, silver might get lost in the red.
or
you could go tri-color with red up top, white letters, and blue underneath.

BFBOB · Nov 20, 2013

jakemac said:
Nice job so far.

What color are you planing on using for the letters and go fast stripes ? I'm thinking that it would look sharp with a bright white, silver might get lost in the red.
or
you could go tri-color with red up top, white letters, and blue underneath.

Thanks!
I was planning on a subtle touch, a bright Apple Red for the lettering and the darker Regal Red for the rest. But, I tried doing it by painting the letters first, and then wiping the darker red off. Either I didn't let the Apple Red dry long enough, or this Rustoleum Painter's Touch acts like a lacquer, because it just turned into a gooey mess. There really wasn't enough difference in color anyway. Now I'm thinking of going in with a really dark red and brushing it on. If I skip morning coffee maybe my hands will be steady enough!
Now I'm debating on the hardy. Derust - only lightly rusted - and leave it, or polish? Maybe fine sand like the I did the jaws. Decisions, decisions! :willy_nil

I polished it. Looks great, like polished steel, not cheap chrome.

va.grouseman · Nov 20, 2013

A little #804 Columbian plate steel vise.-----20 lbs.-----4 inch jaws. Quick and cheap to make, but still pretty stout.

The label is tattered a bit, but if you look close you can see No. 804. right above Columbian.

jakemac · Nov 20, 2013

Mr. Grouseman - you may have solved a mystery for me. :bowdown:

I tried to identify a vise my grandfather has on his bench, but only got as far as figuring out it was a Columbian. Now, thanks to you, I'm pretty sure it's a model #804. Thanks.

Here's the thread with pictures of the vise.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221688

Now we just need to date it.

Outlawmws · Nov 21, 2013

jakemac said:
Mr. Grouseman - you may have solved a mystery for me.

I tried to identify a vise my grandfather has on his bench, but only got as far as figuring out it was a Columbian. Now, thanks to you, I'm pretty sure it's a model #804. Thanks.

Here's the thread with pictures of the vise.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221688

Now we just need to date it.

I keep tellin' you guys, flowers and dinner; but do you listen? Noooo... :pimpflash

va.grouseman · Nov 21, 2013

Previously posted by jakemac.-------Now we just need to date it.

To get it dated, you'll have to appeal to B100. He's got the skinny on nearly everything made, or knows where to look.
I wouldn't have known they were at least 55 years old. Thank you.

Mark in Indiana · Nov 21, 2013

Hi Friends,

I saw a WTB ad in my local CL saying that they wanted to buy a Dodge Slide Set Bench Vise. Anyone got information and pictures of this?

autopts · Nov 21, 2013

ShadowRuleZ said:
The two vises. I was hoping they'd be the same size, but no such luck. The larger is a 9450 and the smaller is just marked HD and is 4". I checked the key and didn't see a date on it, would it be any where else?

Anyone have a picture of how they packaged a vise prior to shipment?

You've got two nice Wilton's there. I'm packing a 450S right now. The newer, heavier 450S I pack it two boxes. That lighter 9450 is right at about 70-72 lbs. If you ship that 9450 beware of shipping limits (Usually 70 Lbs) and that's a 9400 stationary next to it. Both nice. Wilton occasionally missed stamping them but not often. Go to your Auto Parts store or liquor store and ask if they have any boxes. You want and need a double wall box. And you need good heavy packing paper. Get a roll of 1/2 strapping tape also. That's at an office supply. Don't use shredded paper or popcorn packing. The vise finds its way thru all of that and goes to the bottom. I'm packing the body now and will be back with photos.

Unlike what I did, get a box not much bigger then the vise. You can sub construction paper instead of honeycomb which I used. Strapping tape is important. This is just one of 50 ways to pack something heavy. Remember, if that box falls off the tailgate of the truck what's inside should be able to not break

GETRIDAONE · Nov 21, 2013

Mark in Indiana said:
Hi Friends,

I saw a WTB ad in my local CL saying that they wanted to buy a Dodge Slide Set Bench Vise. Anyone got information and pictures of this?

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...675C881D4B70BA9795F6AEA4C353&selectedIndex=28
It looks like there was one on E Bay at some point.

va.grouseman · Nov 21, 2013

Somebody's getting a jewel Nick. Nice job.

thecj3man · Nov 21, 2013

autopts said:
Remember, if that box falls off the tailgate of the truck what's inside should be able to not break

I purchased a Yost from Autopts back in September. He did a superb job of packaging it. The way it was packaged, it could have survived a fall from an airplane!

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