Beat-up Vintage Wilton Vise

Just picket up this yesterday from an older and retired man in city (via Craig's List) for $60. Moves fairly smoothly, but it has been severely beat-up. I have not seen a "tool" so poorly taken care off.

Here are the photos posted in Craig's list:







And after a little bit of cleaning, you can see how bad it really is, including a couple of cracks on the fixed jaw/base side:











The hard jaws are exactly 4" wide. Both jaws are miss-aligned, and all 4x bolts holding the jaws were bent. The lower portion of the fixed jaw has broken/shear off:





The stamping reads 1173, so this was manufactured on November 1973 (model on base is 101028, and I think it reads 101027 on the movable jaw), so it is almost 40 years old. It seems that the poor thing has been abused all along - almost as if it was abused on purpose. It appears it was hit on every surface, from every possible angle:


























Will

Its just my opinion, but those cracks make that vise just a large paper weight.

Sorry,
Steve

Damn!! That guy mustve had a hate on for that poor little vise! Classic case of tool abuse if I've ever seen one!

Honestly, I wouldn't have paid $60 for that. Probably $20.

Good luck rehabbing it, and great pics!

I'm sorry to see that, sorry that you paid $60 for it, and sorry that this post is your first on GJ!

Anyway, welcome aboard, and I guess it can only get better for you from here (at least with vise purchases)!

Dave

Its a vise. They get beat on, its what they do. Good luck with the refurb, but if it was me it would be going into the iron pile.

justanengineer said:

Its a vise. They get beat on, its what they do. Good luck with the refurb, but if it was me it would be going into the iron pile.

Click to expand...

That's a helluva lot more than normal wear and tear...

justanengineer said:

Its a vise. They get beat on, its what they do. Good luck with the refurb, but if it was me it would be going into the iron pile.

Click to expand...

What he said.........looks like someone actually used that vise.

I'm really surprised the handle is not all bent to hell with as much abuse that vise has taken. Lead screw appears to be in good shape as well.

I'll bet it will still outperform one of the Chinese vises any day of the week! Look at it this way.....it's still a vise in working condition and will perform the task it was designed to do.

a bit steep for that condition.

Just my opinion but I would not try to bring that vise back from the dead. Broken jaw supports one can get by with, a cracked lower casting will be dangerous and could make that front jaw assy. give way should you be holding something heavy. Steel toed shoes might not even save that mishap.
Somewhere on GJ there is a "broken vises" thread. Those photos would be good add ons

I believe I would part that vise out and recoup some of your money.

I have a big old Reed coach maker's vise in my shop: the dynamic jaw was broke and poorly repaired, the static jaw was broke and poorly repaired, and one of the three mounting ears is busted off.

I've pulled the lead screw and handle assembly out, will pull out the screw nut at some point, and the two main pieces have made dandy door stops. (which I've actually needed in my shop, for my back door.)

-Brad

canuckian said:

Damn!! That guy mustve had a hate on for that poor little vise! Classic case of tool abuse if I've ever seen one!

Click to expand...

Wow! It took a lot of dedicated effort, or carelessness, to destroy that vice. It wasn't just something that happened during one hate fueled weekend **** of destruction.

I'd love to know what it was used for.

nolan

Call the guy and see if he'll take it back...undisclosed damage.

yeah, that's garbage. Almost got a **** vise today myself. $12 for a 30-40lb Erie. Was pulling out the money when I saw under the rust that the bottom lip was smacked off and a chunk was missing on the back of the body at the tip where the slide comes out the back. I am sure it still worked ok, but there are plenty of good old vises that came up in fine working shape.

Thank you guys. If I had noticed the cracks "before" I bought it, I would had walked away from this one. But lesson learned

I need to find a local welder that can weld cast iron, and of course for a reasonable cost. If not, I will consider the old JB weld to at least have a usable small vise in my "shop" until a better Wilton can be found. If/when I have updated pictures I will post them here again

Will

Well... look on the bright side.

You just found the perfect excuse to learn how to weld or braze cast iron!

Yeah, a good learning tool for welding practice. You can learn the in's and out's of heat treating cast iron before welding so as not to weaken the other areas of the cast iron, that sort of thing. And you would need a stick welder for that. If you get GOOD at it, you can move up to cylinder heads and that's where the money is with welding cast iron, if you're good at it. BTW, do they even make cast iron cylinder heads anymore?

But don't try to weld it and then sell it because buyers will be tricked, as you have been. Even telling them about a welding fix doesn't mean it is safe to use, but they might think that's what you mean.

Steve

Welcome to the Journal. Thanks for posting some "learning" photos that can benefit all of us. I too bought a vise that has a cracked base in almost the exact same place. The seller listed it as no cracks but for $25 it wasn't worth sending back. It is just a small oval slide Yankee vise that will never see anything exciting in its life. You might make a small inspection kit to take with you to garage sales...auctions...etc. Try a small flashlight like autopts suggested, a brass or steel toothbrush, small can of carb cleaner, and maybe a 6" machinist ruler.
Craig

OK, so after disassembly, I started by cleaning the vise some more:








Then I drilled some holes along the cracks to fill-in. Initially I was going to braze, but ended up using JB Weld:









I then sand blasted all parts:













Good look at the damaged fixed jaw. And by the way, all screw holes for the jaws are badly damaged, so I will have to drill them out and start over with larger ones:



I then filed down the epoxy where it touched the other parts, and also filed down all of the imperfections in the sliding tube (movable jaw part):





I after cleaning and pre-heating (to 100F, per Norrell's instructions), I applied a very thin coat of Flat Black Moly Resin to protect against rust. I did not want anything thicker as I don't want to hide the vise's last life(s)- I "do" want to show how badly it was treated before.:















I coated parts twice, first one side, when the other side. The screw part was the most difficult to "handle" while spraying:



Parts have to reach 300F for at least one hour. The main vise (fixed jaw) having so much iron, took the longest to fully warm up, and it took for ever to cool down afterwards:



Although it did not help much (it was still a very tight fit) I tried cooling down the back piece:




Assembly. Back piece in place:





Greasing the main channel and the "screw":





Installing the hard steel guide:



Checking for alignment - excellent. Almost zero rotational play, although there is of course up-down play due to the loose fit of the two main parts:



Finished the assembly:








I need to fabricate an end cap to cover/protect the screw from dirt/debris:



I am now ready for the machining part of this project - to recut/align the existing face, and create a new face for the fixed jaw:



A steel piece under high tension will keep the jaws from moving while they are being machined, a very light pass at a time:




Update: Oct 2 2011
Got some "quality" time with my Walton vise. Making progress ...

Since only one side had any sort of "face" to use for reference, I used it to align the vise to the table:



I did the machining of the new faces in two steps. First using a "coarser" insert-based cutter, and a final cut using a sharp, solid carbide cutter. Here I am getting setup to start:



Started on the tops:









I then started to cut the new face:









I then get ready for the solid carbide cutter:

Edit: October 8th, 2011:
Started work on the soft jaws. Upon a recommendation from Barry, I am using premium Alcoa "mic 6" cast plate aluminum. This piece is 1" thick, and it was a cut-off piece from Ebay - like $10 including shipping:





So I am making two sets of matched soft jaws:







The material cuts very easily:





Here are the four pieces (still dirty):



Once I remove the protective film on both side and clean them, they look like this:



You can see here the cuts I made with my band saw, and the more "raw" cut from this scrap piece (as it came to me):



The top/bottom have the awesome factory smooth look Barry told us about (note this piece has a few nicks):



This is how they look in the vise:





For this job I am using my 2" cutter, with Al-specific inserts (spindle speed set at 1300 rpm):



Not "perfect", but I am getting a cross pattern - kind of hard to photograph:








Once I cut them, I marked the two sets (F for fixed jaw, M for the jaw that moves):



And this is why you "need" a NEMA4 enclosure for your VFD:



Edit: October 9th, 2011
Still not done, but got the jaws drilled/counterbored today:



De-burred both ends of the hole by hand (Al is so soft!):



Finished (for now) soft jaws:





Next step, mark, drill, and thread the iron jaws (fixed and mobile):




Edit October 12, 2011
Last night I spent a little bit of time getting the soft jaws installed:









Mounted, but not quite "ready" yet :devil:





Take the two jaws to my Kurt vise, and center the Y axis:



First make a cut about 0.1" deep:





Then use the dovetail cutter:





I still need to file the sharp edges and round the corners, but this first set of soft jaws is now ready:





And in use:







Edit Oct 14, 2011:
Today I finished the second set of soft jaws:






















I also put two o-rings at each end of the steel bar, and now there is no metal hitting metal even when releasing it from the highest point:



EDIT: Oct 15, 2011
OK, last operation on the vise completed today. I still need to fabricate a cap for the rear of the vise, but no more machining/restoring to the vise itself is needed !!!


I first took like 0.020" of the top of each soft jaw, so that the engagement would happen more toward the back of each cutout - very little, but worth doing so that parts get in/out a little bit easier:





So as I was saying this is the last operation - to smooth out and make flat again the back of the vise - the "anvil" part:









And ready for maybe another 20-30 years of use





In fact, I was attaching some custom Halpern Titanium scales for my Spyderco Mule #11 (M390 steel) so I started using the "new" vise already:







Will

Well It seems like you've thought this through, thats doesn't look like a paper weight anymore. You should show off some custom knife work...Nice job man

Wow. Lots of work went into this. Curious about the choice of JB Weld to hold this together. Shall I assume you've done this before or that the vise will only see light duty?

Thank you guys. Yes, my intention for buying this size of vise was for light duty usage, which is why I felt compelled to do a true restoration, rather than scraping it. By also making soft jaws I extend the usability of this vise, which is why it is bolted to the main workbench in my "shop".

Will

I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE, your username is very familiar, USN or CPF?

burgerkong said:

i know you from somewhere, your username is very familiar, usn or cpf?

Click to expand...

cpf

Just shows you can still use great old tools if you know the limits of its capabilities. Great use for a vise everyone was telling you to scrap.

I'm impressed! 90% of us do not either have the knowledge, ability or the equipment to do what you did. You certainly raised that one from the dead.

Well for your light specialized use the JB weld may hold up. but I'd guess the first or second time the vise is cranked really hard, the JB weld is likely to crack. It's simply not a material that does its best in tension like that. It works well when fully supported, (filling in a hole) or in compression (Filling in pits for instance)

That said, a fantastic job reducing the damages to that poor abused vise!

Great detail on the restro work. You made a workable vise from a pile of scrap metal.

Well done

You've gone and taken all the abuse right out of it!

A milling machine is on my "needed wants" list when I get my own shop. The tooling on the other hand will come as I need it.

But like others said, I wouldn't have used the JB weld for that. It seems like it'd be a ***** to clean it all out, short of burning it out, if you ever decide to weld or braze it.

Great post. I think you should name it 'Lazarus'. After all, you raised it from the dead!

Thank you guys

Damn, you have some skills.

autopts said:

and I've bought many and found out a jaw support was cracked or missing . .

Click to expand...

Nick, there's a guy in Chicago selling a 3-inch non-swivel Wilton with both jaw supports missing---he wants $295 for it!!!

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/tls/2660569214.html

What do you think?

Ha!!!

exmaxima1 said:

Nick, there's a guy in Chicago selling a 3-inch non-swivel Wilton with both jaw supports missing---he wants $295 for it!!!

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/tls/2660569214.html

What do you think?

Ha!!!

Click to expand...

Thats a little rich for my blood. I think its also on Ebay. I can't knock him. If he gets close to that, God Bless Him!!

autopts said:

Thats a little rich for my blood. I think its also on Ebay. I can't knock him. If he gets close to that, God Bless Him!!

Click to expand...

I tried to get the seller to respond to some questions about the vise (and specifically about the broken supports), but no response.

It would sicken me to see him get anywhere near that price---I just sold my 3-inch swivel base Wilton a few weeks ago for $100!

that's some nice work on that vise, thanks for sharing with the rest of us!

Thank you. This "project" was done back in 2011, and I am still using it almost every single week. I simply change the aluminum jaws depending on what I need to grab.

Given the light duty I put the vise through, it has continued to work as good as when I refinished years ago. I am still happy I decided to "restore" it, even though the initial feedback was to scrap it. It took work, but it has been a great asset in my shop.

Will