Wilton Cadet vise resto + new stand build. Lots of pics!

Picked up this rough 4 1/2" Wilton Cadet about a month ago for $40 (guy was asking $50). It was a lot of vise, so I went ahead and got it. It's date coded a 1974 build. It's far from perfect. One jaw is welded in, and it's really beat up. But, it's solid and I'll use it as my "when you need to beat the hell out of something vise". Farther down you'll see the stand I was building for it, that I decided to use for my restored '41 Simplex instead (thread on that resto here).

Enjoy!







Degreasing:


Clean!


Bare metal:


Self-Etching primer. I was sizing it up on the pipe stand I was going to build, but decided this vise would do better on the yellow stand behind it (more on this later)


Painting w/ Rustoleum "hammered" paint in copper color. About halfway into this I see that fellow member Catalyze painted one in in the same color. Hope you don't mind the copy!


Some parts I painted in John Deere Blitz Black which is a satin color I love.


Plasti-Dip for the ends of the handles.


DONE! (yes, I know I need to cut off the extra on the mounting bolts)








Mounted to the stand I used to have the Simplex on:


BONUS SECTION. The building of the stand, which I put the Simplex on.





Done!


The tubing under the mounting ears should give it plenty of strength. Note that the pipe is exactly the diameter of the base of the vise.


My pair:


Funny, looks like the Simplex is clamped in the Wilton...


And Mr. DH himself...


Last one:

awesome job they look fantasic and the stands look great too

No question that Cadet has been used hard but you've made the best of the situation and it will never look better then it does now. Great effort and restore on both and the stands are AAA+

Nice job. Very impressive!

There's a similar cadet locally that I've been trying to get the custodian of to sell...they're not the owner...but no luck yet.

Nice pictures of the work, the vice looks real nice.
Well done

autopts said:

No question that Cadet has been used hard but you've made the best of the situation and it will never look better then it does now.

Click to expand...

I think it would have been a good move to finish the ends of the jaws on a belt (or disc) grinder. It's only a Cadet, and if the vise lost a 1/16" or so of jaw width it would be insignificant. And cleaning the edges will true up any mis-alignment issues (if any).

Love the copper color!

exmaxima1 said:

I think it would have been a good move to finish the ends of the jaws on a belt (or disc) grinder. It's only a Cadet, and if the vise lost a 1/16" or so of jaw width it would be insignificant. And cleaning the edges will true up any mis-alignment issues (if any).

Love the copper color!

Click to expand...

Not a bad idea!

Thanks folks for the kind comments.

Very nice work on the Wilton and the vise stands! You have some really nice working vises and stands that will outlast most of us. 2 slices of vise pie for you tonight!
Craig