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Japan made Craftsman vise find

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halfxspaid

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Dec 21, 2008
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75
Found this vise bolted to a workbench at a local estate sale. Scored it for only $10. Its huge and way better quality than any Wilton I have seen at home depot. The vise is smooth and comes together perfect. It looks like it has seen lots of use in its day too.

Anyone have experience with these?

Im assuming the quality is high from what it feels like.

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Stamped "BF"
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ron in sc

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Anyone have experience with these?
Click to expand...

I do. I have the exact same vise, made in Japan and all. Mine does have a different part number but it's the same. I've had mine for nearly 30 years. It's a nice vise. The only complaint I have other than it's small size is the inability to lock it down. Even when I hit that lockdown bar with a hammer it would not keep from moving when I was wailing away at something in the vise.

Photo below is the my old Craftsman and the Wilton that I replaced it with. I've not used the Craftsman since last year, it's retired now.
 

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goodfellow

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"gotta" admit I have never seen a vintage Craftsman vise that was made in Japan. Lots of Sears brand vises made in Japan and Taiwan, but I've never come across a Craftsman from Japan. Does anyone have an idea how old this vise is (i.e. manufacturing time frame)?

It's a great find --


EDIT: Ron, any idea how old that Craftsman vise of yours is?
 
OP
H

halfxspaid

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ron in sc said:
Photo below is the my old Craftsman and the Wilton that I replaced it with. I've not used the Craftsman since last year, it's retired now.
Click to expand...

Wow, they dont sell those Wiltons at home depot, just cheap dark blue ones.

That pic makes the craftsman vise I got look SMALL, and its not!
 
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ron in sc

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Here's some more photos of mine.

I measured the jaws on mine and they are only 4".
 

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lauver

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Tool Pants said:
http://www.craftsmantooltalk.com/BBS/Craftsman_Tool_Collection/9144/9144/flat-page1.html

BF is Daido. The few BF tools I have are labled Sears, not Craftsman. But as you can see from the link it looks like the Japanese vises came in as Craftsman.
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Agree with Tool Pants BF = Daido, Japan, Craftsman and Sears tools sold between 1967 to 1987 give or take a few years. They are well made tools and worth owning.

I have an old 3-1/2" Sears BF-Japan vise that had a broken base. I welded the base and have been using it for the last 20 years with no problems.

Nice find!
 
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fatfillup

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Great score. Good used vises at reasonable prices are few and far between. I'm always on the look out and haven't found one yet. Quick stroy, my wife came home from a sale and said she bought me 2 US made vises for $15 each. I told her they broken without even looking at them. She said no they weren't but I was right. We did make one out of two but still don't have jaws for them. Anybody know a good source for vise jaws?
 
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Uncle Buck

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fatfillup said:
Great score. Good used vises at reasonable prices are few and far between. I'm always on the look out and haven't found one yet. Quick stroy, my wife came home from a sale and said she bought me 2 US made vises for $15 each. I told her they broken without even looking at them. She said no they weren't but I was right. We did make one out of two but still don't have jaws for them. Anybody know a good source for vise jaws?
Click to expand...

WHAT BRAND? It is critical
 
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Joe B.

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I saw one of those Japan made Craftsman vises at our local Goodwill store when I was dropping stuff off. They wanted less than $10 for it. Looked like a good quality unit.

Sucko Mucho!
 
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csmitty

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Reviving an almost 2 year old thread here. But this was the largest one I found while searching. I recently picked up one of these Japan BF vises last fall and as you can see its missing one of the jaw pieces. Other than that its in really good shape. Once of the screws is broken off as where its missing but that should be easy enough to get out. My question is where can you find some replacement jaws for these? Or better off just getting a machine shop to make me some.

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Was on CL for $25 and no picture. So was kinda taking a chance. I think it paid off though. i had it on dads bench but I stole it back now that mine is done so he wouldn't beat it up to much :)
 
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2oolhound

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I recently made some jaw teeth for my vice out of aluminum because I clamp a lot of aluminum stuff and the original teeth really chewed up my parts. You have one there to get the pattern from so any one with a drill press should be able to make the other one. You can buy bar stock the right dimensions to start with, just cut to length, drill and drill the counter sink. (I replaced my allen head screws with counter sunk machine screws so I didn't have to drill so deep for the machine screw heads). You can mount the original and the new one then paint the original with layout dye or anything that will transfer the pattern when you tighten the jaws together. Then remove the new one and grind the pattern in with a grinder, hack saw or file. It could be useful to have a set of steel, brass and aluminum teeth for your vice. I don't have any grip pattern on my aluminum teeth, just a plain smooth surface.

I prefer this over having the rubber or aluminum covers that you place over top of the jaws because they are such a pita when working with heavy objects. This is also a good reason to have several vices.
 
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halfxspaid

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Awesome csmitty! Mine is still running strong and getting work done!

Post pics of that rig of yours gettin it!
 
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W650Mike

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For those interested, Kubota’s foundries in Japan made a number of castings for Sears (indirectly and labeled Craftsman); especially bench vises. They were cast, machined, and assembled at Kubota. I’m not sure what Kubota’s foundry mark looks like, but my guess is that there is one somewhere on the major components.
 
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csmitty

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2oolhound said:
I recently made some jaw teeth for my vice out of aluminum because I clamp a lot of aluminum stuff and the original teeth really chewed up my parts. You have one there to get the pattern from so any one with a drill press should be able to make the other one. You can buy bar stock the right dimensions to start with, just cut to length, drill and drill the counter sink. (I replaced my allen head screws with counter sunk machine screws so I didn't have to drill so deep for the machine screw heads). You can mount the original and the new one then paint the original with layout dye or anything that will transfer the pattern when you tighten the jaws together. Then remove the new one and grind the pattern in with a grinder, hack saw or file. It could be useful to have a set of steel, brass and aluminum teeth for your vice. I don't have any grip pattern on my aluminum teeth, just a plain smooth surface.

I prefer this over having the rubber or aluminum covers that you place over top of the jaws because they are such a pita when working with heavy objects. This is also a good reason to have several vices.
Click to expand...

The setup dye was a good suggestion. The only reason I had mentioned using a machine shop was to get the knurled pattern in the jaw teeth. But I suppose some well placed hack saw lines would work. I think steel would be fine for most stuff I work with but making up a set of AL wouldn't be a bad idea. And just keep the stock steel one around for a template. Mine uses countersuck screws now and i doubt there'd be enough for a counterbored socket head cap screw.

Oh i've got plenty of pics of my jeep doing what it does best. I've had it 11.5yrs and most of that time has been out on the trails.
 
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Hammer1963

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I never seem to run across great buys like this. I've recently developed a Vise fixation and would welcome a find like this
 
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cberg

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I found this thread while searching for information on my current project. I just started restoring my father's old Craftsman 391-5130 vise. I was trying to find when it was made, looks like from 67 to 87. I can't remember the exact thread titles, I have read so many good ones, but found the color to use for Craftsman (Rusto Majestic Red) and to use Rusto Self Etching primer. I don't have enough posts to put pictures in the post so I have my album link below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cberg2010/albums/72157663079860634

The handle on the long screw is a bit rough, chrome is coming off the handle, and I am not sure what to do there. I don't have any type of machine shop access to create a new handle. I think that I may just get some emery cloth and sand the chrome off and possibly clear coat. I am getting the itch to find other vise's to restore while having fun working on this one. I have seen so many nicely redone Whilton Bullet vises, that I would love to find one of those to take on next.
 
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mikegt4

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I can't seem to get your link to work.

I have a 391-5181 vise that I got from work 25 years ago when someone stripped the threads out of the nut. Parts were NLA at that time. The vise was purchased sometime in the mid to late 1980's.

I have been thinking of pulling it out of storage (couldn't bring myself to scrap it) making a new nut/pedestal using an Acme thread nut and welding it to a homemade pedestal. The handles on most vises are usually just a rod with caps pressed on the ends.
 

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gmjones2001

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I just found one in my town for $40. Not the best deal but so much better than what I was seeing the new stuff for ... Pretty stoked.



 
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Slackmaster G

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Jan 19, 2017
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Just bought a 391.5187 Japanese 5.5 inch jaw vise for $40 .it has some surface rust but appears to be unused. I recently sold my 5.5 inch fuller and miss the anvil on it and this craftsmans seems like a copy
 

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m6z

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I just bought this vise on Ebay. I probably overpaid at $100, but it looks fantastic.

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DFB

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I have a Craftsman 391.5186 4 1/2" jaw width was one of my earlier Flea mkt scores VG good condition and one of my favorites out of like the 15 different ones I have. $30 or 35 IRRC I paid for it I know for a fact it wasn't a full $40.

I see a few non bullet Wilton's at my market, even passed one over this weekend. Had bought one last year, a UX was pretty disappointed in the quality actually, Its a screw and bar style not bent but jaws still don't line up even after I worked on it some. Maybe I take a closer look at the other Wilton I seen this past weekend (had neat side panels I noticed don't even know what model it is) It is our last week of the year.

Like I really need another vise :lol_hitti
 
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