Wilton bullets of Cambodia

nmantas · Feb 18, 2019

So I just watched Travelscope Mekong River Part 1 on PBS this morning and something interesting caught my eye. The factory of crafters that are making all the wooden and stone carvings/sculptors for I'd assume the tourist trade are all using Wilton bullets. There seems to be a huge number of them because this factory employs 800 people and every scene showed a little bench with two bullets. These large machinist-grade vises seem like WAAAAAAAY overkill for holding a piece of wood to chisel on so I wonder what the history is. Perhaps they survived the Cambodian civil war or perhaps they were purchased from Vietnam as part of the stuff that was left when the US pulled out of Vietnam. There must be a backstory because a $40 vise would seem to do the same job for them since they weren't locking down metal but instead material that can't take much force before being ruined (wood and stone). Just thought it was interesting. Perhaps one of our vacations could get more interesting with a few hundred dollar bills to flash......how many wiltons can you fit in a suitcase?

MayerMR · Feb 18, 2019

Well that's pretty darn interesting. Thanks for sharing.

BajaScout · Feb 18, 2019

Interesting!!

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nmantas · Feb 18, 2019

Average income is about $1,200 a year in Cambodia (according to google)....just seems out of place to invest in that high quality of a tool (that doesn't seem to be needed) when you don't have to invest in the labor to go along with it. If you are only paying these guys $25 a week....why not maximize profits with a cheap asian vise?

JR 42 · Feb 18, 2019

I'd bet the vises are some kind of surplus, like you said, but still, so many questions... Why are they orange? You can't smoke at work even in Cambodia? Why are the tabletops ~3" thick? Looks like bare iron underneath in the second pic...

phildb4 · Feb 18, 2019

Maybe another Cambodian factory is making Wilton knockoffs......

oak_park · Feb 18, 2019

Product placement for advertising? lol

nmantas · Feb 18, 2019

A guy on a Vietnam-Cambodia bicycling tour (those exist?) took this picture.....wrote that he saw over a dozen in one workshop.
Source: https://ridemonkey.bikemag.com/threads/vietnam-cambodia-now-with-pics.271389/

Farmall450 · Feb 18, 2019

That is interesting. Must have gotten a line on them somehow.

chaosracing · Feb 18, 2019

I wonder how many are from US bases mechanics and fabrication shops. No matter the war or oversea base closures, we always leave stuff behind as it costs more to bring back to the US than to just leave it there.

1982fxr · Feb 18, 2019

Are those cadets?

Shiftless · Feb 18, 2019

phildb4 said:
Maybe another Cambodian factory is making Wilton knockoffs......

Looks to me like you might be right. There is no lettering under the WILTON where there should be Chicago or maybe Schiller Park. Most bullets have curved lettering but there are some later ones (Schiller Park) with the straight lettering like these seen in Cambodia. But the ones shown have no other lettering anywhere.
The jaw inserts aren’t standard Wilton but of course those could be replacements.

1982: yes, the profile looks more straight line like the Cadet’s
The Wilton Cadet designed was ripped off by the guys making the “Taskmaster” vise which was cast in India. But those were clearly marked “TASKMASTER” on each side with bold cast in lettering.

Draw your own conclusions.

BTW, here is a genuine Cadet

1982fxr · Feb 19, 2019

So it's not a proper cadet body either, exactly.

The feet don't look right. Shouldn't they be a bit taller?

nmantas · Feb 19, 2019

Strange....they do seem like bootlegs. But if you were going to copy a Wilton (even using the name) you would do so for the US market. Have we ever seen fake Wiltons? Also these bullets weren't really a big thing 20 years ago where now they are so popular (all the cool kids own one). I guess what I'm saying is the demand back then wasn't high enough to copy where-as now you could argue with the bullet-craze you could argue there is a market (there really isn't outside of a couple hundred tool junkies who know real ones anyway).

I wonder if Wilton made a model for US gov or for overseas market without the extra info in the casting?

Here2Learn · Feb 19, 2019

If they were real, the plant manager would be on here to jump in the vise thread.

1982fxr · Feb 19, 2019

nmantas said:
Strange....they do seem like bootlegs. But if you were going to copy a Wilton (even using the name) you would do so for the US market. Have we ever seen fake Wiltons? Also these bullets weren't really a big thing 20 years ago where now they are so popular (all the cool kids own one). I guess what I'm saying is the demand back then wasn't high enough to copy where-as now you could argue with the bullet-craze you could argue there is a market (there really isn't outside of a couple hundred tool junkies who know real ones anyway).

I wonder if Wilton made a model for US gov or for overseas market without the extra info in the casting?

Your last sentence is possibly the most likely.

pcmeiners · Feb 22, 2019

phildb4 said:
Maybe another Cambodian factory is making Wilton knockoffs......

From all our bomb shrapnel littering their country, recycling at it's best.

Doc995 · Feb 22, 2019

My money is on Vietnam-era equipment that we left behind.

PugetDude · Feb 22, 2019

No dust caps on any of them? :headscrat

The bullet shape also looks a bit off - too squarish?

Bottlecapdigger · Feb 23, 2019

There not mounted right either, if you look at the last picture the handle would hit the edge of the wood top before the vise would even be closed. ??? BCD

3baygarage · Feb 23, 2019

PugetDude said:
No dust caps on any of them?
The bullet shape also looks a bit off - too squarish?

Ceramic flower pot, made in house? :lol_hitti

jd_1138 · Feb 23, 2019

nmantas said:
Average income is about $1,200 a year in Cambodia (according to google)....just seems out of place to invest in that high quality of a tool (that doesn't seem to be needed) when you don't have to invest in the labor to go along with it. If you are only paying these guys $25 a week....why not maximize profits with a cheap asian vise?

The owner of the factory probably got them for next to nothing, or they appreciate quality tools? Using a cheap Asian vise is going to add a little time and frustration into each movement, which costs money on the bottom line.

I wish the 3rd world would adopt quality tools. Some trades people use them, no doubt. There are probably even some mechanics in SE Asia or China using SO. A rising tide raises all boats.

P89DC · Feb 23, 2019

If they're from the USA it's kinda like the old American cars in Cuba. Worth more in America but not easy to get here. By the time they're shipped and new Asian vises are sourced there isn't much profit.

Shiftless · Feb 24, 2019

How can there be screws holding the jaw faces onto the tower in this close up pic? I circled the area in question.
Maybe they are just epoxied on. :dunno:

dogfight · Mar 27, 2019

A closer view. Is it fake? They ask me 35 usd, and told me that is is Taiwan made.

I am from Vietnam.

One thing I know for sure is: Cambodia does not import old mechanical stuffs from Vietnam, but in reversed. Cambodia normally imports stuffs from Japan, US, then sell to Vietnam. So the vises in this thread could not be from Vietnam.

nmantas · Mar 28, 2019

I was not really expecting the plot to change.......thought for sure those vises were a version of authentic Wiltons but now I think for sure that someone somewhere is making fakes. It does look like a solid vise for $35 and I would take it just for the conversation piece of it all but I understand that 35USD has different meanings in different economies of the world with different standards of living.

MayerMR · Mar 28, 2019

dogfight said:
A closer view. Is it fake? They ask me 35 usd, and told me that is is Taiwan made.

I am from Vietnam.

One thing I know for sure is: Cambodia does not import old mechanical stuffs from Vietnam, but in reversed. Cambodia normally imports stuffs from Japan, US, then sell to Vietnam. So the vises in this thread could not be from Vietnam.

I'm missing something here; did you go and actually acquire one of these vises? If so, A) that's pretty cool, and B) I think you're right that they aren't real Wiltons - they don't look like real Wiltons to me anyway, C) For $35 I still think it was worth it. :beer:

dogfight · Mar 29, 2019

No I did not.

New picture from the seller: no dust cap. The alignment inside is not right.

I would say counterfeit Wilton vise does exist.

MayerMR said:
I'm missing something here; did you go and actually acquire one of these vises? If so, A) that's pretty cool, and B) I think you're right that they aren't real Wiltons - they don't look like real Wiltons to me anyway, C) For $35 I still think it was worth it.

MayerMR · Mar 29, 2019

dogfight said:
No I did not.

New picture from the seller: no dust cap. The alignment inside is not right.

I would say counterfeit Wilton vise does exist.

I would agree. Additionally, the base doesn't not align properly with the body.

Wilton bullets of Cambodia

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