Wilton Vise History

kc-steve · Jan 5, 2011

Hi all,

I've been looking around for any history on Wilton vises and it is sparse at best. The reason I would like this info is because I am writing an article for a new website, http://junkyardtools.com (site is currently offline while I build it in PHP format.) Sorry for the shameless plug.

But I am sincere about getting some historical information.

EDIT: The Wilton History webpage is online now, and also reference my "Friends at Garage Journal" as a primary source of information.
http://junkyardtools.com/tool_history/wilton

About the only thing I can find is that Wilton was founded in 1941. And THAT is on the Wilton website! Not very proud are they?

But I am sure there is a long interesting history that needs to be told. I know some guys here have said the new Wilton vises are not as good as the old. Is that because they are made overseas now?

How about models and when they were made? I have a 3" "930" tradesman I believe, but don't have a clue when it was made.

Thanks,
Steve

jon619 · Jan 6, 2011

I think it was autopts who said that if it was Chicago made, it was 50s or earlier.

kc-steve · Jan 6, 2011

That's something I didn't know. Believe me, I don't know ANYTHING about these great tools and anyone with ANY info can help.

Thanks,
Steve

DavidB · Jan 6, 2011

For the date of your vise, pull the dynamic jaw all the way out and flip it over. On the bottom of the round end should be a flat section with a date stamped in it. Have you tried emailing Wilton and asking about thier history? I'd think someone there would have some kind of document with thier history. Also mention try mentioning its for a blog posting. I'm sure they love free advertising as much as the next company.

autopts · Jan 6, 2011

The Wilton history story is a long one. Any vise that is stamped "Chicago" was made before their move out to Schiller Pk. in 1957.

Did you know retired Wilton employees schedule a dinner once a year to get together? In 2009 the Wilton Co's original founders son attended. He was a major player in Wilton's success in the 70's & 80's

kc-steve · Jan 7, 2011

autopts said:
The Wilton history story is a long one. Any vise that is stamped "Chicago" was made before their move out to Schiller Pk. in 1957.

Did you know retired Wilton employees schedule a dinner once a year to get together? In 2009 the Wilton Co's original founders son attended. He was a major player in Wilton's success in the 70's & 80's

Thanks autopts, interesting info. Is Schiller Pk. in Illinois? Never mind, I just looked it up. It is in the Chicago metro area.

Steve

kc-steve · Jan 7, 2011

DavidB said:
For the date of your vise, pull the dynamic jaw all the way out and flip it over. On the bottom of the round end should be a flat section with a date stamped in it. Have you tried emailing Wilton and asking about thier history? I'd think someone there would have some kind of document with thier history. Also mention try mentioning its for a blog posting. I'm sure they love free advertising as much as the next company.

Thanks for the tip David. I called the new owner since 2002, Walter Meier (pronounced like Meyer), and they tell me they don't have any history documents before 2002.

That's TERRIBLE they would pretty much ignore Wilton's formative years.

Did anyone else own the Wilton company before 2002? I'm gonna have to rely on everyone's help because Walter Meier is more interested in telling us about the Meier company.

Thanks,
Steve

spongerich · Jan 7, 2011

As for the dates on the slide, some seem to have them and some dont. I've also read that in at least some cases those dates were the end of warranty date, not the date of manufacture. Warranty was 5 years.

ajchien · Jan 7, 2011

spongerich said:
As for the dates on the slide, some seem to have them and some dont. I've also read that in at least some cases those dates were the end of warranty date, not the date of manufacture. Warranty was 5 years.

Really?! My Wilton is stamped 4-46. So that means it was made in 1941 - their first year? Does anyone have an earlier stamp?

DavidB · Jan 7, 2011

spongerich said:
As for the dates on the slide, some seem to have them and some dont. I've also read that in at least some cases those dates were the end of warranty date, not the date of manufacture. Warranty was 5 years.

Ah, yes I should have mentioned that as well. Based on a pic I saw on OWWM, the warranty expiration date stamps have the text "GUAR EXP" stamped above them. I don't know if this is always true. It was also mentioned that the 5 year warranty went away in the mid sixties though so that should help determine if it is a manufacturing date.

Here is the pic, originally posted on OWWM.org by 9watts. Hopefully, he'd be ok with me borrowing it.

I'm surprised that Wilton has no info on their history. That's just sad. I don't know if you're a member of owwm.org but there is a moderator over there named jblenzi that seems to know a fair amount about Wiltons. You might try contacting him as well.

Here's the patent for the bullet style vise if that helps at all: http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?pn=D131498&id=40894

autopts · Jan 7, 2011

ajchien said:
Really?! My Wilton is stamped 4-46. So that means it was made in 1941 - their first year? Does anyone have an earlier stamp?

They may have been finalizing their designs around 1939-1940. Yes, the early dates stamped were 5 years after the vise was originally made. It was for warranty reasons which was 5 years.
WMH wants nothing to do with Wilton's past. In 2010 Wilton customer service even changed the name when answering phones from "Good Morning, Wilton Tool Customer Service" to "Hi, this is Walter Meyers Holding Inc, may I help you"? WMH is Swiss based and huge! They want nothing more then to globalize every line they have. They tried it with some of their Tradesman vises being made in China. The 1740, 1750,& 1760. American users started screaming about how poorly made vises they were so eventually they brought that vise back home to make.

kc-steve · Jan 8, 2011

DavidB said:
. . .I'm surprised that Wilton has no info on their history. That's just sad. I don't know if you're a member of owwm.org but there is a moderator over there named jblenzi that seems to know a fair amount about Wiltons. You might try contacting him as well. . . .

Never heard of it, but thanks. I will try and join the "Old Wood Working Machines" forum and see what I can find out. I also joined Practical Machinist forum but it has taken 3 or 4 days just to get OK-ed to type a question.

I was reading post at PM and found out the differences between a Machinist and Mechanics vise.

Major differences include that the Mechanics vise was meant to be beat on with a sledge, and typically includes a pipe grip below the regular vise grips. That would seem to be the preferred vise to me, but those machinists "wouldn't want one."

Quoting Groucho Marx, "I wouldn't join a club that would have me as a member."

Steve

spongerich · Jan 8, 2011

ajchien said:
Really?! My Wilton is stamped 4-46. So that means it was made in 1941 - their first year? Does anyone have an earlier stamp?

Mine's stamped 1946 as well. Does yours say Patented or Pat Pending?

KC-Steve - If you haven't already done so, you might also spend some time searching patents.google.com. There might be some good info hidden there as well. I assume that Wilton has at least a few patents filed there.

kc-steve · Jan 8, 2011

Autopts, thanks again. BTW, I checked David's patent link and it has the names A.J. Vogl, and Hugh W. Vogl on several of their patents.

FYI per our pm's.

Spongerich: Thanks, I found the "bullet style" patent was granted on March 3, 1942. Applied for on August 1, 1941.

Thanks,
Steve

kc-steve · Jan 8, 2011

spongerich said:
. . . you might also spend some time searching patents.google.com. There might be some good info hidden there as well. I assume that Wilton has at least a few patents filed there.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think I found the patent for the "Columbian style" Wilton vise, US Patent: D154,001. It doesn't explicitly say that it is the Columbian though.

Applied: Nov. 12, 1947
Granted: May 31, 1949

http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=D154001&id=40895&set=2

Steve

autopts · Jan 8, 2011

kc-steve said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think I found the patent for the "Columbian style" Wilton vise, US Patent: D154,001. It doesn't explicitly say that it is the Columbian though.

Applied: Nov. 12, 1947
Granted: May 31, 1949

http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=D154001&id=40895&set=2

Steve

Another fruitful search Steve. I believe that was a patent for Wilton's Torco vise. That was was made very early on. Notice the shapes of the anvils?

kc-steve · Jan 8, 2011

autopts said:
Another fruitful search Steve. I believe that was a patent for Wilton's Torco vise. That was was made very early on. Notice the shapes of the anvils?

AWESOME! Autopts, you are ALWAYS a wealth of information.

Edit: I think that photo also shows a later patent of their swivel base, US Patent: D184,413
Applied: Feb. 14, 1957
Granted: Feb. 10, 1959

http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=D184413&id=40886&set=7

Is it possible that (my new link) was the Columbian style? I don't really know.

Thanks,
Steve

ajchien · Jan 8, 2011

Mine is simply stamped "4-46". Nothing else. No "Patent", "Pat Pending", nor is there a "Guar Exp" on it.

spongerich said:
Mine's stamped 1946 as well. Does yours say Patented or Pat Pending?

KC-Steve - If you haven't already done so, you might also spend some time searching patents.google.com. There might be some good info hidden there as well. I assume that Wilton has at least a few patents filed there.

autopts · Jan 8, 2011

kc-steve said:
AWESOME! Autopts, you are ALWAYS a wealth of information.

Edit: I think that photo also shows a later patent of their swivel base, US Patent: D184,413
Applied: Feb. 14, 1957
Granted: Feb. 10, 1959

http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=D184413&id=40886&set=7

Is it possible that (my new link) was the Columbian style? I don't really know.

Thanks,
Steve

That was Wilton's "Rapid Titan 3 Way" Triple duty vise. Final production had that vise with 3 different options, 1, it had woodworking jaws, 2, pipe jaws, and 3, regular vise jaws. Wilton entered quick and early on the DIY market.

rsieracki · Jan 8, 2011

kc-steve said:
Thanks autopts, interesting info. Is Schiller Pk. in Illinois? Never mind, I just looked it up. It is in the Chicago metro area.

Steve

in case your interested the old wilton plant is occupied by Russo Hardware at roughly Irving pk rd & wesley terrace... google earth should show soo line rail tracks behind the block long factory, the park on the corner use to be a parking lot i played baseball in (knocking a homer thru a factory window at one point) and a house on that street i grew up in

spongerich · Jan 9, 2011

Very interesting. I believed that my bullet was a '46 based on the date on the keyway, but it's stamped Pat Pending so that would put the DOM at '41

kc-steve said:
Thanks, I found the "bullet style" patent was granted on March 3, 1942. Applied for on August 1, 1941

v7guy · Jan 9, 2011

a lot of fun info here, it's a shame the parent co. wants to have nothing to do with the co. history that it purchased.

autopts · Jan 9, 2011

v7guy said:
a lot of fun info here, it's a shame the parent co. wants to have nothing to do with the co. history that it purchased.

Yes, and its a shame that the old Wilton employees meet once a year at a dinner and nobody talks or has been taking cronological notes all these years to put a book together. We have to piece it together.

kc-steve · Jan 9, 2011

With the help of you guys here I finally found the "warranty expiration" date on mine. It is stamped 9-46 giving it a manufacturing date before the end of their first year. At least one of you guys has mine beat by 5 months though, but I never imagined it would be that old, especially after I bought it at garage sale for $18 marked down from $25 on the 3rd day of the sale.

Steve

autopts · Jan 9, 2011

kc-steve said:
With the help of you guys here I finally found the "warranty expiration" date on mine. It is stamped 9-46 giving it a manufacturing date before the end of their first year. At least one of you guys has mine beat by 5 months though, but I never imagined it would be that old, especially after I bought it at garage sale for $18 marked down from $25 on the 3rd day of the sale.

Steve

Steve, that Wilton, for its age, is in very nice shape. is it missing the back cap?

kc-steve · Jan 9, 2011

Autopts, I don't really know if it is missing a back cap or not, but it would look better than the photo below I suppose.

Anyone have a photo of what the back cap should look like?

I can tell you that the guy that sold it to me said he had painted it with as close a color as he had, but I doubt he spent a lot of time on it. He is my dentist and buys and sells tools as a hobby. Eighteen bucks isn't much even if it is a model 930.

Steve

spongerich · Jan 10, 2011

Here's a few pics of my #4. Date on the slide is 1-46 which I suppose makes it one of the earliest ones. Steve, you can see the end cap there. Some folks have had luck replacing them with freeze plugs which are apparently available in a variety of sizes.

Being an 840, I wasn't lucky enough to get mine for $18.
I had to pay the full asking price of $25.

autopts · Jan 10, 2011

Replacement jaws are hard to sell on those older 3' & 3/1/2" Wiltons. Often the sides are not even, in fact, I quit selling the early ones because most buyers did not have a way to grind down the 1/8" overlap on each end. Occasionally the holes were perfect but often times they had to be tweaked at final assembly. Nice early 840 and the paint might be original?

kc-steve · Jan 10, 2011

autopts said:
Replacement jaws are hard to sell on those older 3' & 3/1/2" Wiltons. . . . Nice early 840 and the paint might be original?

Is the gray color the original paint color? My dentist and I thought it was the bluish-green color.

Just curious, I thought about making my own jaws out of aluminum stock. I wouldn't think it was difficult even though I don't have a mill, but do own a drill press. I wouldn't try making steel jaws though. More often than not, I prefer jaws that won't leave marks on my working piece.

An after thought, . . . could I make jaws from cold-rolled steel maybe? That would be softer than tool steel, yet harder than aluminum. I have made some tools out of cold-rolled and it is harder than hot-rolled steel.

Steve

autopts · Jan 10, 2011

kc-steve said:
Is the gray color the original paint color? My dentist and I thought it was the bluish-green color.

Just curious, I thought about making my own jaws out of aluminum stock. I wouldn't think it was difficult even though I don't have a mill, but do own a drill press. I wouldn't try making steel jaws though. More often than not, I prefer jaws that won't leave marks on my working piece.

An after thought, . . . could I make jaws from cold-rolled steel maybe? That would be softer than tool steel, yet harder than aluminum. I have made some tools out of cold-rolled and it is harder than hot-rolled steel.

Steve

Some were a wierd off Green and some were Gray. I might have a pair of 4" used smooth steel jaws. The C-C on the mounting holes would be the same. Yes cold rolled steel would be good.

spongerich · Jan 11, 2011

I think it's been painted at some point. I don't believe that the nosepiece that the handle runs through would have been painted originally, but I'm not 100% sure. It's in remarkably good condition for its age and looks like it lead an easy life.

The jackas...uh.. I mean previous owner had it sitting on the ground under a tarp. It's amazing there's not more rust.

kc-steve · Jan 11, 2011

Spongerich: That is a great example of an early 4-inch Wilton! I'm still not sure whether it is a "Machinist" or "Tradesman" model though. Can I use any of those photos in my new website?

I'm up and at 'em early today, got too much to do like install a blade on my lawn tractor to see if I can dig myself out of the snow here.

Steve

kc-steve · Jan 11, 2011

Found some Wilton history on the Vintage Machinery .org website that verifies what we have already figured out.

Manufacturers Index - Wilton Corp.

Last Modified: Dec 17 2010 4:28PM by Jeff_Joslin

This company has been in business since 1941, though they did not get involved in woodworking machinery until 1964. The original company name is uncertain. By 1951 it was Wilton Tool Manufacturing Co., Inc.; that name lasted until at least 1965. By 2000 it was Wilton Tool Co. LLC. The Wilton Corp. name was in use by 1984, and it seems to have supplanted the "Wilton Tool Co. LLC" name by 2003 or so. It's all a bit confusing.

Wilton purchased the rights to some Boice-Crane products, but they have apparently ceased manufacture of all (except the Wilton-designed model 3000/2900 tilting-arbor saw) and threw out the patterns. Drill presses and sanders appear in their current catalog, but they may be manufactured by someone else.

In early 2002, Wilton Corp. and the well-known importer Jet merged operations. Both are owned by WMH - Walter Meier Holding Co. This holding company owns Wilton, Jet, Powermatic, and Performax.

Steve

kc-steve · Jan 11, 2011

Here is a Wilton Vise I have never heard of before from the same website above. It is called a "Wiltomatic" using an air-hydraulic system. http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=11222

"Wiltomatic" air-hydraulic bench vise.

Description/Model: Wiltomatic 5S450 pneumatic vise
Date of Manufacturer: June 1969
Machine Sizes: 4", 4 1/2", 6"

Bill Nance says, "This vise came out of an old foundry in the SF bay area that was shutting down its operations. It is a "Wiltomatic" that was designed for use with air-powered foot-pedal controlled clamping mechanism that had long since gone missing. The pneumatic portion provides about 1/8" of travel for the head, to allow hands-free closing of the jaws on stock. I completely disassembled the internals, figured out and cleaned up all the mechanical parts, and have it in use as my daily driver."

I hope they don't mind me linking to their photos. I am at least giving proper credit.

Steve

kc-steve · Jan 11, 2011

AWESOME Frank! I'll see if I can get some more catalog info from them. I really don't know why that gal I called told me they didn't have any historical info.

Nice photo example of the "Triple" home shop vise. "Autopts" identified it in the patent search in his post #19, but you have the first real pics of one in use.

Thanks,
Steve

autopts · Jan 11, 2011

kc-steve said:
Here is a Wilton Vise I have never heard of before from the same website above. It is called a "Wiltomatic" using an air-hydraulic system. http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=11222

Wilton had their Wiltomatic shown in their early 50's cataloging. They also had a Millomatic which was their air operated mill vise. I can't say for sure if Wilton made the hydraulics for it. They could have. This is getting to be a very informative Wilton thread! Glad you started it.
I've got a number of old Wilton catalogs and I used to be able to scan pages into word documents to send. My scanner is broke.

kc-steve · Jan 11, 2011

Found another "Vise Assembly" patent and don't know what it could be. The photo does show it holding a piece of wood though. I think they are more focused on the unusual hinge in the photo. The patentees are different but it is still listed as Wilton Corp.

http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=3675916&id=40884&set=4

"Vise assembly"
Patentees: Walter Smierciak - Elgin, IL, Raymond H. Kartasuk - Lincolnwood, IL
US Patent: 3,675,916
Assignees: Wilton Corp. - Schiller Park, IL
Applied: Sep. 21, 1970
Granted: Jul. 11, 1972

Anyone know what it is?

Thanks,
Steve

kc-steve · Jan 11, 2011

Here's YET another one I don't recognize. . . .

Anyone recognize this Wilton vise? . . . anyone? . . . Bueller? . . .Bueller?
(sorry but it seemed appropriate since Ferris ... was filmed in Chicago and my voice sounds like Ben Stein's.

http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=D164143&id=40896&set=3

Just says, "Vise or similar article"
Patentee: Hugh W. Vogl - Wilmette, IL
US Patent: D164,143
Applied: Sep. 13, 1950
Granted: Jul. 31, 1951

Thanks,
Steve

old salvage · Jan 11, 2011

Thats the 'Shop King' model.

spongerich · Jan 11, 2011

The Shop King is the 1975 Corvette of Wiltons.

All style and no substance :bounce:

They're a nice little utility vise for your average homeowner, but most guys here would break one in a week of daily use.

kc-steve said:
Here's YET another one I don't recognize. . . .

Anyone recognize this Wilton vise? . . . anyone? . . . Bueller? . . .Bueller?
(sorry but it seemed appropriate since Ferris ... was filmed in Chicago and my voice sounds like Ben Stein's.

http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/advance.php?pn=D164143&id=40896&set=3

Just says, "Vise or similar article"
Patentee: Hugh W. Vogl - Wilmette, IL
US Patent: D164,143
Applied: Sep. 13, 1950
Granted: Jul. 31, 1951

Thanks,
Steve

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