I was fortunate to locate a Wilton C0 at an estate sale and snagged it for $45.00. The vise was mounted to a bench and did not have a swivel base with it. Oddly enough, the ½” center alignment pin was still inserted in the bottom of the vise. The previous owner had drilled a recess out of the bench to mount the vise flat. As far as I am aware of, the C0 was not sold without the swivel base and the presence of alignment pin indicates that there was a swivel base at one time. I looked all over for it but was unable to locate it.
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To be honest, I did not go out looking for a C0 but I do seek out Wilton’s. It was pure chance that I got this C0 and now that I have it, I have a burning desire to acquire a C1, C2, and C3. You see this is the problem with collecting anything. Once you have something that is part of a series, you all of a sudden want the entire series.
I digress, the vise itself is dated 6/15/64, which from what I have found means that the vise was manufactured in 1959. Regardless, this vise is older than me by 4 years so that makes it vintage in my book. The handle is badly bent, and I will be fabricating a new one. The is some red paint on the vise; however, for the most part, this thing is in really good shape. No cracks or welds and the jaw rests look great. The jaws also look good as well as the pipe jaws and the anvil.
I brought the vise home and disassembled it. Unfortunately, all the Philips head screws for the jaws were stripped and rusted in. Additionally, the pins that hold the pipe jaws in place were rusted as well. I was able to get out just one pipe jaw pin. All the others started to mushroom. Leaving the jaw inserts in, I placed all the parts into a simple green bath for 48 hours.
Next, I hand wire brushed the parts and rinsed them off, this removed 90% of the paint and grime. Next, I placed all the parts in a citric acid bath for another 48 hours.
Next, I rinsed all the parts and applied a lite coat of WD40 to everything then began to work on the jaw screws.
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Unfortunately, these screws would get drilled out. The two screw holes in the front jaw had to be tapped but the two holes in the back jaw were fine. I will be using socket head screws to replace these Philips screws. The jaws look good and moderately worn. From what I have read, this is exactly how everyone wants their Wilton jaws because they tend to be very aggressive from the factory.
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Next, I attempted to remove the three other pipe jaw pins. For several hours I worked at this and did not get very far at all. Aside from the citric acid bath, I have tried PB blaster, propane torch, small hammer, big hammer, steel drift punches, brass drift punches, brass hammers. I even tried to use a 2-jaw puller, but I could not get it locked to the vise body. Currently the parts are again soaking with PB blaster and I will be beating them into submission this evening.
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I also attempted to remove the alignment pin from the bottom of the vise body but that only ended up with me chewing up the sides of the pin with the vise grips. I will try heat on this pin as well this evening.
So, I was not sure I would do a thread for this rebuild but as things look to get more and more complicated, I decided to document how I approached these challenges.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to remove any of the pipe jaw pins and/or the alignment pin, I would appreciate their input.
As always, thanks for the interest.
View media item 111562
View media item 111561
View media item 111563
To be honest, I did not go out looking for a C0 but I do seek out Wilton’s. It was pure chance that I got this C0 and now that I have it, I have a burning desire to acquire a C1, C2, and C3. You see this is the problem with collecting anything. Once you have something that is part of a series, you all of a sudden want the entire series.
I digress, the vise itself is dated 6/15/64, which from what I have found means that the vise was manufactured in 1959. Regardless, this vise is older than me by 4 years so that makes it vintage in my book. The handle is badly bent, and I will be fabricating a new one. The is some red paint on the vise; however, for the most part, this thing is in really good shape. No cracks or welds and the jaw rests look great. The jaws also look good as well as the pipe jaws and the anvil.
I brought the vise home and disassembled it. Unfortunately, all the Philips head screws for the jaws were stripped and rusted in. Additionally, the pins that hold the pipe jaws in place were rusted as well. I was able to get out just one pipe jaw pin. All the others started to mushroom. Leaving the jaw inserts in, I placed all the parts into a simple green bath for 48 hours.
Next, I hand wire brushed the parts and rinsed them off, this removed 90% of the paint and grime. Next, I placed all the parts in a citric acid bath for another 48 hours.
Next, I rinsed all the parts and applied a lite coat of WD40 to everything then began to work on the jaw screws.
View media item 111593
Unfortunately, these screws would get drilled out. The two screw holes in the front jaw had to be tapped but the two holes in the back jaw were fine. I will be using socket head screws to replace these Philips screws. The jaws look good and moderately worn. From what I have read, this is exactly how everyone wants their Wilton jaws because they tend to be very aggressive from the factory.
View media item 111591
Next, I attempted to remove the three other pipe jaw pins. For several hours I worked at this and did not get very far at all. Aside from the citric acid bath, I have tried PB blaster, propane torch, small hammer, big hammer, steel drift punches, brass drift punches, brass hammers. I even tried to use a 2-jaw puller, but I could not get it locked to the vise body. Currently the parts are again soaking with PB blaster and I will be beating them into submission this evening.
View media item 111592
I also attempted to remove the alignment pin from the bottom of the vise body but that only ended up with me chewing up the sides of the pin with the vise grips. I will try heat on this pin as well this evening.
So, I was not sure I would do a thread for this rebuild but as things look to get more and more complicated, I decided to document how I approached these challenges.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to remove any of the pipe jaw pins and/or the alignment pin, I would appreciate their input.
As always, thanks for the interest.
