Anchor Brand Vise

[MBeaty]

I was picking up a used Wissota grinder the other day and the gentleman also had a vise for sale for a price too good to pass up. I am not familiar with thew manufacturer, nor can I find any information about the vise or its manufacturer. Overall, it is a fairly nice vise. It does not quite have the refinement of my Columbian 504's, but it does actually seem to be built a little stouter.

It says "Made in the USA" and "Fitz, NH" on it, but I can not seem to find any city in NH names Fitz. There is at least one other member here who has mentioned "Anchor" brand in the past, but that is the extent of what I know now. Hopefully someone here can enlighten me with some more info.

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It is built very stout and weighs right at 50 lbs, which is about right for a nice 4" vise. It does not seem to be built quite to the standards as a top quality machinist vise, but it much stouter than the normal mechanics vise, and does not have an anvil surface on it.

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[scaron]

i just did a little googling around, i believe the vise was manufactured by Anchor Industries in Fitzwilliam, NH. it looks like they also made clamps in addition to vises.

here's another guy that got one, it looks a little larger than yours; his post might give you a bit more background on what you've got:

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/threads/60313-Beast-of-a-bench-vise-installed

 

[wrenchguy]

look here.

http://worcester.craigslist.org/tls/4232476066.html

 

[rcico2001]

Hello I just came across your post. The anchor vise company was in business from 1973-2004 and made 5 different vises a 4,4.5, 5, 6, 610 and a few smaller vises along with assorted specialty tools. They sold to mainly the US government. You will see the large No.5 vise on the military M35A2 troop carrier and wrecker trucks used by the US Army. All of the vises and tooling was sold to RCI Starlite International in Bridgeport CT last year. From what I understand they will be manufacturing a few of the larger vise models here in the United states at the RCI Foundry. I will tell you its all american and no one on the market of today can compare strength wise. The material used on these were pure grey iron and no jungle juice of scrap used like in what the china vises are made from. true cast iron will not rust like steel. this is why if you look at those old vises you will really never see one rust through.

 

[bl00]

rcico2001, thanks for the info on Anchor. Did you work for them? If you have any more info or pictures please post it up.

 

[oldldh]

I like the 6" Anchor...

Any U.S. vise manufacturer needs and deserves our support...