Another vise thread. Reed content.

[sanya]

Good evening garage journal! i picked up this vise on sunday and have been curious how old it is. i cleaned it up a bit and cant find any stamping or markings on it. Its a reed #104. 4" jaws and weighs just under 45lbs.

and a bonus question! at the top of each jaw there are threaded holes. any idea why and if that was factory or someone was messing with it?

and pictures of course.

and after 5 minutes with a wire wheel, next to its younger brother #25.

 

[whelenfan]

fantastic!! I love the matching color to your tool box

 

[autopts]

Good evening garage journal! i picked up this vise on sunday and have been curious how old it is. i cleaned it up a bit and cant find any stamping or markings on it. Its a reed #104. 4" jaws and weighs just under 45lbs.

and a bonus question! at the top of each jaw there are threaded holes. any idea why and if that was factory or someone was messing with it?

That vise had the older copper liners that had a center hole on top to permently mount them. Hopefully they were on and have saved wear on the forged ones. You can still buy them today. That round nose might make it even pre war. Nice find!!

 

[sanya]

The jaws are pretty clean. I wouldn't mind running copper liners on it myself. Any idea where I can source some?

 

[autopts]

The jaws are pretty clean. I wouldn't mind running copper liners on it myself. Any idea where I can source some?

One time I ordered Wilton liners from all2ools.com and they send me those by mistake. They are out there.

 

[porphyre]

That round nose might make it even pre war. Nice find!!

Which war?

Reed was using a 3-bolt w/ front lip mounting style for their stationary vises up until at least 1931.

Reed switched to the "flattened ball" style handle knob sometime in the 50's.

So I think this vise was made sometime in the '40's due to the 4-bolt mounting and the round knob.

***** that the handle was repaired/replaced. I hope the threads on the screw and/or nut weren't stretched when the handle was bent/broken.

Beautiful vise, by the way. I wouldn't paint it. Those old beauties look better with a natural finish. Leave it like it is and hit it with an oily rag every week or so.

This particular model of vise came with up to 9" jaws, weighing 283 pounds.....

 

[Packard V8]

Not going to say anything nice about your new vise until you tell us how much you paid for it. ;>)

jack vines

 

[Catalyze]

Very nice looking Reed(s). The holes in the jaws are most likely for the copper liners that some bolted on....some just wrapped around the jaw and were easily removable. You can source copper liners off of ebay sometimes and you can get softer jaw faces from ebay also. Paint the vise a nice turqoise or paint to match your yellow box......
Craig

 

[sanya]

Good info guys. Any other ways to narrow it down to when in the 40s?

Even though I like the look of the vise as is, i am going to clean it up and paint it. It's gonna replace the #25 on the box and it won't be getting beat on much so I'd like to have new looking to match my minty clean 18 year old box.

The screw doesn't show any damage and I don't think the handle was replaced. It shows about the same amoumt of wear as the rest of the vise. I'm pretty sure someone just welded the ball on because it started coming loose just like the one on the other end right now. I'll clean up the welds and it should be fine.

 

[zekers59]

Two beautiful vises.......nice paint scheme indeed!

Great score......

 

[porphyre]

The screw doesn't show any damage and I don't think the handle was replaced.

Unless the damage is grievous, you won't be able to see it. The nut could also be damaged, which is hard to inspect. The damage is shown in the using. A vise of that quality and age should have less than a 1/4 turn backlash and really less than an 1/8th turn.

 

[sanya]

Got the vise all cleaned up and painted. I really like how it turned out and it feels great. I can't wait to mount it and use it. I've been wanting to mount a wood top on the box so the vise is going to have to wait for that.

 

[whelenfan]

I too love the color scheme! Those two look awesome.