Athol 626X

[Joe Huld]

Just bought this Athol 626X; I had to disassemble it and enlist the help of a friend to load it into my old Jeep Cherokee. I think the vise weighs in excess of 150 pounds and the fabricated steel stand just about as much. Does anyone have any specs on this vise?

 

[drivesitfar]

Joe: i'm guessing maybe early 1920's or late 1910's, but i don't recall Athol vise's history at the moment. it looks like it might be missing a replaceable jaw and that stand is a beast. with the jaw extended is the stand tippy at all?

i'm guessing you are right in the ballpark at 150 pounds for your 6 inch Athol cause most of my old 6 inchers weigh about that much.

nice find and welcome to GJ. in case you didn't know it there are several members here that really like vises too.

 

[Joe Huld]

You are right that it is missing a replaceable jaw but it looks like it should be fairly easy to make. It doesn't seem to be tippy at least through the 90 degrees centered on the long side of the base. The prior owner didn't see a need to drill holes to bolt it down so I think it wasn't a problem. I couldn't resist this although I have five other big vise projects ahead of this in the pipeline: Wilton 9400, Parker 206, Prentiss 59 coachmakers, a blackmiths post vise, and a Reed 404 swivel jaw. For now I'm just going to clean it up a bit and get bak to work on the Prentiss.

 

[drivesitfar]

Joe: it sounds like you maybe have more than a few skills and you've gathered some nice vises too. good to here the stand for your Athol doesn't need to be bolted down cause this one on my big Reed 106 does or it's tips if i try to work on something in it's jaws that's fighting me.

best of luck with the Athol's jaw fix

 

[Stadger]

https://visecollector.com/history-of-the-athol-machine-company/