Athol bench vise

[NAYLOR]

I picked this beast up off of craigslist for $50. I stripped the vise to bare metal and painted with enamel. All the hardware received a gun blue finish. In all I have about 100 bucks invested.

Anybody know anything about Athol? I know they were bought by Starrett but that is all I have been able to find.

 

[Thumper]

Excellent work !! Looks like it's a hefty unit .

 

[Paladin]

Nice score! Looks like a solid vise.

 

[Uncle Buck]

All I can tell you is that Athol is one of the premium brands. It's peers would be Reed, Wilton, Columbian, Prentiss, Rigid, Yost, and a few others I likely forgot. It should make for a nice hand me down for your son, or son in law somewhere down the line.

 

[MAD]

Nice work!

I had an old seemingly indestructible Athol vise that I broke in two while using it to press out some really stuck U-joints. Excessive use of a pipe on the handle and a big hammer were involved, I am embarrassed to admit. The gruesome scene of tool abuse was even more painful to relive in my mind after I found out how cheap it was to have the local machine shop R&R the joints in the drive shaft for me.

I was in Athol MA on Saturday buying a part for my clothes dryer and thought about that vise again. I have acquired three U.S. made vises since that ugly incident, but I may need to buy and restore another Athol in order to make amends for my barbaric behavior.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Nice work!

I had an old seemingly indestructible Athol vise that I broke in two while using it to press out some really stuck U-joints. Excessive use of a pipe on the handle and a big hammer were involved, I am embarrassed to admit. The gruesome scene of tool abuse was even more painful to relive in my mind after I found out how cheap it was to have the local machine shop R&R the joints in the drive shaft for me.

I was in Athol MA on Saturday buying a part for my clothes dryer and thought about that vise again. I have acquired three U.S. made vises since that ugly incident, but I may need to buy and restore another Athol in order to make amends for my barbaric behavior.

The u-joints in question were not found at the ends of a mid 1980's GM car or truck RWD were they? I broke an old quality machinist vise the same way.

Only later at the local ag machine shop was I shown that you had to torch heat these u-joints to burn out a plastic retainer before they could be pressed out as usual. Happened when I replaced them in my 1986 GMC 1/2T truck.

 

[bmwpower]

I have an even older Athol 614. Will be up for sale if anyone is interested.

 

[old salvage]

A nice old girl for sure. I like your choice in color.
I have seen two dates for Starrets taking over of Athol. One was 1905 and the other was 1920. ? I dont know which was true.

 

[Scooterfish]

What is the paint & color? I`m redoing a Torin by Wilton and the color is close

Thanks

 

[MAD]

The u-joints in question were not found at the ends of a mid 1980's GM car or truck RWD were they? I broke an old quality machinist vise the same way.

Only later at the local ag machine shop was I shown that you had to torch heat these u-joints to burn out a plastic retainer before they could be pressed out as usual. Happened when I replaced them in my 1986 GMC 1/2T truck.

Nope. It was a 86 Toyota p/u. No plastic retainer, just stuck.

 

[NAYLOR]

What is the paint & color? I`m redoing a Torin by Wilton and the color is close

Thanks

The color is Valspar 5008-4C high gloss enamel. The color is actually darker than the pictures above show. This one is a little better representation.

 

[ZRX61]

Ah HA! I think I found a color for mine

 

[NAYLOR]

Do it! The color looks better than those photos show.

 

[gilbo]

The color is Valspar 5008-4C high gloss enamel. The color is actually darker than the pictures above show. This one is a little better representation.

i know this is an older thread, but man i think i found the color for my next vise restore

 

[ZRX61]

I found a rattlecan of Rustoleum that matched

 

[jeepgod]

What color was that Rustoleum?

 

[autopts]

The color is Valspar 5008-4C high gloss enamel. The color is actually darker than the pictures above show. This one is a little better representation.

Is that Valspar in a Qt, can? That color is nice!

 

[ZRX61]

What color was that Rustoleum?

Spruce Green, found at either Home Cheapo or Lowes. The Athol 323 1/2 I bought home yesterday will be that color.

 

[bczygan]

All I got to say about your vise and restoration is...........OH YEAH!!!

 

[jeepgod]

Thanks.. but they didn't have it in stock.. so I went with a copper hammer... I'll keep it mind for my next vise..

 

[NAYLOR]

The color is Valspar 5008-4C high gloss enamel. The color is actually darker than the pictures above show. This one is a little better representation.

Is that Valspar in a Qt, can? That color is nice!

You got it! It went on really well with a brush.

 

[jeepgod]

ok.. so I broke the orange Athol vise early in this post... come to find out it had been welded and that is where it broke.. so after a few months of hunting I found another, same exact thing. This time I used the Valspar paint from the beginning of this post, the April Arbor 5008-4C in High Gloss. It's a really nice color. This picture doesn't do it justice, it's a bit darker.