Can anyone identify this vise

[sbosecker]

I ordered a Swivel Nut & Swivel Stud for a Morgan 130 from Milwaukee Tool & Equipment. Total cost to get this delivered to my house was about $29. I was a little disappointed in the "crimped" ends of the Swivel Nut Lever but it is what it is.

As expected, these parts worked with 4 Standard Vise.

With this acquisition the vise's restoration is complete.

$25 for vise.

I had about $20 in paint, primer & cleaners. That cost would be shared by other projects that need these materials.

About $8 delivered for 4 new Jaw Insert Screws.

About $29 delivered for Swivel Nut & Stud.

So about $72 in materials. Since I work for free, that's the total cost of this vise. Ha!

Scott

 

[CNGsaves]

Beautiful job on the restoration !!

Your score on the $25 vise turned out terrific. Job well done.

. . . and yes . . . . YOU **** !!

 

[drivesitfar]

Scott: nice work on the Standard vise. sorry I've had a lot on my plate lately and were you still waiting for me to try to loosen and take apart my vise and get you some information?

 

[wild cowboy]

did we ever figure out what country this vise was built in?

 

[bluebolt]

did we ever figure out what country this vise was built in?

Not so far. I am still of the opinion Morgan made these in the Chicago era. I have not found one single example of a Chicago made Morgan Star vise that this vise is extremely close to. Plus the Mercury 4 and Metro 4 vises don't have the country on them either but some people believe they were made by Morgan as well and these vises look just like the Standard vise.

 

[wild cowboy]

even if Morgan made them and didn't want to claim them, for fear of cannibalizing their own vise sales, I still think they would have put Chicago, Ill or at least USA on them!

 

[sbosecker]

Scott: nice work on the Standard vise. sorry I've had a lot on my plate lately and were you still waiting for me to try to loosen and take apart my vise and get you some information?

DrivesItFar,

Due to the fact that this is an oddball vise and yours appears to be the only other one in GarageJournal captivity, it would be interesting to see if yours has different innards than mine. Especially since, if I recall correctly, you indicated that your jaws were 4 inches wide.

However, that should only be done when you have nothing better to do. There's no hurry to do this and the only purpose would be to add to the database on this vise brand.

However, in this pacific northwest season of 4:30 pm sunsets and 200 foot ragged overcast days with drizzle at 35 degrees (yes, I remember those days from my time there 36 years ago), perhaps you will soon find yourself hunkered down and over-caffeinated in your home and will need a small project to kill some time. When that happens, please report what you find.

Ha!

Best regards,

Scott

 

[sbosecker]

Beautiful job on the restoration !!

Your score on the $25 vise turned out terrific. Job well done.

. . . and yes . . . . YOU **** !!

CNGsaves,

Thanks for that coveted proclamation.

I probably should have stated refurbishment vs. restoration. The Jaw Inserts are pretty worn and I haven't done anything to remedy that. Also, compared to some of the "frozen" projects I've seen on this site, this vise was pretty much just a clean-up job.

I do expect to get good use from it in my shop.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[va.grouseman]

Another sighting in the wild of a 4 Standard Vise on eBay today.

sbosecker,---Didn't realize that the standard you were referring to was one I purchased.---I posted it on the Vises thread, but I hadn't been back to this thread since page 1.---Didn't know it had progressed this far.---Drivesit told me to look into it.

Here's 4 pics that I took.









No use asking me what I know about them, I've been reading this whole thread to find out what you fellows know.

I do have a Metro and a Mercury that look a whole lot like the Standard.---Like they and the Morgan's were all first cousins.

There is a Metro on page 721,--post 14413, and also on page 753,--post 15041.

And a Mercury on page 568,--post 11341.---You can tab back and forth for comparison.

 

[bluebolt]

sbosecker,---Didn't realize that the standard you were referring to was one I purchased.---I posted it on the Vises thread, but I hadn't been back to this thread since page 1.---Didn't know it had progressed this far.---Drivesit told me to look into it.

Here's 4 pics that I took.

[
No use asking me what I know about them, I've been reading this whole thread to find out what you fellows know.

I do have a Metro and a Mercury that look a whole lot like the Standard.---Like they and the Morgan's were all first cousins.

There is a Metro on page 721,--post 14413, and also on page 753,--post 15041.

And a Mercury on page 568,--post 11341.---You can tab back and forth for comparison.

Well get your Standard, Mercury and Metro all together in one spot and take some pictures then! Measure the jaw width on all three and also see if they have the lettering on the main nut and swivel base.

 

[va.grouseman]

Well get your Standard, Mercury and Metro all together in one spot and take some pictures then! Measure the jaw width on all three and also see if they have the lettering on the main nut and swivel base.

I knew someone was going to ask me to do that.---Well now I've got to prove it.---Since I've got to do some digging, I'll throw in a 4 inch Morgan so all 4 can be compared.

The Morgan is stainless if you can believe that.---It's not pure stainless because a magnet will stick to it, but it's been setting on a cold cement floor with no heat in the building for 2 1/2 years and the guy I got it from said it had been setting in his shed for 3 years and not a speck of rust.---When I got it I actually sprayed vandalism mark remover on to see if it was painted silver and nothing came off.---The fellow said it was special ordered for a pharmaceutical R & D lab.---Of course I didn't believe him but I wanted the 40 anyway so I bought it.---It's the only one I haven't had to keep drenched with oil to keep from rusting.

 

[bluebolt]

I knew someone was going to ask me to do that.---Well now I've got to prove it.---Since I've got to do some digging, I'll throw in a 4 inch Morgan so all 4 can be compared.

The Morgan is stainless if you can believe that.---It's not pure stainless because a magnet will stick to it, but it's been setting on a cold cement floor with no heat in the building for 2 1/2 years and the guy I got it from said it had been setting in his shed for 3 years and not a speck of rust.---When I got it I actually sprayed vandalism mark remover on to see if it was painted silver and nothing came off.---The fellow said it was special ordered for a pharmaceutical R & D lab.---Of course I didn't believe him but I wanted the 40 anyway so I bought it.---It's the only one I haven't had to keep drenched with oil to keep from rusting.

A stainless vise!

If it's a 40 it is the heavier Morgan vise, the Standard / Metro / Mercury are pretty much the same as the Morgan Star vise.

 

[drivesitfar]

SB: i thought i'd mention to you that VA posted a bunch of 4 inch vises over on the vise thread that included his Standard vise. one is a 100% stainless Morgan which is pretty cool and he had a couple others that are close to yours and my Standard vises. you might want to do check it out and maybe bring some of those pictures over here. VA is busy with the holidays and probably already put them away so taking them apart now isn't in the cards.

 

[1982fxr]

I'll bet a million dollars that Standard is made in USA.

 

[va.grouseman]

Brought over from the vises thread.---four cousins.

Here's the four vises that may be kin to each other.

Mercury is 4 1/2'' jaws----66 lbs.

Standard is 4'' jaws----42.2 lbs.

Metro is 4'' jaws----40.6 lbs.

Morgan 140 is 4'' jaws----52.2 lbs.
















More pics on next post.---Yaw be the judge.---ask questions.

 

[va.grouseman]

Metro is in the best shape, then the Morgan.

I took the pictures in order, one vise at a time but looks like the upload scrambled some of them.















More on next post

 

[va.grouseman]

The stainless Morgan show brown stain but there is no rust on the vise.---Cloudy so I had to use flash which made brown spots show on the vise but it looks like fresh sand blasted metal in real life.---Don't know how the flash does that.

















Couple more of the Mercury on next post.

 

[va.grouseman]

The Mercury is in the worst shape of all.---I had to dig it out from under some other vises and its obvious it didn't get any of the heavy oil I put on the top vises.---Yes it's literally a pile of vises.

 

[sbosecker]

The Mercury is in the worst shape of all.---I had to dig it out from under some other vises and its obvious it didn't get any of the heavy oil I put on the top vises.---Yes it's literally a pile of vises.

Va.Grouseman,

Thanks for sharing! I've been away for a while and missed the additional information. There certainly seems to be shared DNA among these vises.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[sbosecker]

Brought over from the vises thread.---four cousins.

Originally Posted by va.grouseman View Post
Here's the four vises that may be kin to each other.

Mercury is 4 1/2'' jaws----66 lbs.

Standard is 4'' jaws----42.2 lbs.

Metro is 4'' jaws----40.6 lbs.

Morgan 140 is 4'' jaws----52.2 lbs.

Va.Grouseman,

When I queried the fellow that was selling the Standard Vise via eBay if the width of the jaws was 3-7/8 inches, he indicated that was correct.

So, just to be clear, I have to ask you about the width of the Standard Vise's jaws. Are they 4 inches wide or are they 3-7/8 inches wide?

I'm going to guess that they actually are 4 inches as your Standard Vise weighs about two pounds more than my 3-7/8 inch model.

Were it not for the San Mateo 3-7/8 inch wide jaw Standard Vise that was sold via Craigslist, I would think mine had been altered somehow.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[balane]

I haven't hopped in this thread for a while but if you really don't like the crimped ends on your swivel lock then you can easily fabricate a suitable replacement. I made the ones in this photo.

Just measure what size rod you need (Mine took 1/4" diameter.) and then buy bolt/nut combo(s) of suitable length and thickness.

Cut the rod off of your swivel lock and insert the bolt. Put some JB Weld on the threads and lock the nut down as tight as you dare with wrenches. Saw off and grind/sand down the protruding threaded bolt.

Put a socket on the nut on one end and spin it against a belt sander, bench grinder, etc. with a drill or impact driver to round it off.

You can then lock the rounded end into a standard drill chuck to spin the other end until it's round as well.

You then have a nice looking handle!

.

 

[Rileysan]

This was a fun thread to read. It was referenced in another thread, so this was the first time I've read it. I decided to add my vise to this thread since it hasn't been referenced yet.

Standard "5" vise. The jaws are just under 5" wide. I gave $50 for it at ReStore a couple years ago.

Brian

 

[bagged89s10]

I know this is an old thread but I just picked up a Standard 4 vise. I wish someone found a catalog of these vises to confirm if Morgan did in fact make them. Mine is in excellent shape.

 

[Nutria]

Another Standard vise to add to this thread: this one a 4-1/2".

Mods: I wonder if "Standard Vise" could be added to the original thread title, because this thread has become a go-to resource for Standard vises.

I think that this vise dates to the 40s. According to the previous owner, the vise spent its early days in the fire house of a Bay Area naval facility. The vise was eventually surplussed, and the POs father was able to bring the vise home. The vise appears to have been delivered to the Navy in the typical black. The gray paint seems to have been added on-site at the naval base.

Weight 56 lbs, length 16-3/4", height 9-3/8", throat 3-7/16", opening 5-3/4".

I didn't need to remove much rust; clean vise.









Jaw inserts in good shape:


Jaws square in all dimensions.

 

[Nutria]

Interestingly, the jaws are ~3/32" shy of 4-1/2", which fits with some observations higher in this thread.


The lockdown bolt is the one repair on this vise: just a couple of chunks of steel welded to a hex head bolt. Works fine.


Note the "140" in the base casting. Nice machining on the base sliding surface . . . but see my following post.

 

[Nutria]

It seems that these Standard vises were a second-tier Morgan product, and I can't complain about the price, but I was disappointed by the quality of some of the casting and machining. It's possible that some of this was due to wartime production pressures. It'll still be a strong user, and I'm glad to have it.

Sliding surface of bottom of fixed jaw casting:


Top of of slide behind dynamic jaw:


Top of gusset:


As with a vise above, the base and static jaw castings aren't concentric; not too bad though.