Craftsman Professional Bench Vise

[zer01]

If the top of your bench is attached to the frame it shouldn't matter. The top is plenty thick to handle what you could clamp into it. It is not just aesthetics, putting the wide feet forward gains you as much clearance over the front edge of the bench as possible. Your choice, but I would want it as close to the edge as possible for clearance purposes. Your top looks plenty strong enough to mount it this way. Your bench could or would tip over before you have a bolt pull through that top. Use oversized washers on the bottom, or mount it the way you have it, just sharing some advise.

 

[pendragon1998]

Good point...I'll review the clearances. I have the benchtop attached by Z clips (tabletop offset fasteners) screwed into the underside of the top and seated in a dado routed around the inside edge of the upper frame. That construction technique is plenty strong with downward and side-to-side forces, but I don't know if I want to be pulling upwards with a huge amount of force on the top.

That might argue for the sideways installation of the vise, to maximize the load transfer to the bench frame instead of the tabletop.

 

[Givl Reggin]

Shouldn't the 'sideways' alignment result in a stronger mounting? Since the vise rotates 360 degrees, turning it won't be a problem. Is having the wide part to the front just an asethetics thing?

Placing the widest part of the base farest away from the jaws will be the strongest mounting position from a strictly engineering point of view (it gives better twist/rotational leverage) -- BUT, the vise was designed with the intent that the widest part of the base be place on the jaw side -- this is to accommodate mounting the vise closer to the edge of the bench so that the non-movable jaw will overhang the face of the bench -- in other words, picture this; if you want to clamp a 4' long pipe vertically in the jaws it won't hit the bench if you place the widest part of the base on the jaws side.

 

[Pro-Painter]

I finally received my vise after 15 days waiting, and 16 days waiting on a refund from sears for double charging my card. Still I'm very happy. I got it for $63 total using a combo of sale ad's, promo codes, and sears reward points.

My first impression was surprise. It was COVERED in grease. When I say covered, I mean everything was covered in a thin layer. It was so bad that it was dripping from the handle and around the base.

After I got it cleaned up, I realized why it was covered up, to hide the paint! I could not believe how crappy the paint was (see pictures). It had large runs and sags everywhere, large chips missing, and had been poorly touched up from the factory with a paint brush. It even had a paint brush hair still stuck in one of the runs.

The paint craftsman uses is a very soft paint (prob oil based). Soft paint is good for a vise because it wont chip when hit by a hammer, but it is bad when you want to sandblast it! It took me 4hrs and 80lbs of 36g "black diamond" media to remove all the paint from the vise. If I had it to do over again I believe I would have chemically striped it. Under the paint I found several small pin holes, and what looked like brown body filler filling in the larger holes.

To my surprise it was quite clean inside. I did not have the metal shavings that others have described.


Overall I rate this vice a 8 out of 10, If not for the crappy finish, and poor repair work I would have gave it a 10. Everything else about the vice is real nice.

So without further delay here are the before and after powdercoat pictures! The vise looks fantastic now and has a nice, durable finish and I could not be more happy with it.

FACTORY PAINT

NEW POWDERCOAT FINISH

I will get some more pictures tomorrow. I just finished it today.

 

[larryq]

Terrific job on the powdercoating. I know the OEM paint job must have bugged the devil out of you. You like its operation otherwise, it sounds like? I'm thinking of one myself.

Dumb question but how did you remove and reattach the badge, any trade secrets?

 

[Pro-Painter]

Dumb question but how did you remove and reattach the badge, any trade secrets?

It's real simple. It is only held in with two aluminum pins. Put a flat screwdriver behind the plate and pry it forward. You can almost remove them with your fingers.

 

[fourtythree]

The paint does **** on these. I stripped mine and repainted it hunter green. The piss poor paint job bugged the hell out of me every time I looked at it.

 

[allinon72]

Pretty bad when a vice needs a restoration right out of the box. No thanks!

 

[coolreed]

Looks like a nice light duty Vise. It looks like it is a Wilton made overseas.

 

[zer01]

Pretty bad when a vice needs a restoration right out of the box. No thanks!

Thanks for that deep insight. Some look for function over looks evidently. The intent of this thread was to get first hand knowledge of this vise. Those who have provided information have outlined some good and some bad of this affordable vise. Paint and finish aside this is a pretty good affordable vise for those with a sears and without old American vises readily available.

 

[LG63]

I finally received my vise after 15 days waiting, and 16 days waiting on a refund from sears for double charging my card. Still I'm very happy. I got it for $63 total using a combo of sale ad's, promo codes, and sears reward points.

My first impression was surprise. It was COVERED in grease. When I say covered, I mean everything was covered in a thin layer. It was so bad that it was dripping from the handle and around the base.

After I got it cleaned up, I realized why it was covered up, to hide the paint! I could not believe how crappy the paint was (see pictures). It had large runs and sags everywhere, large chips missing, and had been poorly touched up from the factory with a paint brush. It even had a paint brush hair still stuck in one of the runs.

The paint craftsman uses is a very soft paint (prob oil based). Soft paint is good for a vise because it wont chip when hit by a hammer, but it is bad when you want to sandblast it! It took me 4hrs and 80lbs of 36g "black diamond" media to remove all the paint from the vise. If I had it to do over again I believe I would have chemically striped it. Under the paint I found several small pin holes, and what looked like brown body filler filling in the larger holes.

To my surprise it was quite clean inside. I did not have the metal shavings that others have described.


Overall I rate this vice a 8 out of 10, If not for the crappy finish, and poor repair work I would have gave it a 10. Everything else about the vice is real nice.

Nice Job! Did you do the powder coat yourself?
Edit: I wasn't paying attention to your avatar, I'm sure you did it yourself.....

 

[NC-Fordguy]

Awesome, I mean totally AWESOME looking job!!

 

[Pro-Painter]

Nice Job! Did you do the powder coat yourself?
Edit: I wasn't paying attention to your avatar, I'm sure you did it yourself.....

Yeah I did it myself. I used an Eastwood hotcoat pro gun and a oven purchased from HF. The powder came from powderbuythepound.com color is "super durable wet red"



Finish aside, the Craftsman pro vise is one hell of good vise. I'm very happy with the performance of it. It's built real beefy, it's very smooth and machined very well. The vise this one replaced was a Kobalt 4" I picked up years ago for $60. This vise is quite a bit larger and far superior in every way (except finish). The paint is the only down side to this vise and for 99% of people this would not matter at all. In fact, I prob would have left the vise alone if not for me wanting to play with my new powder coat equipment.

 

[Pro-Painter]

Does anyone know where I can get rubber or or smooth jaws for this vise? I don't want the loose set on adapters, I want true bolt on jaws that can hold delicate parts without damage.

 

[acdeucey]

I picked up my vise at my local Sears this past Friday. Actually, I picked up two of them, having mistakenly ordered two. I kept one and sold the other to my son for $50. I paid $67.12 apiece.

I inspected the vise thoroughly, looking for possible shipping damage, but found the fit and finish to be excellent. In fact, it looks almost exactly like Pro-Painter's vise post restoration. Perhaps I got lucky.

Bottom line, I am very pleased with my purchase. My son is too.

Don

 

[larryq]

Does anyone know where I can get rubber or or smooth jaws for this vise? I don't want the loose set on adapters, I want true bolt on jaws that can hold delicate parts without damage.

My understanding is the Wilton 1745 provides almost identical hardware for this vise (you may already know this) so I'd start there when looking for swap-out parts. I'm sure more knowledgeable folks will chime in as well.

Your resto has me thinking of this vise myself, as I don't have any with pipe jaws-- just what I need, another piece of equipment, sigh...

 

[pendragon1998]

Kind of surprised nobody commented on the above...

 

[NC-Fordguy]

Kind of surprised nobody commented on the above...

Just give it some time...........

 

[The Ratchet Man]

correct -- and no such model number exists for the purpose of any succesful parts lookup for this vise. Many have tried, including reps at Sears and Craftsman, but if someone is able to unlock the secret and discover the unknown treasure of replacement parts, we will immediately crown them with hero status!

Where's my crown...

The vise is imported by The Adjustable Clamp Co. for Sears. Sears Parts Direct and Sears CS directed me to them as being the manufacturer. After speaking with TACC and giving them the model #51888 stamped on the side of the vise, they verified that they only import it for Sears but they do have jaw inserts in stock for order at $7 a pair plus shipping. They only offer the standard inserts though. No other parts are available, even the pipe inserts.

Call their customer service number listed on their site. They're really nice folks. I ordered a couple of sets today and will report back when they arrive.

This is an older thread so this information might already be available in another thread. I could not find it in my search of the forum though. If it has already been posted then I will relinquish my crown.

 

[coolreed]

Craftsman Professional is an oxymoron.

 

[fourtythree]

Craftsman Professional is an oxymoron.

Good contribution.

 

[dlleno]

Where's my crown...

The vise is imported by The Adjustable Clamp Co. for Sears. Sears Parts Direct and Sears CS directed me to them as being the manufacturer. After speaking with TACC and giving them the model #51888 stamped on the side of the vise, they verified that they only import it for Sears but they do have jaw inserts in stock for order at $7 a pair plus shipping. They only offer the standard inserts though. No other parts are available, even the pipe inserts.

Call their customer service number listed on their site. They're really nice folks. I ordered a couple of sets today and will report back when they arrive.

This is an older thread so this information might already be available in another thread. I could not find it in my search of the forum though. If it has already been posted then I will relinquish my crown.

dude nice work

 

[oldldh]

For the money, these ain't too shabby...

"Copied" from a Wilton 1745...with a list price of $470.00...for the money, not too shabby....

 

[Exceller8]

For the guys who have had this for awhile now, are you still happy with it? How's it holding up?

 

[kurtk75s]

Wow is this thread old. I wasn't paying attention and started reading from the first page - figured I could add since I own one. I started reading a post and thought - wow, this guy has the same experience as me - then I saw that it was one of my posts from almost 2 years ago. Ha.

Anyway, I've had the vise for about 2 years now and it has been holding up well. Still works and looks like the day I got it. Maybe it has some purple stains from PVC primer and a lot of metal filings in every cranny. As great as this vise is, I still want a USA wilton.

 

[The Ratchet Man]

Wow is this thread old. I wasn't paying attention and started reading from the first page - figured I could add since I own one. I started reading a post and thought - wow, this guy has the same experience as me - then I saw that it was one of my posts from almost 2 years ago. Ha.

Anyway, I've had the vise for about 2 years now and it has been holding up well. Still works and looks like the day I got it. Maybe it has some purple stains from PVC primer and a lot of metal filings in every cranny. As great as this vise is, I still want a USA wilton.

There were a couple of threads that came up in my search but this was the only one offering a crown.

Seriously though, Dlleno did a great review in this thread which led me to purchase this vise. I felt it necessary to return the favor.

 

[fourtythree]

For the guys who have had this for awhile now, are you still happy with it? How's it holding up?

It's held up fine for me. No regrets.

 

[Singlecut]

Just ordered mine. Needed a new one and the positive comments here sold me. When I was in store, I saw that some of the lube on the swivel base had started to leak out. When mine arrives I'm thinking of re- lubing it with something thicker.. what would you guys recommend? For some reason I'm thinking fifth wheel grease or white lithium?..

​

 

[fourtythree]

Any thicker grease will be fine. I used bearing grease. I wouldn't go out of your way to buy something specifically for this.

 

[The Ratchet Man]

I used Moly grease just because that's what was already in the grease gun and the only thing I had at the moment.

 

[dlleno]

Any thicker grease will be fine. I used bearing grease. I wouldn't go out of your way to buy something specifically for this.

+1 on that. As shown in my photos (see below), I used bearing grease because I had it. fifth wheel grease is bound to be more viscous. Lithium, molly, whatever -- its all good stuff too. in short -- this is not a high performance machine requiring anything special -- just lube it up and go!

for the money this one is a keeper but (imho) you need to do the disassemble/clean/lube thing to maximize life. get those chips out of the bullet! And...and as others have noted, the surface paint is, well, 'nuff said.

Here's my thread on the subject, with all the happy photos and steps to disassemble and clean:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=142872

 

[The Ratchet Man]

Well... the unobtainable has been obtained. The jaw inserts showed up today. They are an exact match and are correct for the vise. They are in stock too, although I don't know how much stock they have.

They came wrapped in oil soaked paper and were covered in grease. I cleaned them off after the pictures and all were nice and shiney with no rust at all. New screws came with each set of inserts.

 

[fourtythree]

That's good to know. As far as I know, the Wilton jaws will also fit. I seem to remember the measurements bring dead on. Same for the pipe jaws.

 

[Beowulf]

I am really considering this vise. Now knowing the manufacturer has replacement jaws and that 1745 stuff works, I think my decision has become easier. I'll just wait for it to go on sale.

 

[Beowulf]

I was going to pull the trigger and now I see that it is not available for store pickup no matter what location I enter.

Hopefully sears will be getting another shipment.

 

[Exceller8]

I really wanted to try this one out even though I have plenty of nice American made vises. I think this one might be gone for good?

 

[Super Sport]

I too have noticed local stores haven't been restocking this vise.

 

[dlleno]

I just noticed it is not even available for online purchase/shipment. hope that is temporary too; sounds like they are waiting for the next boat from china. As many others have found, its a good one, and even more attractive now that the jaws are available too.

 

[Beowulf]

I emailed the company that "The Ratchet Man" pointed us to asking if they were still making this for Craftsman, but have not heard back.

 

[cranky4]

For folks in California, you may know that Orchard Supply Hardware was owned by Sears until last year. My Orchard has 5 of these vises, all in dusty boxes--they have been there a while! (My Sears has been wiped out for months.) They have a 15% off sale on one item (in-store only, today only) if you register for their shopping club. The price before the discount is $129.99. I don't see the vise on their website, which is too bad because they normally do online and phone orders.