Got an anvil and vise.

[97fordsuper]

Was browsing the local facebook classifieds last night and come across an anvil. Its a Vulcan. Doesn't look too old. From what I've read the Vulcan's aren't highly desirable. No ping when hitting it. Just a thud. He also said he had some vises. So I checked them out. I spotted a Wilton and figured I would take a chance on it. This was at 10pm last night and it was stored in small shed. Not much lighting.

I snapped a few pictures of the other vises and another anvil. They were big ones so I had to take pictures where they were sitting, so the pictures **** but maybe yall can provide me some info on them, whether they're worth getting or not. I will post them in separate replies to try and keep them organized.

Here are the pictures of the Vulcan and the Wilton. Vulcan has a 43 marked on the back near the base and the normal vulcan logo.
The Wilton's paint is cruddy so its hard to read but I seen a 1945 on it and a C1. It operates very smoothly.

I paid 100 for the vise and anvil.

 

[97fordsuper]

Here is Morgan brand vise. It was pretty big and heavy. It had Morgan Chicago and a 160 stamped on it.

 

[Youngguns]

You ****, buy the Morgan too.

 

[Askme42]

I'd say the Wilton is easily worth the hundred. Consider the anvil a free throw in.

 

[97fordsuper]

The other 2 vises were Reed brand. One of them the jaws were part of the vise. There were no Plates that bolted to the vise. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. I will post that one now.

Again sorry for the bad pictures.

 

[rusty65]

The morgan looks very clean and if you can get it for less then 160 dollars it would be a steal.

 

[97fordsuper]

This is the other Reed. Sorry this was the only pic I could get of it

 

[rusty65]

The reed looks nice also if you can get these cheap id buy them all

 

[97fordsuper]

Here was another anvil. It was huge. Again crappy pictures. I didn't spot any wording or numbers. I tried to get a pic of the logo.

 

[bluebolt]

A 6" Morgan swivel, a 6" Reed swivel jaw and anther old Reed! I need to take a loan out and head to Virginia!

 

[jaker10]

$100.00 for both !!!!!

 

[dakotart1984]

Nice find! That Wilton should clean up nicely.

 

[Cope]

I'd say the Wilton is easily worth the hundred. Consider the anvil a free throw in.

Or visa versa.

 

[97fordsuper]

Thanks guys. If you could put a value in the 2 reeds and one Morgan, as a lot. What do you think would be a fair price. I know the pictures **** on the reeds, but assuming they're in good shape and no repairs... while we were talking he said something about he wishes the price of scrap would go up. So I hate to think he may scrap something like those. Also, thanks to garagejournal im a sucker for a good deal and may possibly turn into a hoarder.

 

[Black Frog]

Here was another anvil. It was huge. Again crappy pictures. I didn't spot any wording or numbers. I tried to get a pic of the logo.

Nice Fisher anvil, their Eagle emblem is telltale mark.
Many times there are numbers on the foot indicating weight.
And also many times under the heel is a year of manufacture (not always).

Or if you get the overall length and face width measurements, I can probably tell you the weight.

I would ****** that Fisher in a heartbeat.

 

[97fordsuper]

Thanks the the replies guys. Im going tomorrow to hopefully ****** up the other vises. Not sure of I will be able to get the anvil in on the deal. He told me someone told him it was worth a couple grand, which we know its not. But I will see what he will let it go for when I talk to him tomorrow.

 

[wild cowboy]

definitely all of those vises are world-class, buy ALL of them, as long as they do not have any cracks, welds repairs, etc. - those kinds of problems pretty much ruin them, vises are not really repairable, due to the fact that they are made of ductile iron, which is near impossible to weld correctly.

on the anvils, find a 1" ball bearing and drop it on to the top of the anvil from a height of about 1 foot, the percentage of the original height that the ball bearing bounced back up to, tells you the quality of the vice (ideally 80%+)

 

[Trey T]

You got a great deal!! C1 is a very good size for all around work.

 

[sz0k30]

Offer to pay him double or triple scrap value and see what happens.

Are you kidding? Just took a load of steel to a scrap recycler, got a whole $24.00 for 300 pounds. That's .08/lb.

Don't think too many guys are going to be looking to get only $10.00 for a 40lb vise.

 

[DocsMachine]

Or visa versa.

-Nope. The Vulcan anvil is, at best, a mediocre piece. It's cast iron with a very thin (around 1/4") hard steel face. It's functional, and better than an all-cast-iron anvil, but nowhere near as good as a true wrought iron (or better yet, actual steel) anvil.

Of the two, the Wilton was by far the better score. (Although $100 for both is still well within the "You ****!" guidelines. )

Doc.

 

[wild cowboy]

Of the two, the Wilton was by far the better score. (Although $100 for both is still well within the "You ****!" guidelines. )

The Wilton may be the most valuable vise as far as ebay value, but whether it is the "best" vise is a whole other discussion.

Sort of like saying that a Polo shirt is the best shirt just because it might have the best resale value, I would advise that it is far from being the "best"

all four vises are great!

 

[bluebolt]

Somehow I missed you paid $100 for the C1 and the anvil. That is definitely a you ****!

 

[DocsMachine]

The Wilton may be the most valuable vise as far as ebay value, but whether it is the "best" vise is a whole other discussion.

-At no point did I say it was "the best". I said that, out of the two things the OP purchased, the vise was definitely the better of the two.

And, having used a variety of vises over the years, you'd have a damned hard time convincing me that a Wilton- specifically a bullet style- is not among the very best available.

Add whatever modifier you wish- commonly available (don't see too many of those Studebaker hydraulics showing up on CL, do ya? ) or available for a reasonable price (I'm sure there's world-class German vises to be had, but at what cost?) or general use (sure, I have shaper vises that are bigger and heavier, mill vises that are more accurate, and pipe vises that are better at holding round things. But 90% of the time, I head for the big Wilton. )

Doc.

 

[97fordsuper]

Well, I went and picked up the other 3 vises today. I will get better pictures this weekend and post em up in the vise thread.
I picked them up on my way to work, so time was an issue again. Didn't look at the fisher anvil. I talked to him a little about it. I think I could probably get it cheap, but I don't really have the extra coin for it right now. But I did tell him not to junk it and let me know before he gets rid of it.
If anyone in the Hampton Roads area is interested in the Fisher Anvil, I can get you better pics and help you work out a deal.

Here is a quick pic. First two on the left are the Reeds with the first one being a swivel jaw and the red one is the Morgan

 

[jaker10]

You should pick up that Fisher anvil and sell the Vulcan. I picked up a 150 LBS. Vulcan for $150.00 Found out what I had and went to the same guy and bought a 150 LBS. Trenton for $150.00 Put an add on craigs list for the Vulcan and sold it the next morning to the first caller for $200.00. A fisher is a far better anvil than the Vulcan.

 

[bluebolt]

Well, I went and picked up the other 3 vises today. I will get better pictures this weekend and post em up in the vise thread.
I picked them up on my way to work, so time was an issue again. Didn't look at the fisher anvil. I talked to him a little about it. I think I could probably get it cheap, but I don't really have the extra coin for it right now. But I did tell him not to junk it and let me know before he gets rid of it.
If anyone in the Hampton Roads area is interested in the Fisher Anvil, I can get you better pics and help you work out a deal.

Here is a quick pic. First two on the left are the Reeds with the first one being a swivel jaw and the red one is the Morgan

You **** and I don't even know what you paid. Spill the beans!

 

[drivesitfar]

97: all that old iron and you knew the family too so hopefully you gave them a few bucks because those are all keepers. even if you find other vises in better condition i bet those vises will stay put in your garage. did you get one or both of the anvils too?

i bought a 1945 Wilton C1 and had it restored a few years ago and was going to put it on my workbench and a client of mine called me and asked me if he could buy it because some idiot stole his off his truck. i knew he was going to put it on his bumper, but he uses it everyday so it's his and i bought something else. here's a picture of how to spiff it up and if you want to mount it on a truck this is the coolest design I've seen so far.

 

[97fordsuper]

You **** and I don't even know what you paid. Spill the beans!

Alright, well you know already I paid 50 for the Wilton. A couple years ago I was into and coming across stihl chainsaws. The guy I got the vises from was in need of a chainsaw. So I offered him one of my saws for the vises. He was happy I was happy, so it worked out.

The saw was a stihl 028. Someone gave it to me because they couldn't get it running so they bought a new one. One carb kit and it was as good as new. I even offered to fix it for the guy before he gave it to me buy he wanted no parts of it.

 

[97fordsuper]

Drivesitfar I only ended up with the vulcan anvil. May get the fisher when I have extra money.

That hideaway anvil his cool, I will have to save the pic for future use.