Identifying a Vintage Vise

[madpear]

My dad is giving me his dad's old vise. I don't have it with me at the moment but I do have a couple pictures of it which may or may not be enough to ID it.

It is about 9" across in width, and 17" long in the state of extension it is in the image. All it says is 4 on it, and I confirmed the jaws are 4" wide. It has that Jet sticker, but I'm pretty sure Jet never made vises, and that's a sticker from some of his other tools as it is right next to a Jet BG-6 bench grinder from 1976. I've posted the picture of that grinder as well in case as I suspect that vise may be from the same decade and would explain the Jet sticker.

Let me know if there is more info I could gather to help ID it, I'll get it when I go to pickup the vise and bring it home.

 

[madpear]

I don't know why, but the images are appearing to upload successfully, but then showing as blank.

 

[RTM]

Does it look like this one?

Thoughts on this (60s/70s?) Japanese vise?

I picked this up for $25 the other day. It has a Made in Japan badge, and weighs a surprising 50 lbs. Opens and closes smoothly and the only issue with it is the end of the slide was repaired. The guy I bought it from fixed a crack there by grinding and filling it with nickel rod. He...

www.garagejournal.com

Or this one?

Need help with a Bench Vise

I know next to nothing in regards to bench vises. I am wanting to refurbish mine but cannot find a model number. Looking to purchase some replacement parts. Its a Jet 5in. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

www.garagejournal.com

 

[madpear]

Does it look like this one?

Thoughts on this (60s/70s?) Japanese vise?

I picked this up for $25 the other day. It has a Made in Japan badge, and weighs a surprising 50 lbs. Opens and closes smoothly and the only issue with it is the end of the slide was repaired. The guy I bought it from fixed a crack there by grinding and filling it with nickel rod. He...

www.garagejournal.com

Or this one?

Need help with a Bench Vise

I know next to nothing in regards to bench vises. I am wanting to refurbish mine but cannot find a model number. Looking to purchase some replacement parts. Its a Jet 5in. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

www.garagejournal.com

Many thanks for the reply even when I had no images to go by RTM!

I would say it shares traits with both of those, but neither exactly. There seem to be slight differences with the bolt pattern positioning on one and on the other it does NOT have a JET stamping anywhere on it, just the sticker which to me seems highly probable to have been placed on it at some later date.

Since I cannot upload images directly here successfully, please see the Imgur gallery below for the three pictures I was referring to in the original post. Hopefully these should prove far more useful in ID'ing what I've got.

https://imgur.com/a/lg0mZSM

 

[RTM]

With the giant 4, most will guess generic Asian vise. The possible Jet tie in the quality possibility a little bit into a decent vise.

 

[madpear]

With the giant 4, most will guess generic Asian vise. The possible Jet tie in the quality possibility a little bit into a decent vise.

Thanks RTM. That's not unreasonable to infer. Are there more data or photos I could gather to aid in the identification?

As an aside, the owner of these tools was a machinist for Control Data by trade and all the tools we've kept of his have been basically solid steel tanks that will outlive us all, so it seems highly improbable to me that he would have opted to get anything made in China, particularly if it was in fact from the 70s or earlier.

 

[Roberts210]

The vise is definitely from Asia, but not Japan. The give-aways are the large #4, and the chrome handle and chrome end of the screw, and chrome swivel locks. Doesn't mean it's not a decent vise. Hopefully the dynamic jaw has absolutely no side to side motion, and there is less than 90 degrees of backlash. Generally tho, the Asian vises develop sloppiness in those areas after hard or prolonged use. It will be cast iron, and not cast steel or maleable cast iron.

 

[four.cycle]

Jet Equipment Importers Inc. was originally down on 19th & Jefferson (right across from what used to be the Swiss Tavern.)
Started by a gentleman named Les Sussman. I never met him - my brother-in-law was doing most of the buying when we brought "Jet" into the warehouse and the stores.
We were buying a little 1-1/2 ton hydraulic bottle jack from them that we retailed for $8.88 and doubled our money. "Warranty" returns went straight into the garbage can.
I might have one out in the garage still.
Most of the stuff was out of mainland China. Some from other sources, but mostly PRC stuff.

TM 1361447 Reg. Sep 24 1985 First use Feb 1980 Jet Equipment Importers Inc.
succeeded by
JPW / JPW Industries Inc., 427 New Sanford Rd., La Vergne, TN 37086 / https://jettools.com/ / successor to Jet Equipment Importers Inc. / importers of tools and equipment /