Old Wilton Powrscrew vise

[Mtvintagethrift]

Greetings all,

My first post here and hoping to pick the collective brain about a garage find from yesterday. I picked up a very old Wilton vise. I had absolutely ne knowledge of these before yesterday. Here is what I know about it now.

1) “Wilton PowRscrew” on the turn crank
2) “101116” stamped on the unit above the swive base
3) 4 1/2” clamp jaws
4) Bullet shape
5) “172” stamped on the bottom of slide key
6) Schiller Park Illinois USA

Any thoughts as to what I have here? Is there value here? There are a couple small cracks. Does this render it useless? I’ll attach photos when I have more patience.

Thank you all and I’m interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[ex_nihilo]

I think you'll find opinions vary wildly with lots of scepticism about the durability and practicality of the PowRscrew.
As for me, I love mine.

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[ex_nihilo]

Post up some pics, let's have a looksy!

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[ex_nihilo]

The other one I've seen in the wild besides mine has a large knurled collar up close to the dynamic jaw. Possibly for hand tightening before engaging the inner power screw.

I think with many of these, the hydraulic elements (seals, fluid) are not maintained and sometimes winds up being used like a regular vise which is detrimental to the power screw.


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[ex_nihilo]

I think this is the official name:
WILTON SQUARE THROAT MACHINISTS' VISES— PowRscrew® 4510S


This thread was the genesis of pretty much everything I learned about my PowRscrew.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=158676


This thread has some images of a catalog where it was listed.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=261627&highlight=Powrscrew


This URL has the text from a 1967 catalog.
https://archive.org/stream/WiltonTool1967/Wilton Tool 1967_djvu.txt

Have a couple of attached images easily found on the world wide web.