Hey all started restoring a Parker vice yesterday and thought I would share as it appears there is a great deal of "vice talk" on this forum. Just some background, I picked up the vice at the shop I work part-time at as they were about to send it to be scrapped I stopped them and grabbed it. It has 4 inch jaws. Pictures are pretty self-explanatory, I will have my gf finish the lettering my hands are too shaky.
Parker 49X Vise
- Thread starter IROC-Z28
- Start date
wrenchguy
Well-known member
nice.
drivesitfar
Well-known member
looks great. what was wrong with the vise that they would scrap it or did they just buy some to use that are bigger?
Last edited:
Well they have quite a few wiltons, and they basically got the shop and it was full of junk, and they had hung on to the vice for a few months but were sick of all the stuff they couldn't decide to throw away so they just started clearing it out. I also salvaged an errie superior 44 but the jaws are totally shot and not worth saving imo.
wrenchguy
Well-known member
Don't 4get to post vise parts and parts vises here as a public service to vise guys.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88292
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88292
drivesitfar
Well-known member
I looked a little closer and I couldn't see much damage or abuse. you got a keeper. did you just use a hand wire brush before your painting? not sure if that is a collectable, but it is a Parker and it will look great on your bench.
nice job saving it and bringing it back to life.
nice job saving it and bringing it back to life.
Yeah I used a wire brush, and it appears to be in great shape, even the jaws are in okay condition. And I'm excited to throw it on a 8 quarter white ash bench I'm building, 32 inch deep, 14 feet long, it will fit in. Thanks for the compliments.
drivesitfar
Well-known member
14 foot bench?? gotta add a picture of that with the vise on it when you are done. sounds like a great combo.
Will do, I have so far to go, I'm still in college and am trying to assemble as many shop components as possible while my time is cheap. I have the ash sitting in the wood shop acclimating to the humidity, should be glued up before the year ends.
Attachments
Thanks!
Thanks! I'm curious why is it collectable?
jakemac
Well-known member
It's collectable because it's a damned fine vice !
Pound for pound, it's difficult to get that kind of quality out of a new vise these days for the same amount of money. Vises like that are Heirloom Tools. You'll be handing it down to your grandkids someday, even though it's older than you are (or me for that matter).
From mjozefew 's "Everything you need to know about bench vises..."
thread
Charles Parker / Parker / Chas. Parker: Parkers are this author's (mjozefow) favorite vise. They are famous for the shape of the jaws on their machinist vises. The jaw shape allows for more complete access to the workpiece being clamped.
Some history on the company and Charles Parker himself:
"The Meriden Enterprise Center is a large manufacturing plant that is home to over 60 businesses, located in the center of Connecticut.
The plant was the former home of companies such as the Charles Parker company, known for the manufacture of the Springfield rifle and the development of one of the early repeating rifles in the mid- nineteenth century. Charles Parker was born in 1809 and rose from poverty to become one
of Connecticut’s leading industrialists. He also became the city of Meriden's first mayor. He started his manufacturing career inventing and producing coffee mills in a small shop in 1832.
By 1860, he owned several large factories and employed hundreds of people, in and around Meriden. Parker products included hardware and house wares, flatware, clocks, lamps, piano stools and benches, vises, coffee mills, industrial machinery, and, after 1862, guns. Guns, however, never
amounted to more than 10 percent of Parker’s business. Charles Parker died in 1901 and his descendants carried on his businesses until 1957. The Great Depression of the 1930s took its toll on the Parker enterprise and it never fully recovered. Parker products have now become “collector’s items,” especially the Parker shotguns. The Charles Parker Company sold its gun facility and the rights to the Parker gun
to Remington Arms Company in 1934, and Remington continued the Parker shotgun line until World War II.
The attraction by collectors to the Parker shotgun comes because of the gun’s inherent quality and beauty.
The Parker gun is an American classic".
KMScott
Well-known member
Thanks Bluebolt, that was a great read. I have been collecting Chas Parker vises lately and really like the quality of their vises. trying to figure out their method in jaw building. I am eager to learn about their company. I was curious to when this vise was built. The jaw design has changed and much easier to reproduce. Would you know the history on this 973-1/2 B vise? The quality has weaken some but still a nice vise. Thanks for the history of the Parker company.
Attachments
mjozefow wrote that not me. I am no expert on Parker's.
drivesitfar
Well-known member
going to college and already know how to acclimate the wood for your shop's new bench? good luck with that project.
by the way your garage must be pretty good size for a 14 foot bench and a classic Camaro.
by the way your garage must be pretty good size for a 14 foot bench and a classic Camaro.
John Odom
Member
Parkers are great vises, better than most anything available now.
going to college and already know how to acclimate the wood for your shop's new bench? good luck with that project.
by the way your garage must be pretty good size for a 14 foot bench and a classic Camaro.
Thanks I actually restored the camaro in hs and it's since gone. I hope to have a 40X80 soon after I graduate!
drivesitfar
Well-known member
Damn that's a nice size shop and plenty of room for a few more Camaros. you must have a good teacher or relative helping you with the restorations of cars, building projects and vises. along with them helping you build an old muscle car.
I am thinking you didn't know Parker was such a good vise and now that you have one to go on that bench maybe try to find a Baldor grinder to put on the other end of that bench. an 8 inch, 3/4 HP in good shape might last you 50 years.
Happy holidays
I am thinking you didn't know Parker was such a good vise and now that you have one to go on that bench maybe try to find a Baldor grinder to put on the other end of that bench. an 8 inch, 3/4 HP in good shape might last you 50 years.
Happy holidays
Actually I'm almost entirely self taught, I started with antique garden tractors when I was 13 then a Camaro in hs paid through work at a hardware store, then worked at the Purdue wood products lab for two years, and for the last two years at a diesel performance and fabrication shop. I have been fortunate to have many educational jobs. And I definitely need a good grinder, and a good dedicated polisher/buffer.