Time to join the wilton crowd

[don long]

I went out to a vintage tool swap meet this morning. The threat of rain spoiled what might have been a good day
There were only 5 tables set up. The one item that caught my eye was this #3 wilton vise. Having never seen one before I pulled out my wallet and took it home

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

That's nice. Hope it didn't dent your wallet too much.

 

[don long]

I thought $100.00 was a fair price for it. I just came in from out in the garage looking for a production date on the vice but couldn't find one.
I took the vice apart and looked on the bottom of the shaft but nothing.




I found this on the pivot. Is this something



The jaws look pretty good. Won't take a lot of work to make them look good again

 

[Shiftless]

Don:
Based on the horizontal grooves in the jaws and the patent pending logo, I’d say yours is from the last half of the 1940s.
Great find and definitely a bargain price.

 

[pelletman]

I was just gonna say late 40's. Nice pickup!

 

[southalabama]

To use a line from The Princess Bride.

Inconceivable

Don Long is just now joining the Wilton crowd

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Great deal!

 

[don long]

Thanks for the help guys.
The 40's were good years I believe that's my era.
I was quite happy with the price

To use a line from The Princess Bride.

Inconceivable

Don Long is just now joining the Wilton crowd

Well not exactly Bama
I think I can find maybe 5 or 6 of them around here but this one is by far the nicest.
My go to vice in the shop is this 8" wilton



and this one has been sitting on the shelf for a few years. Unfortunately the roof leaked and it has been wet several times and is stuck open



So tonight I poured some rustoff down the throat and will let it sit for a couple of days before messing with it




And the last one in my garage is the one that sits on my Pennzoil bench



So I figure it's time to come out of the closet lol

 

[Roberts210]

Was that Old Tool Swap meet at Anderson Plywood?

 

[don long]

To use a line from The Princess Bride.

Inconceivable

Don Long is just now joining the Wilton crowd

It was in the historical park in Corona Ca. It's an annual event.

 

[Roberts210]

Thanks for clarifying Don. The one at Anderson Plywood happens 4 times a year. It's where I bought my 4-1/2" Wilton Machinst vise in the early 1990's.

 

[don long]

I took a few minuted today to work on the 4" wilton that was rusted tight and wouldn't move. After soaking it over the weekend



With a little persuasion it freed up and I was able to take it apart



It looks to be in pretty good condition with a date code of 3 - 78

 

[Luntz]

Don, I recently purchased a 4 1/2" Wilton with apparently no date code.
On a whim, I removed base guide and flipped it over. Lo and behold, there it was! January 1949.

 

[don long]

Nice find luntz.
I just love the shape of these old wiltons I have several and I'm surprised that I haven't tackled one before

 

[larry_g]

I have one of those #3 vises. I wanted to make some brass jaws for it and did. I drilled the hole for the locating pin first and found that the jaws would stay in place just with the press fit on the locating pin and did not require drilling the screw holes for retaining the jaw. For me there is a great advantage in having a full flat face for holding small parts.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[don long]

Looking for a fun small project to start the year off I walked over to the table with the wilton Vice on it and said this one will be a good starter.
So with a little clearing of a workbench I put the #3 vice pieces on the bench and started putting a plan together as to what I want this little project to look like.
1st the casting marks must go
2nd the casting pits must go
3rd the jaws need to be reworked
4th I want a chrome handle so I must find a way to get the handle out of the yoke
5th a good color scheme that matches the pennzoil garage must be chosen




Let the games begin.
I took the movable jaw for my first piece and went to work removing the casting seam at the base of the jaw




And there is another one in the front of the jaw just like the rear that must go



So with my die grinder and an 80 grit disc the grinding started.
next I went to the shaft. It looked like someone had missed what they meant to hit several times and gouged the vice badly so I smoothed the shaft with the grinder. With the casting seams and the gouges gone it was time to concentrate on the pits and irregularities on the body of the movable jaw. First the die grinder then the pistol grip air sander with various grits of sandpaper gave me a pretty nice looking vice piece






The shaft will be polished a bit more to give it a chrome look. the small jaw was removed and with the help of my wire wheel on the bench grinder the grooves cleaned up nicely and a couple of passes across the belt of the Burr King belt sander the gouges in the jaw went away so it looks good again. A little masking tape before priming and this piece will be ready for the paint shop

 

[Roberts210]

Don, your 3" vise is a war-time vise, and was cast in either 1941 or '42. It was assembled before 1945, and was sold to either a war industry or to a branch of the military. The jaw inserts are original. Wilton did not sell vises to the public until 1945. The give away on the casting date are the so-called fish hooks, and the give away on it being a pre-1945 vise is that there is no date stamp on the slide.

 

[don long]

Don, your 3" vise is a war-time vise, and was cast in either 1941 or '42. It was assembled before 1945, and was sold to either a war industry or to a branch of the military. The jaw inserts are original. Wilton did not sell vises to the public until 1945. The give away on the casting date are the so-called fish hooks, and the give away on it being a pre-1945 vise is that there is no date stamp on the slide.

Thanks for that info Robert
That's nice to know

 

[don long]

It was a rainy day in So Cal today. A good day to play in the shop so I spent the morning working on the #3 vice.
I grabbed the other half of the vice and started cleaning it up like the first half. This side has a much bigger area to work with but it also has script that I want to leave intact so I will have to take a dremel to clean between the letters. A little more time consuming but well worth the effort. After a couple of hours and some tired hands the vice went from this




To this



A little bondo to fill the pits and a little more polishing on the anvil area and the vice was ready for primer
I covered the polished area and off to the booth the vice went

 

[four.cycle]

Pennzoil Red Yellow and Black? Or Kandy Apple Tangerine Orange?

 

[don long]

Pennzoil Red Yellow and Black? Or Kandy Apple Tangerine Orange?

I could go kandy apple tangerine but that is the paint for my el camino and I'd hate to run short lol

 

[Roberts210]

There are some "fish hook" vices with date stamps. Evidently Wilton had a ****-load of castings made in '41 and '42, and some were never assembled until after the war was over. Those vices got dated on the slide, and were sold to the public.

 

[Fierljeppen]

Don, your 3" vise is a war-time vise, and was cast in either 1941 or '42. It was assembled before 1945, and was sold to either a war industry or to a branch of the military. The jaw inserts are original. Wilton did not sell vises to the public until 1945. The give away on the casting date are the so-called fish hooks, and the give away on it being a pre-1945 vise is that there is no date stamp on the slide.

Greetings and salutations!

Wilton Tool Corp. vises weren't exclusively sold to the military during WWII. There are many magazine and industrial catalog ads that offered Wilton vises directly to the public.

I'll assume that you got your information from the "About Wilton Tools" on the Wilton website. Unfortunately, almost every claim on that historical thread is incorrect. One would hope that a well established company would know it's own history, but in this case, the current owners of Wilton don't even seem to care.

You are absolutely correct about the "fish hooks" being the first style of castings. And yes, they made a gazillion of them and stored them until sales dictated the need for machining, painting, assembly and packaging.



The best way to determine whether a Wilton vise was assembled pre-or-post 1945 is to look at the location of the pin for the main screw nut. The lower pinned nut would indicate pre-1945, while the more centered pin would indicate 1945 or later. The transition of this change happened in the earliest of 1945, so you will find some of the earliest Wilton vise date-stamps with the lower pinned nut.

"don long's" vise clearly has the lower pinned nut, so it's definitely a pre-1945 version. The earliest vises also had the acorn nut for the swivel base, also seen on this vise.



Anyway, it's a beautiful example of an early Wilton no. 30S machinist vise and I look forward to seeing the final restoration.

 

[don long]

That pinned hole is gone now. I filled it while filling in the deep pits with bondo. It looks much better now lol

 

[Roberts210]

Thanks Fierljeppen. I forgot about the pinned hole. And yes, I believed Wilton.

 

[drivesitfar]

I tend to miss these cool threads but glad I found Don’s cause he does know how to find stuff and make it shine.

 

[Shiftless]

Great work so far Don. That’s going to be another fantastic example of your work.

 

[don long]

Thanks guys
I worked on the vice a little more today. One of the puzzling issues I was having was how do I get the handle off the screw to polish it up?
Once I figured it out the run began and the handle now looks like chrome!!



Now I must find a way to fix the knob back on the handle and polish it up too.
THe vice is all sanded and ready for the primer/sealer coat and I'm debating weather to paint or chrome the base plate and end cap.

 

[Roberts210]

How did you get the knob off the handle? Did you just press it off? I need to do the same to a 3-1/2" vise handle.

 

[don long]

How did you get the knob off the handle? Did you just press it off? I need to do the same to a 3-1/2" vise handle.

Yes, I just set the ball on my big vice and taped the top of it with a punch twice

 

[Roberts210]

Thanks. I've been putting off dealing with this 3-1/2 WIlton because I didn't want to cut the handle.

 

[Roberts210]

Hey, the knob came off. Used my press and applied a little heat while hanging on the lever arm.

 

[don long]

Great job Robert

I found a few minutes to work on the vice today. I managed to get my handle back together after polishing it up. I pinged the edge of the shaft back over the ball then polished the ball to match the rest of the handle



I sprayed a second coat of primer on the 2 halves of the vice thinking that a light scuff and the vice should get color tomorrow





And tomorrow I'm heading out to the chrome shop to have these few pieces chromed then this project will be ready for display
There are also pieces for a safety can and a second vice going in.

 

[don long]

I got the pieces out to the chrome shop today and came home and put color on the vice.



Now we will have to wait on the chrome shop to finish this project

 

[don long]

I couldn't wait for the paint to cure I went out after dinner tonight and pulled the tape off the vice and had to put it together because the movable side had no way to sit by itself without touching the wet paint

 

[Luntz]

Butterscotch...........yum!

 

[four.cycle]

loverly.

 

[Shiftless]

Great work, Don. You’ve still “got it” and going strong with tool restoration and enhancement.

 

[bugnut]

That looks awesome.

 

[don long]

Butterscotch...........yum!

loverly.

Great work, Don. You’ve still “got it” and going strong with tool restoration and enhancement.

That looks awesome.

Thanks for the comp's guys I do appreciate them
I can hardly wait for the base to come back chromed and with new chrome Acorn nuts that vice should really pop