Vises

This one is what I think they call the "Tradesman" line, so-so quality:

This is a POS, probably made in China:

This is the type you want:

with pipe jaws...

I have a Columbian vise that I like better than either of the Wilton vises in your post. Apparently Columbian is now owed by Wilton, but I don't think it was when my vise was made ( made in the USA ). Mine has " 504 -M2 " stamped on the side.

For a really heavy duty vise look for a " 624 1/2 Athol " vise. The

1/2 does not have the slash there. I think that Starret bought the company and sells the same vise. There is one for sale on ebay that will close in about 7 hours. It is in Indiana and weights 54 lbs. $98 shipping to Seattle 8-(

Dan

I am in Illinois, do you have ebay id of that Indiana item?

i

I just searched on " Athol vise ". It was the only thing that showed up. I happen to have one that I am planning on selling, but knew you were near Chicago.

Dan

Dan

Or a Morgan #140, which is about the same size. There have been a couple on ebay from time to time. That's the one I have.

-- Ed Huntress

There is another one ebay number 270185626169 , but it is in Arizona. Shows up under Starrett Vise.

Dan

As with any other workshop tool you need to decide what you want to do with vt. A cast iron vice is ok for what Id call light duties, then if you can find one, a cast steel is much the best. for a bench vice. Wether you can still buy anew one is doubtful. Tho second hand is probably your best bet. The best for heavy work is the wrought iron smiths vice. these are called leg vices and are dsigned to be used as chipping vices and or hammering upon. Ive used one every day for some 25 yrs and never had a days problem with it, they come in weights from light @

25lbs up to 200 lbs with 8 in jaws. You need a real bench to fix it to!!

Which HF vise did you toast?

I've beat the crap out of one of the China Multipurpose Swivel vises and haven't managed to hurt it too badly just yet (20+ years). See:

Every one and their brother sells these. They weigh ~66 lbs. The pipe jaws are crap and the bondo/filler may crack off the casting. It still works fine though...

Get one on sale, don't pay more than $40 for one.

Some of the big names make a similar vise. I can only guess that they are a bit better quality :)

I will try to write the number down tonight.

OK... Thanks...

What I did was that I tightened the vise so much that the screw now moves with quite a bit of difficulty, I supposed that the thread became distorted.

i

Usually the handle will bend before you can toast the threads. Did you try using it in place of an Arbor press maybe? That is really hard on them. That being said I have done that a few times myself :) My vise is an older one, but the new one still looks pretty much the same. You know there is some iron in it going by the weight. China iron isn't always the most wonderful, but if there is enough of it...

I really like the rotating head on these. They are nice to have around even if they aren't necessarily made all that well.

There is another version of it around that uses a separate handle to lock the rotating head in position. I haven't used/tried one of those.

I have an OLD Craftsman cast steel vise, and it is sweet. Don't know how old it is, but I've had it almost 20 years.

Then after someone posted here a link to some vises Starrette was closing out a few years ago, I bought the 6" Machinist's vise with the swiveling back jaw. Was NOT paying attention, and I got a 200lb monster vise that lives on the floor behind my Hardinge. I don't have a bench I can mount it on, and renting, I can't secure it to a pipe set in the floor. For what I paid for it, I'm willing to store it until I do have somewhere to set it up properly.

BTW, I worked at NASA Ames in the 70's, and the welding shop had a vise of unknown origin, I think the jaws were 8-10" wide. The sliding bar handle was probably 1-1/4 or 1-1/2" dia! That's the biggest vise I have ever seen, had to weigh at least 500lbs!

Jon

Haven't seen anything but chink stuff on the local shelves for a long time, even with "name" brands. I picked up an 8" Record brand vise awhile back, Eagle Hardware had just gotten bought out by Lowe's and was dumping all the good stuff to make room for Lowe crap lines. It had a Really Good Price. You see them every so often in the auctions. If they're British-made, they're good stuff. Record has now become another line of crap.

As far as round vs. square internals, all mine have had square innards.

Stan

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:25:48 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Leon Fisk quickly quoth:

I got one 25-30 years ago and have put it through the wringer, including using a pipe extension on it , but it held up. If you have to overtighten a vise it means you're not holding the object properly and you should step back and figure out why before breaking it. I learned to use a similarly sized object on the other side of the jaws to even out pressure and it increased the pressure on the object I was holding, enough to do what I needed to do. A similar one:

There ya go. I gave $24 or something similar for mine in the 70s.

That's a possibility vs. a probability.

-- Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization. -- Charles Lindbergh

Maybe I wil buy it, a trip to HF is way overdue.

i

Ig, You should try Craigslist. I've bought 2 really great large vises on CL. They are frequently listed.

-Mike

There is a liquidation sale coming up with a nice bullet vise, I will try my luck. The vice comes with an ugly table that I will not take if I win it.

i

I have been very happy so far with my investment in a new to me vise a couple years ago. It is a Henry #3 which was made sometime during or after WW II and operates smooth as silk. I never had any desire for a swivel type vise so do not miss this feature. I bought this vise in the early summer and didn't get around to cleaning it up and mounting it on my bench until late fall; once I tried it out, I couldn't wait to pass it's Chinese predecessor on to second son. Oh Yeah, my cost? Five loonies. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

I've got a 5" Wilton machinist's vise (heaviest bullet style), Christmas gift. They're pricey as hell, but very stable, almost no slop, lots of bearing surface for great rigidity. Plus there's lots of soft jaw accessories. If you grab the movable jaw and shake it, you can hardly detect any movement.

I've used the same model at work for 20 years, bought it after busting my knuckles on a brutalized old vise that looked like it had been used as a welding fixture. The only thing I've had to do to the Wilton was lube it every decade or so.

Pete Keillor

Thanks Pete. I will definitely try to get one that is coming up next week on a local liquidation.

Very nice. That's the kind of thing that I want.

i