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I have had this old bench vise in my shed for years. It was my wife's grandfather's vise. I don't know an age. I would guess anywhere from the 60s-90s. It favors some of the Craftsman Vises but I have not been able to find one that matches exactly on the net. There are no markings on the vise other than the "6".
I decided I would take it out and clean it up some and give it somewhat of a restoration. Its not a full restoration. This was the first time I ever took one apart and messed with one like this. I decided to paint it to match some of my Redding reloading equipment and also some of my RCBS stuff so its a mixture of both......kinda in the middle of the two.
Anyways, here are a couple before and after. I wish I would have gotten better before photos but I did not think about it before starting the process.
I am planning to order some new side tighten down handles and some new Jaw Faces. I hate that I had to paint them black but they were so far gone that I could not get them shiny anymore.
Anyway, that's a nice heavy duty vise. Looks nice with the "Redding green"..... no sense in making it any nicer as it is as when I do something like that it gets all greasy and banged up in a month or two. Nobody likes to pound on a fresh clean perfect vise with a 40 oz. hammer. You can even get some wood and whittle out the inside of it to make your own Ransom Rest....I've done it for single action Colts.
You can make some "pads" from heavy leather, lead or copper to protect what your squeezing...but you knew that.
My dad always had a fettish with vises and after he passed I got them all...must have been 10-12 in addition to the half doz. I already had. I've got them bolted all over the place with 10 more under the workbench.....about 5 are heavy duty ones like yours....Wiltons I believe......a few are the swivel "this way and that way" for gunsmithing and a few are little...like real little.
A vise is indispensable for a myriad of uses. I've read that vise companies put themselves out of business as they last forever and with the chinks sending over their scrap metal in the form of vises, all went out of business.
As a married guy it always much better to have lots of vises instead of vices. -----6
Yeah this one is about as nice as it’s gonna get. Who don’t love a good vise? Wilton’s are great vises. I only have two others but this one is going to end up inside the house in my reloading room. The ones in the shop are real tanks and get used hard. I wouldn’t even attempt to pain them like this one. I don’t reckon this paint will last too long either in many places.
Very nice. I keep thinking I need a old heavy duty vise in the garage O have a large but crappy foreign piece of Pelosi that swivels 900 directions and I can’t ever keep things tight without crushing them. I want a old HD one. Looks good. Not as pretty as a certain Marlin sign but pretty.
a Pennsylvanian who has been accused of clinging to my religion and my guns......Good assessment skills.
fordwannabe wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:23 pm
Very nice. I keep thinking I need a old heavy duty vise in the garage O have a large but crappy foreign piece of Pelosi that swivels 900 directions and I can’t ever keep things tight without crushing them. I want a old HD one. Looks good. Not as pretty as a certain Marlin sign but pretty.
Glad you’re still liking the sign.
You should definitely get you an older heavy duty vise. Most of the new stuff just don’t compare.
M. M. Wright wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:53 am
Wow! You really need a set of brass jaws to make it dang near perfect but I'll take it as is, if you want to give it to me.
I have some brass stock that I am going to try to make a set of jaws out of. I finally found a place to order the side lock down handles that are stainless or something like these used to be originally. The ones on it were just too far gone so I had to paint them black. I really don't like the black handles on the side since the main colors are green and white.
