For some strange reason, I got a hankering for a new vise a couple years ago. Well, not new, but a nice vintage vise. So the search began. And you know what? Vintage vises are expensive. So are new ones, but I had no idea. Wow. Prices in the hundreds, depending on the size. After much searching, I finally found a vise on Craigslist that met my needs and desires, and most importantly, was affordable. It's a Columbian model 603, shown below.
This vise feels well-made, especially compared to my Chinese-made vise. I think this vise is 1920s or 1930s vintage. Here is an ad I found on the net from 1926 that shows the 603 costing $13.00.
As you can see by the dimensions, it's not a terribly large vise, and only weighs 24 pounds. I paid $45.
But as things go, I ran across another vise six months later. This time was quite by mistake though. The vise was mounted to a bench at a house having a moving sale. I asked about the vise as it had no price and the woman said her husband didn't want the vise removed from the bench because it would leave holes for the new house buyers. I mentioned that the holes could be plugged if desired with wood dowels. She then said she would call her husband and see if he was OK with selling the vise. He said a friend had dibs on the vise if it were ever to be sold, and the price would be $150. I offered $100 so she called hubby back. Hubby then called the friend and asked if he wanted it for $100. The friend fortunately said no, so I got the vise for $100, which seems like a fairly good price for such a large old vise. It's a Reed No. 32, shown below.
The Reed vise is 72 pounds and was $24 back in the 1920s. It's a massive vise and has a solid feel to it that my other two vises just didn't have. OK, how many vises does it take before a vise collection becomes a "vice"? More than three, I hope.
But the story doesn't stop here. A month later, while perusing the local Craigslist for tools and such, a nice vise showed up for $25. Twenty-five bucks?!? Yes, $25 for a Craftsman made-in-USA 5-1/2" jaw-width model 51871 vise that looked barely used. Well, I couldn't pass that one up, if for no other reason than to give it to someone that might need one.
Fast-forward seven months. We were camping in our truck camper at some folks' property that they open up to RV'ers (called Boondockers Welcome). The host, Jack, makes yard art and he had a couple old vises that he was scrapping. Hmm, I wonder, would he be interested in letting me take them off his hands? The answer was Yes. So I got two more vises. They both needed some work though. Here's the first, a current-vintage Wilton model 656:
The Wilton was missing some parts to pull the dynamic jaw out, so I made the pieces and fixed it.
The vise is also missing the wedge to lock it from swiveling but Jack just put in a bolt as a make-shift fix. Here's a photo of Jack using this vise, and as you can see, he isn't being gentle on it.
The second vise I got from Jack was in worse condition. It probably should have just gone to the recycling center, but I couldn't allow that. Here's the broken part before I started working on it:
I know welding steel to cast iron is not the best repair method, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time fixing this vise that was barely worth the effort, so I ground the broken area flat and welded a piece of steel to the vise using my wire-feed Lincoln Weldpak 100.
That looks like it will hold for a while.
I then threw a quick coat of gold paint on the vise to spruce it up a bit.
Not bad. Thanks for the two vises, Jack!!
A month later I picked up this very small Ridge 350-R vise at a tractor show and swap meet that I attended. Five bucks. I didn't even dicker with the seller. Who could pass that up?
This brings us to a week ago when I attended an old car swap meet held at the local fairgrounds. A gent had two vises for sale, a fairly old one for $35 and a newer and smaller one one for $25. I asked if he'd take $25 for the larger one and he said he'd do $50 for both. I didn't want the smaller vise so I said no. He then said he'd do $30 for the larger one, to which I said I'd think about it. After a few minutes I decided to buy it so I pulled out my wallet and lo, I only had $27. I mentioned that was all the money I had and he reluctantly took it. I did mention to him that I see him regularly at car shows in the area and I'd pay him the $3 I "owe" him next time I saw him. And several months later I made good on it.
So here is my latest acquisition, a Prentiss Bull Dog No. 52, weighing in at 42 pounds and costing $12.75 in the early 20th century. This vise has a fixed base, so it isn't as desirable as those having a swivel base, but for $30, who could resist? The guy I bought the vise from is Herm Petersen, a local drag racer from way back. A spectacular dragster crash he was in can be found on the net.
After I got the vise home I took a good look at it and noticed a tag on the side. It was so grungy that I could hardly tell it was a tag.
The tag cleaned up quite nicely, other than the rather brutal dings in it. The tag says:
W.E. & M. CO.
SERVICE-DEPT
NO. 820
I went online to research W.E. & M. CO. and about the only thing I could find that made any sense was Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Maybe this vise came out of their shop 75 years ago. Quite the trip from Pittsburgh to here in Washington State. Below is an interesting link on the company:
Link - Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company
Below is a vintage ad for Prentiss vises from the net. The swivel base model 92 is 33% more than the fixed base model 52 I have.
Well, that was quite the ride, eh? Seven vises acquired in less than two years. The photo below shows them in all their glory, and also shows a couple other vises, a small pipe vise I got from the "free" bin at the neighbor's garage sale (thanks Randy), and the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny red (not yellow polka-dot) vise attached to a board in the lower left of the photo. Not sure where that one came from. Oh, and the vise I bought 20-some years ago isn't in the photo. That would make it an even 10 vises. Time to stop buying, right? Maybe. Is my collection of vises a vice? Nope.
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