MetalworkingFun Forum

Nice find Ken! And I thought my Starrett bench vise was beefy.

I wonder what they sold for to the USG?

Tom

Ken,

That nice vise certainly does deserve a no matter what you paid for it.

I've been watching craigslist for a nice big old vise but haven't found one yet.

Ed

(08-10-2013, 05:43 PM)TomG Wrote: [ -> ]Nice find Ken! And I thought my Starrett bench vise was beefy.

I wonder what they sold for to the USG?

Tom

I didn't think to ask, but for the record I got it for $275. I made up for it a little bit in taking this cylindrical square for another $10. It's 67mm in diameter and 128mm long. No maker name appears on it, and no recent calibration certificates. I don't know what to use it for, but for $10 it's there if I ever need one.

That is a monster Ken - nice vise and nice story. Always interesting to hear the story behind an item, which is less and less common as things are mass produced. Will you need to reinforce the bench at all?

The bench is one my late father built. It's got 2" thick oak, topped with a sheet of 1/2" high density particle board. The legs are 4x4", and the 40" x 72" workbench is firmly attached to the concrete wall behind it. Most definitely suitable for a vise like this. It makes the workbench and 5" Starrett vise at my home look like the "toy tools" that they are.

When I went to retrieve the vise today, I was adamant about getting as many details as possible about it. Ralph's daughter and son-in-law gave me a sales sheet showing all the tools that shop made, and this appears to be the biggest vise on the list. They told me that it was around 1990 that Raplh had made the patterns and began production. He himself had told me last weekend how he had bought various competitor products and made as many improvements as possible. I'd say he "hit a home run", as we say over here.

Thanks Ken - it was a little difficult to tell from the photo.

I've been thinking on some things I need to do to the 12" Atlas/CM lathe, a splash / swarf guard for the motor is one and how to store face plates and chucks handy. Well came up with a idea wood pin with a metal center screw to hold face plates and not damage the threads. So I cut a couple of pcs of hard pine dowel rod, chucked it up in the lathe, move the carriage then back out the cross feed and it's stuck! what the heck???? it hasn't done that even when it was piled full of swarfs. This cleaning of things is biting me in the butt big time. I pushed and pulled the power cross feed knob thinking I may have done something while putting the splash pan in. Now to dig the book out on it and see if something looks out of place????

Nice looking vise Ken.

I recently picked up one like your Dad hated and I understand his feelings.

(08-10-2013, 05:26 PM)PixMan Wrote: [ -> ]First order of business was to remove the vise my dad had bought used, and (mostly) hated. It was a Chinese vise that rotated 360º and had separate pipe and regular 6" jaws. It never seemed to lock in securely, despite his having taken it apart to rework it twice. He'd have been glad to see this thing be removed.

I'm wondering if by " It never seemed to lock in securely" you meant it would still rotate once the jaws were tightened against the item being held.
That is a fault I have experienced.
I seem to remember a post on some forum of a locking solution somebody came up with but I can't remember where it appeared.
Just curious.

I was thinking of trying to mill some mating teeth of a sort between the rear cap and the main body, and put a large diameter spring between them to spread the two pieces apart when you loosen it up. Unfortunately I don't have any sharp v-shaped cutters and hadn't dreamed up a way to clamp the body on my milling machine.

For sale as is for members here....$60.

Steve, was yours by chance a Princess Auto gem. To retain what little sanity I have left I gave mine away, the best part is the guy i gave it to doesn't realize how much Im smirking.