Ode to an old vise

[Paul Jacobs]

I picked up a new toy this weekend from a gentleman who bought this new in the early 50’s...recently did a little touch-up too. Cool video of the foundry workers and machinists manufacturing the vises from back then as well.

Thank you for the video. When I was at boarding school near Peterborough in the 1960's, my school had extensive workshops including a metal foundry (during the second world war some of the pupils stayed on in the school holidays and produced parts for the undercarriage of Hurricane fighters). We spent one week of each term full time in the workshops. In my first term I made a wooden pattern for a woodworking vice and then in the next term went to the foundry and cast it in metal. The idea was to then move on to the machine shop to make the components, handles, screws etc. to fit it out. Unfortunately, after the first few terms one was given a bit of leeway to pursue other projects and I started designing and building animal traps but I have always regretted not completing the vice project. It would be nice to have one I had made in my workshop.

Anyway, I am familiar with most of the processes shown in the video and it was good to be reminded how to do sand casting. The people who taught me at school in the 1960's were mostly men who had worked on the shop floor in British industry during the 1950's.

My school in 1968, not me in picture.

[Doug Fattic]

Great story! Mine is almost the opposite. I bought this Record No 23 brand new as a birthday present for my father in 1974. I was a student at the time so it was a major purchase for me. I remember carrying it home by train in my back pack with some difficulty. I imagine that it must have been in my mind that this investment could come back to me one day and 6 years ago my Dad told me to have it. He is still alive aged 98 but no longer is able to use his workshop and tools alas. I hope it will go on to my son in due course.

Paul, I'm curious about a feature of your tube holding block. It looks like you put some kind of layer on the side of the blocks that might serve some kind of function or perhaps it is just decorative?

[Paul Jacobs]

Hi Doug, thanks for asking.

I had some scraps of sycamore and mahogany left over from a staircase I built in a house I no longer own. I used these to make my tubing blocks. I thought that the sycamore on its own was a bit thin for the blocks with larger holes so I glued on the mahogany strips, which were already pre-machined to the same width as the sycamore, on each side. It was simply a case of waste not want not. In retrospect a slightly denser wood against the jaws of the vice and a slightly less dense wood against the wall of the tube is not a bad idea.

[rwsaunders]

Paul, I “interned” at a steel mill (coke plant lidman, then as a millwright helper) during college and I worked for the steel firm almost 5 years after college in a supervisory capacity. We had a pattern shop associated with our then closed, in-house foundry that dated to the mid-1800’s and when they demolished that segment of the mill, all of the patterns that the local Historical Society couldn’t recover, were simply trashed. I’m talking about thousands of pieces of what I essentially think of as art.

[rwsaunders]

Pedestal or bench mount?

John...just a bench mount as I’m a tinkerer. Enjoyed the pics of your Dad btw, as my Dad was a Korean Conflict era Marine...lots of pride and swagger is clearly evident in their service photos and the Corps definitely shaped who they would become, when they returned to civilian life.

[Paul Jacobs]

Paul, I “interned” at a steel mill (coke plant lidman, then as a millwright helper) during college and I worked for the steel firm almost 5 years after college in a supervisory capacity. We had a pattern shop associated with our then closed, in-house foundry that dated to the mid-1800’s and when they demolished that segment of the mill, all of the patterns that the local Historical Society couldn’t recover, were simply trashed. I’m talking about thousands of pieces of what I essentially think of as art.

Wow! Those pictures make mine look like school photos. The expression "break the mould/mold" is so often mis-used.

[jmgorman]

Mind if I share?

IMG_8026 (1).jpg

My grandfather started and ended the war in the Philippines, returning home a week before VJ Day. About a month later, he bought a home-kit from Montgomery Ward, and this little master vice, sometime in the following years. What we can't figure out is how it ended up in John Deer green. We were a Massey family.

[seanile]

seeing this thread this morning was funnily timed with me binging the Repair Shop on netflix last night. i was suddenly motivated to refurb an old vise i found languishing in a deep neglected corner of the basement of one of my previous apartments. i took it apart today, did a bit of research on its history, and cleaned and lubed it. pretty pleased with it now and a bit disappointed in myself that i've had it for 4 years now and never looked very closely at it. the pile of soot just simply fell out of it when i disassembled it. after cleaning, if you look closely at the area around the label, it's original color is a deep forest green.

It is a Goodell-Pratt Company Toolsmiths vise, 40lbs with 3" jaws. It was made in Greenfield, MA and is likely between 95-106 years old. Model No. 370. MSRP $15 in 1922 ($223 today).





cleaned:

[rwsaunders]

Littlestown bench vise No. 144, reporting for duty.

[j44ke]

Visited a friend and got a chainsaw sharpening lesson ... and a giant Columbia vise! Bolted it to my work bench and bent some things.

[jclay]

Pardon the late reply.

Paul, I “interned” at a steel mill (coke plant lidman, then as a millwright helper) during college and I worked for the steel firm almost 5 years after college in a supervisory capacity. We had a pattern shop associated with our then closed, in-house foundry that dated to the mid-1800’s and when they demolished that segment of the mill, all of the patterns that the local Historical Society couldn’t recover, were simply trashed. I’m talking about thousands of pieces of what I essentially think of as art.

That, your experience at the mill, and the mill with it’s workers and whatever they made, was very cool and had to be interesting and formative. What an experience to have, and what a loss of the patterns that certainly were pieces of industrial art. And what do today's equivalent demographic spectrum do, sans that scale of basic industry which can train and employ so many peeps in well paying jobs? Man, we have some serious hurdles to surmount and it just isn't the same world. Anyway, very interesting photos of time/place.

John...just a bench mount as I’m a tinkerer. Enjoyed the pics of your Dad btw, as my Dad was a Korean Conflict era Marine...lots of pride and swagger is clearly evident in their service photos and the Corps definitely shaped who they would become, when they returned to civilian life.

Bench mount works!

Indeed, it did. If your father was MC infantry there’s a decent chance mine flew close air support for him, Marine aviation being a relatively small affair. He was a Corsair driver in WWII and Korea….but he was fundamentally a kind man who stopped to rescue an injured raccoon with broken legs, on Roosevelt Blvd, Cherry Pt, one morning. Two MPs made the mistake of stopping to investigate and ended up having to load she who would shortly be named Suzy into his VW, and off to the vet in Havelock. When asked “how much” the vet replied something like “Bob, you can’t afford it so don’t worry about it”. Legs splinted, Suzy spent some weeks on our porch before she was healed up and released, seemingly to my third grade eyes, no worse for wear.

[Mabouya]

and a giant Columbia vise!

That is a monster! So big that it doesn't appear to have a yaw degree of freedom.

[j44ke]

That is a monster! So big that it doesn't appear to have a yaw degree of freedom.

Meaning swivel? No it is pretty simple. Made for bending and banging things. Our friend is a gold jeweler who works by forging. This vise came from his metal shop where he builds other things. Right now he is building a freestanding outdoor stove from some heavy-duty iron burners he found somewhere. He offered me a spare Columbia leg vise he has (looks like photo below, but that's not his) but that seemed like over-kill for my needs. Heck, this thing is overkill. But it is great to use.