my Baby Wilton vise

[cutter]

So, a couple of weeks ago I headed over to my storage barn to do something or other & it occurred to me that I should dig through my little inventory of smaller vises to find one suitable for mounting on a steel table I already have to use here at home for a roll-around work/welding table. With spring finally here, I will be able to take advantage of the extra hour of daylight (til 10 pm in June/July) & finally maybe get to do some work out in front of my garage during the evenings. I don't want or need a bigass vise like the Parker or the old #6 for this table. It is not a true welding table but othe other hand, I do already have it.

(In the interest of full disclosure, there is a truely tiny Wilton on ebay right now - 2 inch wide, 3 1/2 inch tall miniature machinist's vise. And no, I am not advertising it but it is an interesting piece:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=25297&item=3809836304&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW )

So, I toddled off to the back of the shop & dug through the pile & lo & behold, made a discovery - an old 3 inch Wilton machinist's vise. I had completely forgotten about buying it! After thinking about it for half a day, I finally dredged up some recollection of finding it at a yard sale sometime within the last year, probably more recently, but for the life of me, I do not remember exactly where or who I bought it from. I do recall carrying it up to the seller & saying "I'll take your old vise" & handing it to him to set back of the cash drawer while I browsed around some more. When I paid out we talked about how there was enough left of the broken foot to still bolt down pretty firmly. The price I paid for it is still written on the top of the vise. :p

Here is what it looked like when I brought it home:

[cutter]

This vise is about 12 inches long, stands 5 5/8 " tall and weighs in at about 21 pounds. The handles for the other holddown was missing and the long one on this side was ruined - bent & stuck and I had to cut it into 3 pieces & drive it out of the nut. Other than the broken foot it is in good physical shape.

[cutter]

So I took it apart (except for removing the back end & nut) and gave it a cursory cleaning to get the old caked grease off the slide and screw, polished the holddowns up a little bit, re-greased it and re-assembled it. That'll do for now. I also cleaned up a couple of old steel door hinge pins to use for handles in the holddown nuts (which turned out to be brass).

Here is a picture which kinda gives a little perspective of the size:

[cutter]

I forgot to mention that this is a model 930 and here are the brass holddowns;
If the hinge pins work out OK I will add some ends to make them more permanent.

[7018]

Now thats a nice Vise cutter,just remember its only a baby :)

[arcdawg]

cutter, can you run some #s for me on my wilton........... its a much bigger brother to yours ! about a 100 lbs!

dawg

[cutter]

Sure thing, Brian.

At least I can try. But all I've been doing is using the Grainger site & matching numbers as best I can, sometimes I resort to dimensions such as jaw width, etc. It helps to have the vise or at least a photo. Send me whatever you have.

[ralenr]

Cutter,

Last Wedneday I attended an auction at a grinding company that was closing. Pick up an old Wilton #4 4" vise in very good working condition. The swivel base nuts are acorn cap nuts. No handles at all. I'll try and post some pics if interested.

Allen

[cutter]

Originally posted by ralenr
Cutter,

Last Wedneday I attended an auction at a grinding company that was closing. Pick up an old Wilton #4 4" vise in very good working condition. The swivel base nuts are acorn cap nuts. No handles at all. I'll try and post some pics if interested.

Allen

Sure Allen, give it a show. Guys seem to like these Wiltons. Post your photos over on the "Can this Vise?" thread if you want to - it'll probably get more looks there. I am still staggered by the number of page views on that thing - over 6000 now! And I still have the last weekend's update to post yet. I just haven't been able to get to it yet, or maybe to face up to it yet. What a mess! :D