Good Bench Vise Recommendations

[davrow]

A 6" Wilton showed up locally on craigslist recently.



Price seems a bit high, but it is dropping...

I like GManBart's better

 

[GManBart]

A 6" Wilton showed up locally on craigslist recently?

Price seems a bit high, but it is dropping...

I like GManBart's better

That price is too high, but it's not a bad vise.

I just finished the restoration of a few vises....4" and 5" Wilton bullets and a 5" Parker. The 5" bullet is already gone....sold it for $350 after adding the swivel base and completely restoring it. The 4" was perfect mechanically, but so filthy it had to be stripped and repainted. ....turned out great and is on CL now. The 104lb Parker....well, the pics say it all!

















Just for fun....Meet the Wilton family!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Gman, how did you do the jaws on that Parker. I can't see any lines on the rusty picture that would equate to the finished product.

 

[GManBart]

Gman, how did you do the jaws on that Parker. I can't see any lines on the rusty picture that would equate to the finished product.

I stole the technique from a guy that does amazing vise restorations! The jaws are held in with pins, so you pound them out from below, and tap/pry the jaws off the towers. I then soaked them over night in Evapo-Rust to get them clean. Then it was just a matter of using a flap disc on an angle grinder to get them smooth. I stopped at a worn 120 grit which is probably really like a 200 grit now. If I wanted them to be a true mirror, I would have gone with a sander and 400 grit paper, then 800 and 1200. Some guys even go to 2000 followed by a buffing wheel and compound. I installed the jaws, drove the pins in place, but left them just above the jaw surface, and then hit them with the worn flap wheel to get the whole thing pretty smooth. I did just a bit of polish with a buffing wheel and polishing compound, but probably only 20 minutes.

This was my first attempt at Parker jaws, and it was definitely a learning experience. Next time I'll have a few more levels of sandpaper to try, but I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

This is what the jaws looked like originally:



How they turned out (note the sun glare made the paint look different). The front pins were better than the rear pins (you can see the slightly darker spots) so I did a bit more on the rear pins after I took this pic:

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Very nice work...I would stop at 80grit.

 

[Woodeye]

Very nice, I have a Parker, I seem to think it says 230 on the other side. It's not nearly as sweet as yours but I now think it could be. I have all winter to find something to do in the shop. Very nice collection.

 

[dpb800]

Got my father's old monarch recently and mounted it on a bench.

 

[GManBart]

Got my father's old monarch recently and mounted it on a bench.

Cool! The Monarch line was one of several that Prentiss had. For the folks new to this, yours is marked PVCO, which stands for Prentiss Vise Company, and they were made in Watertown, NY.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Thanks for advising us with your advice about vices (or is the plural of vice, vice?)

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Thanks for advising us with your advice about vices (or is the plural of vice, vice?)

Does the evapo rust actually get the raw metal that shiny?