My wife always seems to be in the right place at the right time when it comes to garage, yard, or neighborhood sales. Brought this home for me paying $20.00 because the handle was bent. Columbian model "M": It's been used a lot and not treated the best but it does close square. I may have the top surface ground to bring it back level and replacement jaws are readily available. It operates smooth after I disassembled it and relubricated the mating parts. Threads are pristine condition. I'll straighten that handle in the press tomorrow and it will be a nice addition to the shop. I have three Wilton "Bullet" vises, two Columbian which as smaller than this one, and a Rock Island which is quite large. All earn their keep. Don't know for certain but appears very close to this one at just about the same weight: Columbian 603 1/2 Machinist Bench Vise w/ M on Swivel Base 33 lbs 10.5 oz USA | eBay Has nicks, paint, scratches, battle scars, hacksaw mark, and scrapes as would be expected from an antique used vise, (SEE PHOTOS). No cracks or repairs found. I'm guessing it's from the 40's. www.ebay.com
How did she manage to carry it? I'd give plenty of respect to a woman who can easily carry a 15kg vise around! That old vise could tell a story or two, by the look of the damage inflicted on it!
The seller put it in the car trunk for her but she wrestled it out setting on a hand truck kept in the garage and wheeled it in. I'll have to ask how she managed as I don't really know. It looks to really have been waylaid upon to me; yet is surprising it still pulls together square. Even the sliding members are smooth and level without dip. I may mount this one on the back of my service truck I'm envisioning as it will get beat on doing field repairs.
Thats a sweet vise! I never get sweet deals like that.
Heres a freakin sweet vise testing video from Fireball tool! For anyone who is like me to watch a 58 min video testing vises
Sorry heres the actual video link
That's a whole lotta vise for $20. Man, you lucked out there, with the Mrs and the vise.
He has an even bigger one off floor mounted one that makes this one look like a toy! Lol. Just search Fireball tool vise on youtube.
That girl looks out for me pretty good. Didn't even try to call and ask, just said "It" looked like something I'd want.
Those old vises were great. Not like the garbage you get now. An Item that is hard to get here I find is a good anvil. Collectors have made the prices so crazy
They are "nuts" in pricing here also. I've had two sections of railroad iron for years to beat on, but they are not perfect by any means. I cut two reliefs out of the bottom of the rail, (smaller iron) for clearance to clamp in a large bench vise mounted to a truck rim on a riser and beat/forge something mercilessly to get the desired result. It serves as an anvil acceptably well. I don't like beating directly on a vise unless folding something over.
Old blacksmith equipment of any type is crazy high. Anvils used to sell for $.50 to $1.00/lb not that many years ago. Now anything that even looks like an anvil is $5.00/lb, even if beat to near useless. And the big trophy class anvils can to $15.00/lb. You can buy new, high quality anvils cheaper. Tongs that used to be $1.00 to $5.00/pile, sometimes with no bids at a farm sale are now $15-$60 each. And for stupid vise prices, look up the baby bullets on the 'bay. 2" vise sells for $1200+.
It is nuts on pricing. Of all my vises this is the only one $$$ have been put out to purchase. Others have been given to me and I've fashioned repairs, or made them useful. Most have had the handles bent into pretzels from overzealous use of a pipe for leverage, and my Rock Island 574 needed new jaws. I have a really nice but smaller "Prentice Bulldog" vise I've yet to get another Acme feed screw made as the existing one is physically pulled in half. Use of a pipe I'm sure but I found this one in a scrap pile and dragged it home. I have another "Charles Parker" vise but have done nothing with it. Can't remember what is wrong with that one but it came from an old and closed local blacksmith shop. Surprisingly, many of the parts can still be had by small job shop operations found on the internet.
I had never been to a garage sell tell i got married . I didnt know that there was so much good stuff cheap out there .
NO way my woman is thinking about me at ANY garage sale. LOL
I've been working on her to see the beauty in my bulldozer, but not getting too far very fast.....
By the time i find a 200lb good anvil for a decent price i will be too damn old to use it
In her younger days, my wife worked in the woods with a power saw. To this day she is still way better than me at filing a chain. We used to have wood heat, and I have cut and split, and fell a few trees in my day, but I am by no means a woodsman. I was doing a driveway for a fella, and as we were finishing up, he and his wife were preparing for a garage sale the following day. I spied a pulp hook for 5 bucks, so I bought it. Wife always said she would like one for handling wood when we were splitting it. Co worker, owns property, spends all his free time in the woods, has a sawmill. says if she really worked in the woods, she'll tell you that you waisted 5 bucks. Showed it to her when I got home, and she said " Can't change the tip, you waisted 5 bucks"
I’m still waiting to find my first deal at a garage sale.
Bought a riding mower with no deck for $50, replaced a fuse and put a ill fitting deck on and saved my ass when I was broke. Still have the 25 hp engine from it.
Loml brought me home a Stanley #2 plane for $2... Restoring took about 1 hour, it was nice to start with. Worth $100, so I think she done good. Its also turned into one of my most used planes. Ed
A lot of my hand tools and some power tools come from garage sales and pawn shops. I grab "Petersen" vise-grip pliers every time I run across them at a sale as the later "Irwin" branded are considerable less quality in comparison.
I suspect the Irwin vice grips come from offshore. The majority of mine are Petersen
I wouldn't doubt it at all. I have two pair of the "Irwin" branded pliers I've bent the handles squeezing them closed and the teeth sure are soft in comparison to the "Petersen" originals. These are the very common "10R" series too.
I haven’t tried any of the Milwaukee versions. They may be ok
I've had several of the milwaukee pliers of all shapes and sizes since they first came out, haven't broken or stripped a set yet. The best feature is the adjuster screw with the "ring hole." Allows for ratchet strap, chain or come along to pull the hell out of whatever clamped to. Also have a screw for 10 lb. dent puller that screws into the adjuster screw hole, don't go balls to the wall on that function but haven't stripped one of those either. I'd give 'em two thumbs up.