Prentiss No. 54 Vice

[Royboy]

One of the guys on my staff, Justin, is a very strong guy. Yesterday he was cinching something down pretty tightly on my vintage Craftsman bench vise and he actually twisted off the threaded shaft that is the heart of any vise. It had served me well for a long time but I always knew that it was kinda weak mechanically.

A few years ago a customer had given me his grandfathers old vise since he had no use for it. When the Craftsman crapped out I recalled that I had the old gift vise in storage so I dug it out and mounted it up on the bench. It's a Prentiss Bull Dog #54 about 100 years old I guess. This sucker weighs 74 lbs. Looks a little silly mounted as it is but will do for the moment.

If Justin twists this one off I want to be there to see it.

roy

 

[MaxPete]

Looks like it will be pretty solid.

I sure wouldn't want to get my.....well, anything of mine stuck in that.

Many years ago I worked as a draughtsman in a tool & die shop north of Toronto and a tool salesman came by one day to sell tools to the guys in the shop. It turns out that he had about 25 nice blue, still packed in grease, 4.5" Recond vises on a really special deal - like SO good, that everybody bought one. It may have been that they fell off a truck somewhere late at night.... I wasn't asking but I bought one and it now adorns my workbench in the Disaster Central Workshop. By golly, if I want to hold onto something, that Record will NOT let go. The key point is that every shop should have at least one really good heavy vise.

Remember Pete's Laws of Tool Ownership:

1. You cannot have too many tools;
2. There is no such thing as "surplus" tools - there are only tools for which you have not yet found a use;
3. If you see a tool you do not currently possess - buy it;
4. If you buy a tool - you will find a use for it soon;
5. If you use a tool just once - you will save enough money to have paid for it - and so after that, the tool begins to pay you back which gives you money with which to buy more tools;
6. He who dies with the most tools - wins.

Here endeth the lesson.

Pete

PS - I like tools. Tools are good to have.

 

[TimeMachine]

Very Cool ! No Chinese steel in that screw

 

[Mailman]

Now THATS a vice!

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

Beauty !

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Hay KOOL ! it looks like mine well, sort of mine ain't clean and has been through hell 3 or 4 times over but it keeps on ticking !
my older ones kept braking on me and I've re welded them dozens of times then the screw stripped out of the good one...so I set it aside
this monster is the greatest as I can open the jaws to at least 6" wide and that helps in so many ways it's plane silly !
resist the temptation to pound on it with a hammer bending metal in the vice with a sledge is what broke my last good one !
( now I have a press for that.) if you happen to break the vice you can re weld them with cast iron welding rod and a DC stick welder
that makes a weld stronger than the metal it's welded to usually... welding Cast iron is pretty much an art and pre-heating it is the key !
..... very interesting ! so that is what my vice should look like all prettied up !!!! I may have to do that ! LOL
......
Bob.........

 

[Downeaster]

Tools? Tools you say? I'm getting there...

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Downeaster ! Hay man you have enough room for a lathe and a Mill in there ! WOOO HOOO !
there is nothing like playing with a lathe for relaxin a feller ! HAHAHAHA!
.....
Bob.......

 

[fredintoon]

Now THATS a vice!
View attachment 99640

No it ain't. It's a VISE.
A vice is a nasty habit. Unlike the urge to own XS650s, which is an obsession.
&BTW the vise shown in Royboy's photo needs to be mounted further forward
so that it can hold a long item vertically clear of the workbench

 

[Bob Kelly III]

LOL Good point Fred ! you nailed that one ! I hadn't even noticed that !
.....also support your bench from underneath with a few 2x4's so when you got a 10ft pipe in the vice and your trying to get a coupling off with a 4'cheater bar on your pipe wrench that ya don't rip the whole shelf off the wall !
my Dad made his vice mounting out of 1/2" steel and lag bolted it into the concrete I remember well the story about him ripping the 12ft shelf off the wall and falling on his butt ! so he made it solid after that ! LOL

....
Bob..........

 

[Downeaster]

Downeaster ! Hay man you have enough room for a lathe and a Mill in there ! WOOO HOOO !
there is nothing like playing with a lathe for relaxin a feller ! HAHAHAHA!
.....
Bob.......

I have been looking for a lathe for years. If I had 3 phase power or was willing to pony up for a rotary converter it wouldn't be a problem. A Bridgeport would look nice sitting in there too, but I'd have to move Momma's car outside and we all know how that would go over.

We've put the place up for sale and IF it sells, Mrs. Downeaster and I have an agreement that I get to build a new shop along with the new house. Provisions will be made...

 

[Royboy]

Fred,

For the record, notice in the attached photo that the folks at Prentiss were thoughtful enough to add a lower lip just forward of the side mounting points so that the vise foot would butt up to the leading edge of the mounting surface. A fine idea but in this case mounting further forward was precluded by the location of the steel substructure within the cabinetry. I am currently cutting an upper and lower 1/4" steel plate to accomodate that lower lip and provide additional support to the interior of the substructure.

Otherwise Justin's next attempt to really reef on something will just tear the cabinetry off the wall.

roy

 

[fredintoon]

- - - We've put the place up for sale and IF it sells, Mrs. Downeaster and I have an agreement that I get to build a new shop along with the new house. Provisions will be made...

Hi Downeaster and good luck with the property sale.
If you build the new house atop the new shop there's a whole roofsworth of construction materials savings to be made and
the shop will have the same footprint as the house.
If you build on a sloping lot you can bury the back half of the shop and drive up to what looks to be a bungalow from the front.
And perhaps an elevator between the shop and the house? We're none of us getting any younger and stairs can be a bitch.
We are looking at moving out of our split-level into a bungalow because Mrs Fred's knees are shot.

 

[Downeaster]

And perhaps an elevator between the shop and the house? We're none of us getting any younger and stairs can be a bitch. We are looking at moving out of our split-level into a bungalow because Mrs Fred's knees are shot.

That's one of the reasons we're looking at selling. Bedrooms on the second floor and laundry in the basement is NOT optimal for folks in the 65-75 age group. If we can sell for at or near the listing price, we can do the new place without going into debt. It'll be a "ranch" which is 'Murican for all on one floor and no stairs. Plus, the original half of this house is from the 19-teens and the "new" portion was built in 1954 so maintenance is a constant headache.

And my new shop will be A) larger and 2) heated...

 

[fredintoon]

Fred,
For the record, notice in the attached photo that the folks at Prentiss were thoughtful enough to add a lower lip just forward of the side mounting points so that the vice foot would butt up to the leading edge of the mounting surface. A fine idea but in this case mounting further forward was precluded by the location of the steel substructure within the cabinetry. I am currently cutting an upper and lower 1/4" steel plate to accommodate that lower lip and provide additional support to the interior of the substructure.
Otherwise Justin's next attempt to really reef on something will just tear the cabinetry off the wall.
roy - -

Hi Roy,
I'd say plate the complete benchtop while you were at it and rock-anchor the cabinet's substructure to the shop floor.
As for Jason, like Mr Bumble said about young Oliver Twist:- "Meat! You've been feeding him meat!"

 

[MaxPete]

Hey DE - you've got a Suzuki ring-ding there! Lucky you - I have always wanted a GT550.

Pete

 

[Downeaster]

It's for sale, Pete...

 

[chizler62]

That is a beauty. I've even looking around for a large one for a post etc
Found the large old one shown on the floor. Seems solid. I'm an admitted tool hore as you can see I really don't need a 4th vise. LOL

 

[chizler62]

This is my go to vise and my "crankshaft press" it's even done a few xs270 cranks lol

 

[Bob Kelly III]

I really like a vice that can swivel Harbor freight had a nice looking 6" pipe vice that could swivel 360 deg in 2 directions....
I think for me that would be the cats' meow ! that and their 150lb anvil ! as I do allot of pounding on stuff ! LOL
.....
Bob.....