How Old Is My Baby??

[Susan_in_SF]

Hi guys,
I recently bought anot her vise to add to my mountain of vises - a baby bullet vise. I originally thought this vise was really old since it says Chicago on the body instead of Schiller Park. However, when I opened up the vise to see the date stamp, it says 173. Since it doesn't say "guarentee" or "gar," I would interpret 173 to mean it was made January 1973. However, Wilton moved from Chicago to Schiller Park 1957. Is my baby a Frankenvise? How old is my baby??



Thanks everyone :')
Susan

 

[Ken from ontario]

I don't know the age but even if it's a 1973 vise ,to me that's old ,anyhow it's a cool looking vise and a great find.

 

[Dave Paine]

I also do not know the age of your vise, but I do love Wilton Bullet vises. One day I will get one if I can find one for a decent price.

Your vise looks very nice. A good purchase.

I have a Wilton Columbian style bench vise sold under the Craftsman name. I was frustrated that I could not lock this vise to prevent from swiveling under load. Showing my solution in case this is of future use for your vise.

My original locking screw looks very similar to yours. The front part of the vise removed for this picture.



I replaced the original hardware with carriage bolt and all-thread coupler nut. You may need to file the sides of the carriage bolt to get it to fit in your slot.



I needed the height of the coupler nut so I could use a normal wrench to tighten the nut. At the time I made this modification I did not have a mill to remove metal from the bottom radius. This is working much better than the original hardware.

 

[Susan_in_SF]

I also do not know the age of your vise, but I do love Wilton Bullet vises. One day I will get one if I can find one for a decent price.

Your vise looks very nice. A good purchase.

I have a Wilton Columbian style bench vise sold under the Craftsman name. I was frustrated that I could not lock this vise to prevent from swiveling under load. Showing my solution in case this is of future use for your vise.

My original locking screw looks very similar to yours. The front part of the vise removed for this picture.

View attachment 266699

I replaced the original hardware with carriage bolt and all-thread coupler nut. You may need to file the sides of the carriage bolt to get it to fit in your slot.

View attachment 266702

I needed the height of the coupler nut so I could use a normal wrench to tighten the nut. At the time I made this modification I did not have a mill to remove metal from the bottom radius. This is working much better than the original hardware.

View attachment 266703

Very nice! Thank you for the helpful info. I probaby will need to refer back to your reply when I get to working on it

 

[Eddyde]

I doubt the number is a date stamp but it is a very nice vise! You can try to contact Wilton and ask them? Some companies are good at relaying this type of info, others not so much... It's worth shot.

 

[Charles Spencer]

Dave, I'm gonna do that with my vise.

 

[Tozguy]

Dave, just so I understand your modification, it allows you to use a long handled wrench on the coupler nut for more torque?
Would using a bolt with a finer thread have any merit?

 

[Dave Paine]

Dave, just so I understand your modification, it allows you to use a long handled wrench on the coupler nut for more torque?
Would using a bolt with a finer thread have any merit?

On my vise I did not have clearance for the diameter of a regular nut and even it I had filed off some of the vise for clearance, I would not have been able to use the ring end of a wrench and the open end would have limited movement.

The coupler nut solved both issues, it is thinner wall so smaller diameter, and the length of the nut allows me to use the ring end of the wrench.

I recall a thread some weeks ago on the pros and cons of coarse vs fine thread. Some folks feel coarse thread can take more load since the thread is deeper, some folks feel fine thread can take more load since more length of thread engaged.

For this application I do not think any difference between coarse and fine thread. When I did this modification I was trying to use purchased hardware. At the time I had metal lathe but not a mill or hex stock to make a nut.

 

[dennys502]

This is something I copied from a webpage of a person who restored a vise.

You can tell the age of the vise by looking at the bottom of the guide rail (with the vise opened wide). As can be seen, it is stamped with 4-53. Wilton provided a 5 year warranty on their vises with the expiration of the warranty stamped on the vise, so this vise was made in April of 1948.

And a link to the page. http://www.instructables.com/id/Restoration-of-Wilton-Bullet-Vise/

 

[Dave Smith]

Susan--that is a very nice vise you have added to your mountain of them--we would really like to see a picture of all your vises--we all have many vises of all sizes and would enjoy seeing yours--Dave