Today, I continued to sort through things and get tools put away. I have tools I've been storing or dragging around for decades, like today's highlight. These two Palmgren vises came from my Dad's uncle, the tool and die maker. I don't know why he had Palmgren, but he was cheap with his own tools while demanding his employers provide Swiss on the job. Palmgren is a funny brand of tools with some charms and quirks. It's old American production, these ones from the 70's at the latest, so the casting and steel is good, while the machining is really well executed. The quirk is that they were a home shop brand, like Craftsman, so the tools were made to be cheap by using super simplistic designs. The combination of good material and bare bones construction makes for an offbeat combination when we are so used to what passes for similar simple tools made in China. Anyway, My Dad dragged them around for 20 years, and I received them dirty in a milk crate where they lived while I dragged them around for another 25. Until today.
Solvent tank, wire wheel, Fluid Film, and elbow grease. No before pics, I was set on a mission.
View attachment 456797