Ugly Duckling, Wilton Vise Restoration 2

[Eddyde]

Picked up this derelict for the price of a couple of bags of groceries. Perhaps not a steal but certainly below the typical asking, around here. Anyway, I can go a few days without food...


Looks like she was pretty rusted at one point and repainted, is that red-lead primer peeking through?

Missing a cap nut for the swivel, no biggie though, I'll machine up a couple of new ones...

Lots of paint to remove, I might try a hot Lye solution in the ultrasonic cleaner as the Methylene Chloride is now "Unobtainium" around here. Anyone try this method?

Ah, the dust cap will certainly need to be replaced, I made one out of Aluminum, for my last restoration.

Thankfully the screw looks in serviceable condition, this was the big problem in my last restoration. Thanks to G-ManBart for getting me the replacement!

The nut looks good too : )

The jaws are also serviceable but I might spring for replacements, as there aren't any other expensive parts needed...

Well there's the whole shebang ready for cleaning and reconstruction.

Thanks for Looking.

 

[mmcmdl]

One of these days I'll get to mine Ed . Following along here .

 

[BFHammer]

Nice find. Looking forward to the restoration!

 

[mmcmdl]

I picked up a smallerish Wilton the other day Ed . Not a bullet . I noticed it had a crack under where the jaw mounts . Not a big issue being it will be used for wood , but still would like it to look nice .

 

[Reddinr]

I've got a little Wilton bullet vise a friend gave to me last year. It is yellow. Maybe when I retire I'll get to fixing it up. Wait...I am retired.

 

[G-ManBart]

Interesting fun fact about your vise for you: There are three main swivel base types you see on Wilton Machinist and C-series (Combination) vises. The earliest was one solid piece style that allowed 180* of rotation. After that they became all two piece construction (note below about the Tradesman line). For a short period of time they had an outer ring with a smooth ledge on the underside and the inner ring had two small, smooth tabs that would rub on the ledge of the outer ring for friction. That's the style this vise has. It's literally the only style you can't go buy new parts to replace since nobody makes either the inner or outer rings with smooth surfaces...they all have teeth in those spots. At one point I tried narrowing down the years they used them, but it was slow going and I stopped trying to sort out the years. I'm pretty sure they only had that style base for a couple of years.

Side note....the Tradesman line uses/used a different setup with just an outer ring and pads with teeth on the swivel lock carriage bolts on all but the 1780 models which used the larger two-piece base from a C2/C3.

I should have put this first.....NERD ALERT

 

[Nesse1]

I'd sandblast that bad boy and get down to base metal. Paint stripper, wire wheels, etc, will never get the metal as clean as blasting will.

 

[G-ManBart]

I'd sandblast that bad boy and get down to base metal. Paint stripper, wire wheels, etc, will never get the metal as clean as blasting will.

I hate when I see vises that have been sandblasted with typical media. It often softens the lettering and can mess with the surface texture. Something less aggressive like walnut shells might be okay, but I've never bothered...wire wheel will get them more than clean enough for self-etching primer to adhere perfectly. After literally hundreds of vises restored I haven't had paint flaking off them.

I also tell folks to leave the tail cap in place if at all possible. Wilton had a process where they fit the tail cap, then the nut to the body of the vise, held it all in place under pressure while they drilled and pinned the tail cap assembly. Then they ran that over some kind of belt grinder to smooth and blend everything together. Once the pins get driven out and the tail cap removed they rarely fit back together perfectly and it shows. There's really nothing back there that needs attention unless it's been damaged.

 

[Eddyde]

I'd sandblast that bad boy and get down to base metal. Paint stripper, wire wheels, etc, will never get the metal as clean as blasting will.

I do have a blast cabinet but it's currently decommissioned. I agree, wire wheels are a PITA but see my next post re paint stripper.

 

[Larry$]

Picked up this derelict for the price of a couple of bags of groceries.

So, a couple of hundred $, still not a bad deal.
Everything looks to be in good condition except for the end cap & swivel lock. Are the caps available or can you make a new one?