Wilton Bullet Vise

[Dabbler]

That wavy fracture pattern happens when the casting is cooled too quickly. My Dad was in iron/steel production and he showed me failures like this when I was a kid. This is a common failure mode in a shop that rushes production.

I respect the old Wiltons a lot -- but in my world (Canada) the british made Record vises are reliable and plentiful. The very few Wiltons I have seen were either cracked or abused. The one Wilton I gave away must have been made offshore. It was wretched in every respect.

 

[682bear]

This is my buddy’s 4” bullet vise.
He says his son broke it, doesn’t think he was using a cheater bar on it, and the handles not bent.
A mystery.
Kids…….

There is one on ebay right now that has suffered the same type of failure... it was repaired many years ago and is still holding.

Anything can be broken if abused enough.

Wilton made some very good vises... but they also made some very poor vises.

The biggest issue with the bullet vises, IMO, is that the affordable ones have been severely abused... the ones that haven't been abused are priced WAY too high...

The first one I bought was a crusty, rusty mess... it was on 'last chance' at HGR... I think I paid $150...it turned out to be a very decent vise with a little cleaning.

This vise I also paid $150 for... probably too much money, but I took a chance on it. I think it will be worth it when I get it finished.

-Bear

 

[682bear]

Yesterday I bought 4 vises... 3 more Wiltons and a Charles Parker.









One of the Wiltons is an old 'Chicago' vise with no date, so it was probably made between 1941 and 1944, when Wilton was manufacturing vises strictly for the government. It had the jaw insert welded to the fixed jaw, welded down one side and across the bottom.

This morning I decided to see if I could mill the jaw insert off... it was just soft steel, so I set it up on the mill and began milling on the jaw...

On the third pass, the endmill grabbed the insert, broke it off, and sent it whizzing past my arm... apparently, the weld across the bottom cracked many years ago and the short weld across the end was all that was holding it...





It cost me a broken endmill to find this crack... I had actually looked for cracks in the weld first, but couldn't see any.

At least it is off... I can make a useable vise out of it now, even if I can't make it look good...

-Bear

 

[682bear]

I cleaned the broken corner of the jaw up, sandblasted the rust off, and built the broken area up by TIG brazing it with silicon bronze wire...



...then set it up on the mill and machined the excess brazing off, and skimmed the jaw...



I need to add some more brazing at the corners... I'll have to do that when I'm not so tired. I did this after mowing the yard today, and I was so tired my hands were shaking too much to hold the filler steady.

-Bear

 

[extropic]

@682bear

There seems to be a faint circular feature, of some sort, about halfway between the jaw mounting holes.

What's going on there?

 

[woodchucker]

No, no, no, no... get more JB Weld and fix that spot!

View attachment 408618

nah, not necessary. Nice job.. not my favorite color.. but it's not mine... So far looking good, especially from where it started from.

 

[woodchucker]

This morning I cut the material for the handle to length and turned both ends to be a tap fit in the handle ends. I tapped one end on, welded it to the handle, then slipped the handle into the end of the vise screw. I then tapped the other end onto the handle and welded it. Finally, I hand blended the excess weld off and polished the ends...

View attachment 408974

View attachment 408975

View attachment 408976

I think it came out pretty good... now I need to machine a set of jaw plates and this vise will be finished... for now.

-Bear

BTW, it's not hard to just peen over the handle in the handle ends. A few minutes with a ball peen hammer, then hit it with an air die grinder sand, scotch brite, done. I did that on my parker.

 

[682bear]

@682bear

There seems to be a faint circular feature, of some sort, about halfway between the jaw mounting holes.

What's going on there?

Most of the Wilton bullet vises had a dowel pin in the middle of the jaws. This one had been cut off and ground flush. I didn't realize it was there until I skimmed the face. I'll likely find the pin in the other jaw when I clean it up.

-Bear

 

[682bear]

I began working to remove the jaw inserts from another one of the Wiltons. This one didn't have any weld on it, but the homemade soft steel jaws were attached with 5/16-18 screws that were tightly rusted in the holes. To make it worse, the soft steel had become peened over the screw heads...

After unsuccessfully trying to remove the screws from the dynamic jaw, I finally drilled the heads off, then used a cold chisel to tap the inserts off the screws. I threaded 5/16 nuts down on what remained of the screws, then TIG welded the nuts to the screws.

I was then able to turn one of the screws out... the other broke off flush...

So... I began building up the end of the screw with weld, hoping I wouldn't stick it to the cast iron jaw. After building it up a half inch or so, I was able to grip it with vise grips and carefully work it out...



I then began on the static jaw... again, I had to drill the screw heads off. I ran out of time, so I left it soaking overnight in Kroil...

I doubt they will come out as easy as the first two... they are rusted in tighter, I think... I may have to drill them out, hopefully without ruining the threads on the holes.

We'll see...

-Bear

 

[682bear]

This morning I worked on removing the other two screws... one of them came out with just a nut welded to it... the other broke off, so again, I had to build it up with weld and use the vise grips...



They are both out now...



So this vise is ready for new jaw inserts.

-Bear