Show us your bench vice(s)

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Yes, really very well made and nicely designed.

I would love to ask @The_Yellow_Ardvark where he got his from .... I bought mine from a normal person in Germany.

As I said before the design doesn't look German to me at all, just too designy.

I haven't done anything mechanically to remove rust, only in a hot ultrasonic bath with added citric acid.

In the areas where metal is now visible, the paint was already subverted by rust and could not be saved.

The paint seems to have been originally crinkle paint (what do you call it?), which was also used for high-quality measuring instruments in the past.

This makes me think of watchmaker's equipment, which in turn implies Switzerland, which for me can be reconciled with the design ....

Beautiful piece anyway, after copious application of ISO68 hydraulic oil it is fully operational again and in light use indoors with me, it will never see rust again.


Have a nice sunday

Carsten

--

Ask away.
I will answer.

 

[25.4_mechanic]

Hi Carsten,
wenn ich meine Deutschkenntnisse mit etwas schwäbischem Dialekt einsetze

Hi Steve,

First of all, congratulations on your excellent knowledge of German - especially since it comes from Swabia, a region that advertises itself as such:
We can do everything, except High German. (Mir könned alles, außer Hochdeutsch)

Then my heartfelt thanks for taking the trouble to draw my attention to these linguistic subtleties.

Also with us one calls painting, varnishing exactly that or spraying is officially used - but like also in English certain bends of the language are used, in order to obtain certain effects ...
(I remember a politician, who spoke once of "spaffing money up the wall" - what might have become from this man?!?).

And so here among craftsmen to describe a particularly shabby painting job one likes to speak of "showering over" (übergeduscht), which is so not provided for in the official German language and by uninitiated ordinary citizens may not even be understood at first.

The usual meanings of showers here are the same at 1) and 2) and I know about 3) only because I used to listen very carefully to
Frank Zappa's lyrics and as a former resident of Hamburg St.Pauli I learned not to think anything human is impossible.

My mistake was to assume that this was recognizable in another language - the funny interjection of @SteveB58 , which I can only so gout after your explanation, together with the wordplay with vise/vice - very nice.

Thanks again!

To all a nice day

Carsten

--

 

[25.4_mechanic]

Ask away.
I will answer.

So???

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I got my recent 2 vices from a charity shop in Exeter.
The manager puts stuff aside for me.

I also pop into a few places on the routes home and see.
I never buy from the internet as I like to see and handle what I am about to part money for.

 

[25.4_mechanic]

I got my recent 2 vices from a charity shop in Exeter.
The manager puts stuff aside for me.

I also pop into a few places on the routes home and see.
I never buy from the internet as I like to see and handle what I am about to part money for.

Thank you, Aardvark,

so from the circumstances of the acquisition of these two identical vises - one in Devon, the other in North Rhine-Westphalia - we won't know where they were originally made - that's a shame, but one can enjoy them without.

How is my little compass?

Many greetings

Carsten

--

 

[SteveB58]

Hi Steve,

First of all, congratulations on your excellent knowledge of German - especially since it comes from Swabia, a region that advertises itself as such:
We can do everything, except High German. (Mir könned alles, außer Hochdeutsch)

Then my heartfelt thanks for taking the trouble to draw my attention to these linguistic subtleties.

Also with us one calls painting, varnishing exactly that or spraying is officially used - but like also in English certain bends of the language are used, in order to obtain certain effects ...
(I remember a politician, who spoke once of "spaffing money up the wall" - what might have become from this man?!?).

And so here among craftsmen to describe a particularly shabby painting job one likes to speak of "showering over" (übergeduscht), which is so not provided for in the official German language and by uninitiated ordinary citizens may not even be understood at first.

The usual meanings of showers here are the same at 1) and 2) and I know about 3) only because I used to listen very carefully to
Frank Zappa's lyrics and as a former resident of Hamburg St.Pauli I learned not to think anything human is impossible.

My mistake was to assume that this was recognizable in another language - the funny interjection of @SteveB58 , which I can only so gout after your explanation, together with the wordplay with vise/vice - very nice.

Thanks again!

To all a nice day

Carsten

--

Sorry you didn't get the joke Carsten, English is confusing enough to us native speakers, spelling is still a mystery to me- I think I was sick when everyone else was taught that. I was totally unaware of the American spelling of vice as vise until joining this group. Spelling it with a 'c' is more intuitive as it suggests an 'ice' sounding word as in mice, slice or nice. Whereas spelling with an 's' does make phonic sense as the 'e' makes a split digraph with the 'i' giving a long 'i' sound; not a short 'i' as in injury. But in English English 'ise' gives a longer sound to the 's' as in wise, where is 's' sounds similar to a 'z'. For my sins I have been known to teach phonics over the years, not the best way to teach English as it is far from a phonic language, but what do I know?

 

[25.4_mechanic]

Sorry you didn't get the joke Carsten, English is confusing enough to us native speakers,

Thank you, Steve,

but your sentence made sense on first reading, too, like: "Botched overpainting is a distinct sin in itself" - now I can see the specific meaning - very pointed!
... and not even too far from the original meaning in both languages

Yes, English is a bit of a strange language, you could say a language with identity problems (and this from a German, of all people):

As Karl Lagerfeld - who grew up 30km and 30 years from me - once said, "Anyone who grew up in Schleswig-Holstein with the dialect of the farmers there doesn't need to learn English separately" was partly right .... as far as the Anglo-Saxon part is concerned .... everything short, straight and clear in the language comes from there ...

Everything was going so well at the turn of the first millennium on the islands, Latin was almost forgotten, the Celtic dialects were integrated and then came 1066 ....

and a very vague lexical language was grafted onto a logically constructed grammatical language and merged with it.

And now you have a language in which every word can have a multitude of meanings and every meaning a myriad of denotations .... and hardly a word is pronounced as it is written - I had to laugh very hard at Richard Osman's House of Games the other day when I saw the difficulties even educated people have with spelling seemingly simple words until I realised that the only reason this is an issue at all is because everything is spoken differently than it is written.

And a strange mixture of, on the one hand, very concise precise statements and, on the other hand, meandering gibberish without wanting to commit to a statement or even an opinion - and then one is also supposed to learn to distinguish what is what ... which is nothing compared to the difficulties that await a newcomer learning our language ...

But I like your language and the key to the world it represents.


Carsten

--

 

[SteveB58]

Thank you, Steve,

but your sentence made sense on first reading, too, like: "Botched overpainting is a distinct sin in itself" - now I can see the specific meaning - very pointed!
... and not even too far from the original meaning in both languages

Yes, English is a bit of a strange language, you could say a language with identity problems (and this from a German, of all people):

As Karl Lagerfeld - who grew up 30km and 30 years from me - once said, "Anyone who grew up in Schleswig-Holstein with the dialect of the farmers there doesn't need to learn English separately" was partly right .... as far as the Anglo-Saxon part is concerned .... everything short, straight and clear in the language comes from there ...

Everything was going so well at the turn of the first millennium on the islands, Latin was almost forgotten, the Celtic dialects were integrated and then came 1066 ....

and a very vague lexical language was grafted onto a logically constructed grammatical language and merged with it.

And now you have a language in which every word can have a multitude of meanings and every meaning a myriad of denotations .... and hardly a word is pronounced as it is written - I had to laugh very hard at Richard Osman's House of Games the other day when I saw the difficulties even educated people have with spelling seemingly simple words until I realised that the only reason this is an issue at all is because everything is spoken differently than it is written.

And a strange mixture of, on the one hand, very concise precise statements and, on the other hand, meandering gibberish without wanting to commit to a statement or even an opinion - and then one is also supposed to learn to distinguish what is what ... which is nothing compared to the difficulties that await a newcomer learning our language ...

But I like your language and the key to the world it represents.


Carsten

--

Carsten,

Like most English people I am no linguist. At school in the 70's I was taught Latin and French, the former I saw no need for, the latter I didn't understand how I was being taught. At that time there was no teaching of grammar in the primary schools, but at my grammar school he had to conjugate Latin or French verbs with no understanding of how they were used. Added to that in other languages things can be masculine, feminine and in Latin neuter was even more confusing. When a baby starts to learn a language you start with nouns, then verbs and adjectives but that's not the way languages were taught in schools here. Like phonics I also taught French, but I would shy away from using it in public. I taught many children of immigrants and was amazed at how many of their parents could speak 3,4 or even 5 languages!

 

[StevieO]

Hi peoples.
I must apologise for starting this language and grammar thing... ...........yet I must add my "fourpenneth"

I love languages and love the idiosyncrasies of them too.
My grammar schooling was English, Latin, German and French.
I recently retired from 33 years working for a German company - Frankfurt airport must have a plaque somewhere citing my affection for travelling through there.

English has massive cores from Latin, French, German, Scandinavian and others. English owes everything to that input - that history.
Yet fails miserably at even simple things like plurals such as one sheep and two sheep....
Even though I love it when non- english says two sheeps...

Even more I love the way that little ditties (sayings) cross borders where local sayings are suddenly recognised as also the same in German or French for example.
And yet others where they are totally new... my favourite German one is if someone asks you to talk "under four eyes" - which literally means just two people - in confidence.. LOL

Drawing this back to vices or vises.... I did not mean to pick up your language in a bad way Carsten. In fact - your grasp of English is easily far better than many English people I know... and I mean that - your English language is excellent - really is. I find it superb.

What riles me, as an "old fart" so to speak, is the propensity of youth, and (without northern bluster) - the southern counties around Essex, when they pronounce "three" as "free" - or "think" as "fink", or "bottle" as "bo'le". That grates me terribly. How on earth can anyone pronounce 33 as "firty free" - but they do....
I'll never forget a seller had an item for £3 and when I asked how much he said "it's free mate". So I picked it up and walked off saying "thanks - real bargain".....

Was kann ich tun! What can I do? LOL.

& I have to admit some of my favourite words are international.
Forchtbar (love that word)
Comisch (just love pronouncing that)
Prestididigitateur (lovely French mouthful)
Smula (Swedish breadcrumb)

Hopefully to close out this I want to place a link to a famous Two Ronnies sketch... it explains how English can be so confusing.

SteveO

 

[25.4_mechanic]

I love languages and love the idiosyncrasies of them too.

We share the same passion.

I did not mean to pick up your language in a bad way

and I didn't took it wrong, between the two of us, under four eyes

Prost skål, kippis!

Carsten

--

 

[SteveB58]

Hi peoples.
I must apologise for starting this language and grammar thing... ...........yet I must add my "fourpenneth"

I love languages and love the idiosyncrasies of them too.
My grammar schooling was English, Latin, German and French.
I recently retired from 33 years working for a German company - Frankfurt airport must have a plaque somewhere citing my affection for travelling through there.

English has massive cores from Latin, French, German, Scandinavian and others. English owes everything to that input - that history.
Yet fails miserably at even simple things like plurals such as one sheep and two sheep....
Even though I love it when non- english says two sheeps...

Even more I love the way that little ditties (sayings) cross borders where local sayings are suddenly recognised as also the same in German or French for example.
And yet others where they are totally new... my favourite German one is if someone asks you to talk "under four eyes" - which literally means just two people - in confidence.. LOL

Drawing this back to vices or vises.... I did not mean to pick up your language in a bad way Carsten. In fact - your grasp of English is easily far better than many English people I know... and I mean that - your English language is excellent - really is. I find it superb.

What riles me, as an "old fart" so to speak, is the propensity of youth, and (without northern bluster) - the southern counties around Essex, when they pronounce "three" as "free" - or "think" as "fink", or "bottle" as "bo'le". That grates me terribly. How on earth can anyone pronounce 33 as "firty free" - but they do....
I'll never forget a seller had an item for £3 and when I asked how much he said "it's free mate". So I picked it up and walked off saying "thanks - real bargain".....

Was kann ich tun! What can I do? LOL.

& I have to admit some of my favourite words are international.
Forchtbar (love that word)
Comisch (just love pronouncing that)
Prestididigitateur (lovely French mouthful)
Smula (Swedish breadcrumb)

Hopefully to close out this I want to place a link to a famous Two Ronnies sketch... it explains how English can be so confusing.

SteveO

Although I live in Essex I'm not from there. I don't find the th pronounced f all that prevalent, here. More likely to find it in my home city of Portsmouth, and northerners often think we're Cockneys. Coincidently I was accused of being a Cockney b*****d once when visiting Alsager, which is close to Stoke!

 

[Maker]

Jaw inserts weren't fitted in the last post because they were still cooling...

I made copper faced brass jaws a few years ago, I found some brass bar and it didn't occur to me brass would make a crap soft jaw until I'd already I'd already cut it to size so I just soldered copper to the face of them, machined it flat and called it good. I got about a year out of them before the copper peeled off and I've been putting up with "solder jaws" ever since. It's about time I refaced them, this time starting with 22mm copper pipe for it's thicker wall than the 15mm I used before, and I didn't bother machining it flat, they're flat enough.
View attachment 331982
View attachment 331983


I fluxed between the copper and brass, and greased between the two sheets of copper so the solder won't try to flow in and stick them together. It takes bloody ages to heat it up with my little torch but I got there eventually. Cleaned up and filed to size they look pretty good, hopefully they'll last a bit longer this time.
View attachment 331984

Yes I could just buy some copper bar, but this is free.

Lasted two months.

 

[Mecres74]

A few more of mine

 

[cr500dom]

So I picked up a couple of bargains from FB marketplace, local too.
Another early Record steel 83 (that gives me a pair) and an early 21

To me these look almost identical ?
Does anyone know why that might be or what was the reason for 2 vices so similar ? We’re they different ranges ?

 

[h-dom]

Finally got round to fixing up the record 25 I picked up a while back.

The handle did nothing when turned, just spun and the sliding jaw didn't move. Plus it was missing a jaw. I didn't have any 1/2" bar so had to make do for now with 10mm. I'll be using this one so I'm not too bothered.

I had to drill and tap almost every hole. Tried welding onto the stud of the jaw but someone had previously drilled it and got another smaller bolt stuck next to it so it wouldn't spin. Build up the weld, ground it flat and centre punched so I could drill. Ended up tapping m10 and turning down some m10 bolts to countersink slot heads.

The quick release mechanism was missing a bolt to hold it in underneath which was why the screw didn't move the sliding jaw, fortunately I found a matching bolt in my spares so that was simple.

I wound up the quick release spring and refitted everything and it is now spot on with a very good quick release.

Wire brushed off the grime and coated with linseed oil ready to use.

There is still some original blue and the original sticker under there somewhere but the oil has masked it a bit.

 

[My Old Landy]

Finally got round to fixing up the record 25 I picked up a while back.

The handle did nothing when turned, just spun and the sliding jaw didn't move. Plus it was missing a jaw. I didn't have any 1/2" bar so had to make do for now with 10mm. I'll be using this one so I'm not too bothered.

I had to drill and tap almost every hole. Tried welding onto the stud of the jaw but someone had previously drilled it and got another smaller bolt stuck next to it so it wouldn't spin. Build up the weld, ground it flat and centre punched so I could drill. Ended up tapping m10 and turning down some m10 bolts to countersink slot heads.

The quick release mechanism was missing a bolt to hold it in underneath which was why the screw didn't move the sliding jaw, fortunately I found a matching bolt in my spares so that was simple.

I wound up the quick release spring and refitted everything and it is now spot on with a very good quick release.

Wire brushed off the grime and coated with linseed oil ready to use.

There is still some original blue and the original sticker under there somewhere but the oil has masked it a bit.

View attachment 343808

That is a thing of great beauty

 

[25.4_mechanic]

To me these look almost identical ?
Does anyone know why that might be or what was the reason for 2 vices so similar ? We’re they different ranges ?

I don't pretend to have any knowledge about English vises, but perhaps the following was the case here:

If you don't find any other differences and only the type designation has become "bigger", then this could be a case of the old marketing principle that everything always has to become "better" (bigger, higher, louder, faster, brighter, more colourful, ...) in order to keep the buyer interested, if necessary just the designation ....


Carsten

--

 

[MattF]

View attachment 343801

So I picked up a couple of bargains from FB marketplace, local too.
Another early Record steel 83 (that gives me a pair) and an early 21

To me these look almost identical ?
Does anyone know why that might be or what was the reason for 2 vices so similar ? We’re they different ranges ?

Steel & cast iron.

 

[StevieO]

View attachment 343801

So I picked up a couple of bargains from FB marketplace, local too.
Another early Record steel 83 (that gives me a pair) and an early 21

To me these look almost identical ?
Does anyone know why that might be or what was the reason for 2 vices so similar ? We’re they different ranges ?

Hi Matt
One is Steel the other is Pearlitic Iron
Guess that's the main difference.

Looks like they would clean up really nice though.

 

[StevieO]

Finally got round to fixing up the record 25 I picked up a while back.

The handle did nothing when turned, just spun and the sliding jaw didn't move. Plus it was missing a jaw. I didn't have any 1/2" bar so had to make do for now with 10mm. I'll be using this one so I'm not too bothered.

I had to drill and tap almost every hole. Tried welding onto the stud of the jaw but someone had previously drilled it and got another smaller bolt stuck next to it so it wouldn't spin. Build up the weld, ground it flat and centre punched so I could drill. Ended up tapping m10 and turning down some m10 bolts to countersink slot heads.

The quick release mechanism was missing a bolt to hold it in underneath which was why the screw didn't move the sliding jaw, fortunately I found a matching bolt in my spares so that was simple.

I wound up the quick release spring and refitted everything and it is now spot on with a very good quick release.

Wire brushed off the grime and coated with linseed oil ready to use.

There is still some original blue and the original sticker under there somewhere but the oil has masked it a bit.

View attachment 343808

Old workhorse brought to new life - super.


Woof Woof Woof !!