Show us your bench vice(s)

[arther dailey]

I will give you 10% profit on that ruff old swindon, now truthfully you dont want it cluttering up your tidy workshop do you.......Arther

 

[Ton-up]

Matt, mine has no numbers on that ring. The rear cover you mention is the one I said needs bushing as the leadscrew has made it egg shaped. I love the copper cover you made, but I wondered if there should be a 'can' shaped cover that went over the area you have painted maroon that kept dirt off the end of the slide?
The 'everyday' vice is a Parkinson and I believe a no.8.

 

[MattF]

The older Swindens have no cover over that rear portion. Yours is how it's meant to be. I believe they also stamp the number on the machined portion on one of the jaw sides. Wouldn't worry too much about the hole being oval on that plate. That plate doesn't seem to provide any worthwhile support as such for the screw at the best of times, from what I can see, and they manage fine even when the plate goes missing.

Thought that looked like a Parkinson. Nice vices are those. My personal favourite.

 

[RobWilson]

Very nice, they look like they've been hardened and ground

Hi CwazyWabbit , your are correct ,the plane jaws were hardened and ground .



Being hard and ground means they are great for holding finished parts without marking ,the vice can be really tightened without fear of marring the surface of the part .

I have been using my quick change jaw system for a few years know and there is no way I would ever go back to loose /flapy soft jaws and serrated faced jaws that destroy the surface finish of anything moderately tightened up in the vice .

The pins in the pin jaws are height adjustable .






And also allow for parts to be gripped internally.



Cheers Rob

 

[Ton-up]

Now you're just being cocky

 

[CwazyWabbit]

They are truly a work of art Rob.

Have you modified the vice for the internal gripping use? I would imagine you'd need to remove the spring

 

[arther dailey]

Hopefully I have managed to attatch pict of a vice, its about 55/60 years old, as my father bought it and now I use it, yes bench needs cleaning..been a bit busy but thats no excuse really. Arther

 

[CwazyWabbit]

Nice Record 84, a very good quality vice

 

[Screwdriver]

Picked this Swinden up today. How much is it worth as I was quite happy to have paid £50? Apart from the horrible paint, the vice is in good condition with a bit of damage to the jaw inserts. The rear shaft support is worn and will need bushing. I know the bolts are wrong and the clamp bolt is non-original. Questions to anyone whose taken one apart - should the clamp bolt be a stud and dome nut with spanner? Should there be a 'can' over the rear of the vise to protect it as the new ones on the Swinden web-site? Should there be a serial/date no. somewhere?

Fifty quid sounds about right if the seller doesn't know what they've got. I'd buy as many as I could for that price. Worth is difficult to say. If someone is looking for a Swindens to restore, anything up to £100 because they will be worth a lot more once they are done and you can sell them to someone who just wants a good working vice.

When you say "rear shaft support" do you mean the main non rotating body? Or do you mean the part of the moving jaw which passes all the way through? The clamping bolt should be a taper hex headed stud with an angled, removable wrench held captive to the bottom of the stud on a chain. Yours has an odd bolt which might have been drilled and tapped to fit. The lightest pressure on that fixing should lock the rotation solid.

All there is on the end is a plain cast cap, held on by two cap head screws and always drilled right up to the edge. There's one in the bottom left of this picture. You should find a date stamp on the side of the jaw face when you clean off the paint.

I have restored a fair few of these and while I do enjoy it, it's not a money making activity. I paid more for the one in that picture and it's really badly beaten up but having sold a few recently, I am determined to hang onto this one which I am going to modify for welding duties. Not unlike the stuff Rob Wilson has done, except mine will be unrecognisable in terms of the quality he has produced!

Here's one I made earlier.

I had to remanufacture and braze a new jaw onto that one...

S.

 

[Screwdriver]

Nice Record 84, a very good quality vice

Yup. Should look a bit more like this 84M.

Not many around still looking like that!

 

[Ton-up]

Fifty quid sounds about right if the seller doesn't know what they've got. I'd buy as many as I could for that price. Worth is difficult to say. If someone is looking for a Swindens to restore, anything up to £100 because they will be worth a lot more once they are done and you can sell them to someone who just wants a good working vice.

When you say "rear shaft support" do you mean the main non rotating body? Or do you mean the part of the moving jaw which passes all the way through? The clamping bolt should be a taper hex headed stud with an angled, removable wrench held captive to the bottom of the stud on a chain. Yours has an odd bolt which might have been drilled and tapped to fit. The lightest pressure on that fixing should lock the rotation solid.

All there is on the end is a plain cast cap, held on by two cap head screws and always drilled right up to the edge. There's one in the bottom left of this picture. You should find a date stamp on the side of the jaw face when you clean off the paint.

S.

Good to know £50 was o.k.!
Yes, the round plate is what I meant. The hole is oval but will be an easy job to bush. The screws to hold it on were a 1/4 whit hex head and a self tapper!
I can now see the hex head bolt in your pic (is that correct?) but what do you mean by 'taper stud'?
Thanks.

 

[Screwdriver]

I made it up. It's not really a bolt so I just called it a stud. The one in the picture is knackered, I have yet to find a Swindens with it's original locking lever and that bolt/stud/fixing is typically the first to suffer from bodgers.

 

[Ton-up]

Made it up!

I will probably make a stud that screws into the vice and a dome hex nut. I would imagine that it is how they were. For some bling I have some M12 stainless dome nuts, and also some of the indexing handles that I have seen used, it would mean making a whit/metric stud though.

 

[MattF]

That bolt is the original, factory method. The groove around the bottom of the bolt is for the chains coupler to seat into. The chain which is supposed to stop the spanner being lost. Obviously doesn't serve that function too well, judging from the amount of missing spanners.

Saying that though, using your method and going with a stud would be no bad thing. Saves any wear on the threaded portion of the housing, and a stud is easily replaced if the threads become worn.

 

[Maker]

Sadly it's not mine, I got outbid at the last second but I'm still curious about it, anyone know what it is? Someone definitely got bargain, Link.

 

[brewdexta]

Its a Dohm, I have one, look at my post on this thread from May 7th last year

 

[Maker]

Page 22 has posts from May 5th to May 22nd 2015, none of which are yours.

EDIT; Found it, March 7th, page 10. Nice looking vice, does it get much use?

 

[brewdexta]

You do know your vices!!

What where they used for?

This is the description

"Unusual vice with no makers mark but has a sticker with Dohm 167 Victoria Street London, it weighs 8kg has a 7" base is 10" long and 5" high with 4 bolt holes.Very sturdy with 2 x 3/4" dia. support rods, the moving vice jaw is 3" long and 1" deep with a strong gripping surface and a curved central vee groove. It has a brass protective plate that can be swung into place across the jaw to get a softer clamping action. The fixed half of the vice has a 6 position rotary action and has 1 fixed position facing the moving jaw, the other 5 contoured positions are designed to allow vertical clamping of tubular materials from 1/2" to 1 1/4" diameter , the one fixed position has a centralised horizontal and vertical vee slot and has a smooth clamping face"

and a few pics

View attachment 61241 View attachment 61242 View attachment 61243

This one Adam

 

[brewdexta]

Sorry, on my mobile, lame excuse!

I have yet to find bench space for it but now I retrieved the last of my dads tools yesterday I shall have a sort out and find a spot for it.

 

[Turbo]

Very nice work Rob.

When I first saw the inserts with all the holes in them I was confused as to what they were for.
Then when I saw them in use I can see how incredibly useful they would be for holding objects without any parallel sides.
I might have to try making a set though mine will not look nearly as good as yours!