I spent the day over at my brothers place yesterday, doing laundry and helping him mount metal signs on the walls. While we were sitting down with a cup of joe, he pulled out this 4″ Sears vise he had bought 30 years ago and wanted to mount it. This is his first garage he has owned from 47 of marriage. The vice is a Sears, #506-51776 and we looked it up and it was made from 1947 to 1955. He is going to clean the surface rust and paint it the original colors of black and red jaws. You can’t find iron like this anymore, it is solid and swivels and the jaws open smoothly. Sitting in front is a railroad track fashioned into an anvil that Phil had made and gave it to me a couple of years ago and as I live in an apartment it had better use and utility at his place and has come in handy on several projects already.
This is part of the walls to mount the metal signs. I had bought the bottle cap opener from Napa Auto as a stocking stuffer for my brother. We use to have to go into the kitchen to get the church key to take a break and slurp some suds. We got done mounting the rest of the signs and license plates. The 2P plate below is the plates that were on our dad’s 1955 Packard(we both have that plate) that we restored with our dad. The Lowes toy bucket is to collect the caps, works well at catching them. The picture below is my brother, Eric christening the opener with the first beer.
I need a garage. A workshop actually, and a garage.
That vise is a good one, worthy of the time and effort to clean it up.
Now you have me checking eBay for track sections. Some folks are right proud of ’em, but other prices ain’t so bad.
Shit, there are miles of that stuff, just laying on the ground! Take.what you need. Tell them Tom762 said it was OK!
J/K (or am I?)
Tom762
Oh my! I immediately assumed Phil would be loading up his truck to thin out his garage and deliver “stuff” until I realized it was not Phil writing the post. Still, one can hope an opportunity presents itself 😉
Carry on, it is all good no matter whose garage is getting an upgrade.
I am going up to see Phil in a month or so and will pull my travel trailer and I am sure Phil will load me up with “stuff” for my trip back… One thing I noticed is people forget I host here too and several have assumed Phil has written what I wrote(drjim…) Now, I don’t write posts as much as he does, but, I am not invisible.
Wicked cool, Phil. I’m sure your bro will make good use of his garage.
Now you’ve got me looking for a piece of rail. Sometimes you just need something study to hammer stuff on.
It’s Kevin, Phil gave it to me…
D’OH!
After seeing your brother, what the hell happened to you
I’m the better looking one…
You forget, I’ve seen your picture as well
yeah, I got a old vise too. I bought it for 15 bucks from a buddy who ran a scrapyard back in the 1990’s
I think it was made to work on steam engine parts or something just as big.
yeah, I had to installed it in parts. unscrew the jaw. lift and mount the base. (like 40 pounds easy ) used 5/8 bolts to hold it in place. then feed the front jaw in,
the jaw is about 6 inches wide and opens to 12 inches. YUP. biggest damn vise I ever had. all 100 plus pounds of it. handle is almost 18 inches long and 1 inch
thick. do not let it drop. it will pinch the shit out of your skin in a heartbeat.
also have a 4 inch Wilson for everyday use. my old track anvil is about 3/4 done compared to yours . don’t use it much these days though.
had a few people over the years ask to “use my vise” on some of their bigger projects, shall we say. I made the bench top out of 3 sheets of 3/4 plywood. so far, it stood up quite well. although I do miss my old woodworking bench I gave to a friend when I was moving and too tired to move it. plus side is that he loves it !
you might want to add some sort of brush to clean the screw if you do any metal work or else the screw will wear out too fast. I used to do a lot of filing of metal parts and always wanted a covered screw for that reason.
I had more than a few guys tell me I had a lot of files. but they are a hand held milling machine if you know how to use them.
Very cool!
well, mine does not have a swivel base. the big one I mean.
the 4 inch Wilson does though. and also have a old Craftsman wood vise on the bench as well. used it more on sheet metal “projects’ than wood though ?
then there is the small amount of clamps. yeah, I have about 40 of them easy. about 8 big ass bar clamps that look older than me.
a couple of pipe clamps and the rest are C-camps. like 2 to 8 inches
in size. it used to piss me off to no end when I couldn’t hold something in place while I worked on it.
then there are the vise grip clamps I have for welding, only about 10 of them. my neighbor is a retired master wood worker and he comes over to borrow some from time to time, as I have some that even he doesn’t have. then again, he got tools and skills I don’t have as well. so, we swap back and forth for the last 7 years or so now. I bought 4 sections of scaffolding because I hate ladders !
and the metal planks or sections you stand on.
that alone has made me the go to guy around here for “projects” that would otherwise be done on a damn ladder. I used them to install 2 woodstoves and the pipework . since then, they been used by just about everyone on the road here at one time or another. and in return, I don’t “need” to buy a wood splitter or snow plow.
my neighbors do all that for me. and Yes. I pay them back with home made Italian goodies and ammo. no. I am not Italian either. just spent some time in Italy during my time with Uncle Sam and learned a few things while I was there. one being how to make deep dish lasagna. they love it. so, I make it 2-3 times a year and pass out pans of it. it kind of like going back in time in some ways here. more like life in the 1960’s or so. without knowing it, I picked a great place to retire. even the wife loves it here and wouldn’t think of moving anywhere else.
now if we can only find a way of keeping the damn outsiders from moving in around here,,,
Burning down the house they bought just before they move in usually leaves a compelling reason. You also have to remember, Dave, you were at one time one of those damn outsiders…
don’t have too. we have winters cold enough to make
most of them leave inside of 2 years.
I burn a easy 2 cords or more of firewood per winter.
my neighbor uses oil and he tells me he goes thru
5-800 gallons per winter as a rule.
they thought I was nuts to install 2 woodstoves here.
then the power went out for a week. they didn’t think I was nuts after that. and YES. everyone has a generator or two. and about 4-5 gas cans as well.
most of the newcomers have no idea what it takes to live out here in the woods.
Glad you got to spend time with your brother. That is time well spent. Won’t always be there.
Cheers to both of you and the new brew opener.
“…That is time well spent. Won’t always be there.” God, ain’t that the truth. I sure do miss my younger sister and older brother.
With you there Judy, lost my oldest brother when he was 54, he was exceptionally smart but you wouldn’t know it. I am reminded weekly when I say Damn, Ben would know the answer