Justin Topp

I like restoring bench vises and any excuses to braze things are taken haha. Prentiss are the best looking swivel jaw in my opinion. So I think I can make it whole again. There’s about half of the last 4” of the slide missing. So some plate steel brazed on should fix it nicely

Indian chiefs are Columbian. Odd to see no Columbians. They were often marked only on the mounting brackets which got lost often. That could be why. But still weird im looking to possibly purchase a 7” prentiss swivel jaw. With a chunk out of the slide. That’s an easy enough fix though

Thanks! I have a prentiss jewelers vise. That’s also swivel jaw. But the jaws are only 1.75”. I may be purchasing a larger prentiss swivel jaw soon…. of the 9 post vises I’ve owned. I believe 6-7 were Columbian. By far the most common I have found. There has been a few not Columbian branded that were still made by Columbian. For other sellers

Today I have some vises to display. First is a 4” Columbian post vise that I found for 25$. The stand is nice and heavy so I intend to cut it down for a base for my belt grinder. Threads are in great condition and it closes firm and straight. One of the wedges was a United States Navy MK2 kabar knife which I thought was neat. I’ve been told probably ww2. the next vise is a Parker number 371 swivel jaw vise. Coming in at 39 lbs with 3.5” wide jaws. After a ton of hassle with rust converters and oil. I managed to free everything slowly. Than I welded the swivel than ground it. Since the cast iron had chipped and it couldn’t clamp without the jaw lifting. Now it works well. And brazed a crack in the body at the back of the swivel jaw. Then i wire wheeled and painted it. Gun blued the non painted parts. I think it came out nice. It’s a pleasure to use the vise

Thanks , That’s for sure! Nothing like running a machine that’s much older than me and will probably outlast me haha. The grizzly seems pretty powerful for its size. Certainly enough for what I need. Price was half of retail so I’m happy. Been keeping my eyes open for a 7” shaper …. None yet but I’m watching haha

Finally got myself a lathe and a milling machine. The lathe is an old craftsman 6x18 metal lathe. It has a marathon 3/4 hp dc motor. and the mill is a grizzly. Real excited to put them to use. Small but they should do the trick for my shop. Can always use a friends machines if I need bigger

Haha thanks. Someone’s coming to take a look later today.

A couple rough but functional tongs. I’m out of practice. it’s been too hot for me to forge so I did nothing for the pretty much The entirety of July unfortunately

Wire wheeled it and gun blued the body. Now to build a little stand. I’m thinking a mini railroad style vise stand. In my cleaning I discovered the swivel base plunger says pat feby 6th 77. Meaning it was patented February 6th 1877. The prentiss logo is also double stamped

Thank you, It is done. 19” hickory handle

Sounds like I’ve got some experimenting to do. Thanks for the information everyone! Today I forged a drift for an axe and an axe with said drift. It’s about 2 lbs made of mild steel with a forge welded hard edge on it. Just needs a handle and it’s good to go.

I’d want a swivel jaw vise like this one just bigger if I was going to trade it.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’ll either trade it for a larger one. Or sell it and buy a larger one. It’s cool but I’m not making watches or jewelry so I don’t really need it.

For sure it’s worth far more than a bigger one. But it’s less useful to me! looks awesome though!

Thinking I need about a 4” or 4.5” one like this. The swivel jaw is great