My leg vises had a little baby, hasn't even sprouted a leg yet

Cleaned it up,  it has 2¼" jaws

Now that is a sweet little find.  I'll take one from the nest litter 

 

That's cool. I'd love to have one for holding electrical parts while soldering. 

Can anyone say what the appropriate term for that type of vise is?

I suppose a guy could make one that small pretty easy too. I have some 5/8" plate and a busted bench vise I can scavenge the screw from.  

It's made just like a big one, little spring, same screw box, mounting plate, I believe the leg is meant to screw up to hold it on the bench, I don't see any markings, for the price I couldn't pass up. 

Yes it's a bench vise and a common tool back in the day before the cast iron machinist vise became popular.  The machinist vise with parallel jaws throughout it's throw and stability of it's base took over and few of the earlier ones are left.

Ah nice, I didn't even think about that so it's pretty old then, I'm glad I saved it from the dank flea market it was sitting in. 

A noble act!  Even more honourable if you put it back in use!

It will be, it's all cleaned and greased just have to put a little leg on it. 

that could be a pretty useful tool one of those things that you'll use for a specific job because no other tool will work  

Those small vises have screws rather than legs to clamp them to tables. 

The one to the left is a fancy one,  it's funny I've never noticed any until I got one now I've seen a few,  it's pretty cool how they are made just like a leg vise

The one to the right looks much older due to construction details...

Here is mine I bought it for $1.26 all I had on me at the time. 

Sweet, that's a deal.

8 hours ago, winterbear said:

Here is mine I bought it for $1.26 all I had on me at the time. 

 

Could you post dimensions? Somehow I've now got this crazy notion of trying to make one over winter break! 

Sure I'll get  some measurements tonight.

chris

I hate some of you guys. Seriously. 

i have one of those little darlins as well. going to mount it so that i can put it in my main vise and have different angles for working

 

Ok so here are some measurements of mine.

1. side plates/frame seems to be one  U shaped piece 1.5"x 1.5"

2. Bench screw 3"

3. Bench screw bracket riveted to frame and bottom of rear jaw. 2" tall 1.25" back to frame , 9/16ths wide

4. Rear jaw/ top bench bracket. 2"1/8 back of bracket to jaw

5. Peening anvil riveted to top ofbench bracket. 9/16"ths sq

6. Front jaw. 1 7/8" jaws 4" tall 

7. Screw box. 1.5"

8. Jaw screw. 3" 

9. Jaw bolt and nut.5/8" sq heads 1"- long

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 201510 yr by winterbear
Delicate pics

Thanks so much! A little vise like that shouldn't be too hard, right? 

Baby vises, eh? I can play that game, too.

40mm angle iron in the small vice.

Double horn anvil on the baby vise

I'll give you a profit  and offer $2.00 for it!  Best offer I've seen so far.

Nice find!

 

This is one I got on ebay some years ago, has a 2 inch jaw width. It needed a little help. I forged the spring, 2 inches long. I tenon/attached the disc on the bench tightening screw; the disc is hollowed on top to hide the peened tenon end.  I forged the handle for the bench screw. The mount was held with a square nut, which I left. During the original manufacture, the pivot beam was forge welded to the fixed jaw lower portion, which was characteristic of the large leg vises. As shown, with the bench screw in about the half way position, the overall length is 9 1/2 inches.

I suspect this was English made, and is similar to David Einhorn's on the left, in his photo response, above. I've seen a number of the other "style," as his on the right where the spring is hidden by the squarish plate, and a few of them are marked "Germany."

 

Check out this little cutie,