BartW Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Hello all, I found this strange vise, 4 inch replaceable Jaws, it looks like a good machinist vise, except all the jaw is moved to the left. Also the screw and nut are strange, the screw is one long threaded rod, but the nut is like a pipe screwed on the back. There's thread inside all along the length. Tolerance is very small - machine clamp small. The whole thing is steel (checked with hardness files after i tried and failed to drill a holes). Also the rails have this bronze looking bar in a slot which you can adjust just like a adjustable cross-slide on a lathe or mill. The bottom is completely flat. Opens fairly far for such a small vise. Anyone know where these come from and why they are made like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Neat vise Bart. I don't know who made it. What I can say though is the jaws are offset like that so long work can be held without the screw interfering. The adjustable bronze shim is to keep the vise from developing lash. (side to side movement) This indicates to me it's for precision work where the jaws must contact the work in exactly the way it's supposed to. Same for replaceable jaws, that indicates there were a number of different parts requiring the same level of precision. Definitely not something to hammer on harder than setting roll pins and such. And so ends Frosty's guesstimations for now. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazyassforge Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 BartW, is this your vise? Looks similar to me. Maybe from Australia? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BartW Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 Well the offset idea is there, but to the right (which makes more sense if working with angle grinders). This one is more like a vise and less like a machine clamp. While mine is more of a hybrid. Mysterious vise... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 A number of companies are making them, Wilton being the most notable in the USA but what I found in a simple search were all right hand offsets. When I specified leftoffset in the search terms I got one made by HM. LOts of pictures of offset vises but not many with a leftoffset. https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=LeftOffset+Bench+Vise&fr=crmas&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fhmtoolsindustries.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F05%2Foffset-vice-left-hand.jpg#id=-1&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fhmtoolsindustries.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F05%2Foffset-vice-left-hand.jpg&action=click Nice tool regardless. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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