New Wilton Vise On The Way!

I finally was able to pony up enough scratch for a new vise. I didn't want to risk it with a Chinese vise from Harbor Freight, etc... I want one vise that will last forever - an investment of sorts.

I ended up finding a deal on a brand new Wilton 1745 Tradesman Vise. It has 4 1/2" jaws and a 4" jaw opening with a 3 1/4" throat depth.

This looked like as small as I'd want to go for a 'smithing vise. I didn't want a huge hoss of a vise, so this Wilton 1745 seems to be the ticket for most gunsmithing jobs requiring a vise. Your thoughts?

Anyone have any experience with this make and model of vise? I'm confident in my purchase, but in anticipation of its delivery, I'd like to know if any of you have any success stories to keep my enthusiasm/anticipation up. I can't wait to set this piece of gear up on my bench! :what:

Thanks for buying American

I've looked at them a couple of times and would like to have one.

The thing is, years ago I inherited a perfectly good Craftsman vise - probably from the late forties if not earlier. It opens to 6" and weighs over 40 pounds. For the little work I do, I get by with it.

In looking at old ads on line, they made them up to 10" or 12" iirc and the weights went up to nearly 300 pounds.

After breaking a monster Harbor Freight (given to me - not bought) Chicom "shipyard" vice while only tightening it enough to unbarrel an AR10, I'm careful of my vises again... and vices too.

I was awed by the grade of metal in the break. What crap. Only American or English vises for me now.

I haven't used that particular model but have looked them over and they are excellent pieces of equipment. I've owned and used a 10200 C-0 and a 10225 C-1 for many years and have stressed them severely. :eek: They are truly a product that will last your lifetime and probably someone's after you.

The most frequently used vise in my shop is a 4" Wilton "bullet" vise with a swivel base. I have no idea how old it is, but it is as smooth and strong as the day it left the (U.S.) factory.

Clemson

Okay, so my vise came today! I'm slightly concerned. The Wilton has "sealed construction" and an "enclosed design." Wilton boasts "lifetime lubrication" and that the "grease is permanently sealed in for trouble free service."

So... Should I be seeing clops of grease? Was the seal busted in shipping? Or am I good to go? Maybe I should contact Wilton. :confused:

Wipe it off...if more appears, call the manufacturer.

You didn't run the free end all the way out did you?

If not, I'd do as noted above, wipe it away as displaced excess in assembly and watch for more.

As far as "lifetime" goes - I've run mine out too far deliberately and accidentally and just thrown more grease in when it was apart to no ill side effects. I think the main advantage to their permanently sealed aspect is it keeps the unit from allowing shavings and such from dickin' with the threads.

I found a litle USA made Wilton in my shed. Covered in rust and seized up. Cleaned it off and have been using it for years now. It is a little guy though. Works good for my needs.

My big and little Wiltons and and a fine alternative an old Record vice. The new Records I suspect are Indian or Chinese as they look the same when they break as harbor freight imports.

I've never seen the insides of an old Record or Wilton.

You didn't run the free end all the way out did you?

If not, I'd do as noted above, wipe it away as displaced excess in assembly and watch for more.

As far as "lifetime" goes - I've run mine out too far deliberately and accidentally and just thrown more grease in when it was apart to no ill side effects. I think the main advantage to their permanently sealed aspect is it keeps the unit from allowing shavings and such from dickin' with the threads.
The grease was visible before I even bothered to turn the spindle. I ended up shooting a quick e-mail (pictures from above included) to Wilton's parent company - Walter Meier (Manufacturing) Inc. - just for peace of mind. I received a very quick and courteous reply:

"Thank you for writing. Per my vise technician – this is normal. This is not the internal grease. The outside vise components are lubricated for storage purposes. This can be removed with WD40."

I imagine I could really just wipe the stuff off with a rag. It looks like vasoline to me - just a very thick grease.

Roger that on the main advantage of the sealed design, ApacheCoTodd. That makes sense to me. Additionally, I noticed that your attached thumbnail to the left (the Wilton) even appears to have some of the same grease in the same exact spot as my Wilton.

That's from me goobering it up with RIG (the yellow can on the bench) after I over cleaned it a while back. I'm very protective of the tools that I spend real money on.

Don't ya just love their level of customer service?

An additional attaboy for Wilton: Their c-clamps are just as good as their vises.

Thanks for buying American


Most of the high quality innovative products made in the USA had their inception back when America really made the best products, when we competed with the world and won.

We can make good products again, look at Dan Wesson.

The greatest good happens when people buy the best products regardless of where they are made. Competition and free market produce good products, not misdirected patriotism.

I broke a large cast iron Chinese bench vise with a cheater pipe on the handle.
I did it again with an English Record vise.
I now have an old Colombian vise I got from Boeing surplus. I can't seem to break it.
I don't know what make some vises break, but I read the American made expensive vises made with nodular ductile cast iron and the cheap vises are imported and made from brittle white or gray cast iron.

I love my Wilton, I had to pony up for new Jaws, there is a repair on the retainer plate, but it keeps going.

Wilton's are one of those things that make tools fun. There is quite a bit of information on the internet for dating them (like looking at the date stamp :neener:)

I do need a replacement jaw for the round (pipe) jaw, but haven't sprung for it).

I just took this "Wilton" off a table that I sold to a friend. I never got the great quality vibe off this as I do my other Wiltons and in looking closer I note that U.S.A, Chicago or any other national pride indicators are lacking. Looking underneath in the gobbed on paint is the reason...


So, choose your Wilton carefully. Just like not getting one of the newer Record vices at an old English-produced-quality price. I saw a great quote on a site once regarding the pooh-metal new Records... "made in England now means manufactured in India and painted in England."

This is turning into a cool little thread! No gun room is complete without a vise. I need to post some better pictures of my Wilton 1745.

My neighbor walked across the street to my garage the other day and asked, "Do you want another vise? It was in my (deceased) father's stuff, if not, I'll probly just scrap it . The thing weighs a ton."
I thought about it for a millisecond, and said heck ya!
He, and this vise was made in Canada, it is kinda big, though it doesn't have a swivel base. Seems designed to handle alot of torque, fits together tightly, and other than old age, it's in nearly new condition.
I'll post a pic. maybe somebody would recognize the brand.

Hey 7mmstalker,

I'd like to see those pictures. I've been doing a lot of vise research lately on vises in order to buy and restore an older Wilton bullet vise.

"I'll post a pic. maybe somebody would recognize the brand."

There ought to be at lease a year stamp on the vise body near one of the jaws. More often than not there's a mon/day/year stamp.

Here it is........ Didn't notice any stampings on it, soon it will get a thorough cleaning and a bit of lube for the screw and other machined surfaces. Might discover some at that time. Definitely a simple design, but has a lot of mass where needed. Looks like 5" jaw width, 6-1/2" open 'till the square shank still rests on the smaller pads at the lower rear.
Thinking this guy will be bolted to a pedestal, bolted to the floor, used to hold my barrel vise.
The gunsmith I've been using is getting too close to 100 years old, so I've decided to do a few things myself.

Cant go wrong with a US made Wilton. I have been lucky enough to get my last 2 vises for free off of the oil rig I work on. They were going to scrap them. The most recent is a 8" wide Wilton that was only 2 years old.. probably cost $1,200+ new. I put a new set of jaws in for $70. The other is a massive 8" Reed that opens to something like 18" and weighs 150+ lbs IIRC. Still need to make a new set of jaws for it.

I broke two big 6" bench vises when I tried to use them as a barrel vise with wood between the jaws and the barrel.

I would get 3 foot cheater bar and hit the handle with a big sledgehammer.

Maybe why I don't break bench vises now, is because I now make barrel vises from 2" x 2" steel.

Sometimes I apply Kroil and 500 foot pounds of torque to a barrel to get it off some old rusty military receiver.

Yessir, that is what I don't want to do, break either of my 2 "good" bench vises. This one in the pics is a bit smaller than the other, but seems to be of stouter construction.
I've homebrewed a barrel vise from 2x2 stock almost identical to yours. Thinking that removing the clamping load from the vise, only using it to harness the unscrewing/assembly torque should be safe.
Am I crazy?
Sorry about the thread hijack. Interest in the really good vises got me worried about the durability of this one.

No worries about the thread hijack! Like I said, this has turned into a cool little vise thread. It has pulled a lot of folks out of the woodwork. If a mod wants to re-title this thread to reflect its contents (it's turning into a general vise discussion thread) that wouldn't bother me either. We should make it a point to include more photographs. People need eye candy and visual references to these awesome pieces of machinery... i.e. Where does your vise exist within your gun/reloading bench setup, etc... I visit this thread nightly to see what has changed. Take care everyone. I hope you guys had a great Memorial Day weekend. :cool:

Until this thread, I did not realize that the reason I stopped breaking vises was not that I got a tougher vise.

The reason is that I stopped hitting the handles with a sledge hammer while trying to get a barrel to stop slipping when I unscrew it off a rusty receiver.

What does it all mean?
My Seafoam green [Boeing 1970 ish colors] Colombian vise has never broken on me, probably because I have not been hitting the handle with a sledge hammer, and not because it is a better vise.

This is not the first time it took me 10 years to figure something out.

This is not the first time it took me 10 years to figure something out.

Glad to know that I'm not alone with that.

So Wilton is solid...but which one would people recommend to grow into -- i.e. it may be too much vise for now, but won't be once the projects become bolder? For me, spending an extra 100 or 200 (or whatever) for more vise than I may need for now will be beneficial to me down the road...kinda like buying a safe for way more guns than you presently have or will have for some years. Anyway, for personal projects, which Wilton or other high quality vise would be good for my needs as described above?

Wilton 1745 was suggested above and looks solid.

Though NOT, vices performed by hand...:D

In a slight veer yet still quite on topic. Fellas who don't know about these as small work holders should check them out. The one on the left is an often preferred style if you can find one cheap. It uses a parallelogram action to keep the jaw faces parallel and on plane throughout the vices travel and they usually have finer quality jaw faces as well for protecting the work.

The one on the right is more common and as it pivots at the bottom of the handle - holds the work less squared up and requires more tension sometimes to get the best grip on the work.

Wow! what a deal. A Wilton for free, and a large one at that. I've just bought two and it was a fair somewhat reduced price for both the seller and me. Looks like I'll be doing a refurbish job on a 1950's vintage 5" combo bullet soon. They come-out looking and looking real nice.