Show us your bench vice(s)

[SteveB58]

purposely done with an angle grinder?

Having watched restorations on YouTube I know exactly what to do. After a quick squirt of magical WD 40 disassemble with a hammer and a pair of pliers. Once the vice ha been reduces to its component parts remove any character and patina with a rotary wire brush. Then any scuffs and holes can be filled with body filler and sanded flush. Taper pins can be replaced with split pins and imperial bolts replaced with something shiny from B&Q. Paint a random colour and admire your craftsmanship. Job done.

 

[Migmac]

Just seen this on Ebay. The jaw "design" requires a special kind of animal to achieve.

PARKINSON BENCH VICE 3-1/2" WIDE JAWS QUICK RELEASE ENGINEERS FITTERS ENGLAND | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for PARKINSON BENCH VICE 3-1/2" WIDE JAWS QUICK RELEASE ENGINEERS FITTERS ENGLAND at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

That’s an aliens face on it.

 

[Vono]

I bought another Vice .

A Fortis Standard Steel (never seen the name Standard on one before).

 

[Arc Tourist]

I bought another Vice .

A Fortis Standard Steel (never seen the name Standard on one before).

View attachment 279052

I notice there is a threaded bolt and nut on the tail end of the vice. What attaches to that ?

 

[Vono]

I notice there is a threaded bolt and nut on the tail end of the vice. What attaches to that ?

It attaches to the end of the main screw. It's rather odd, it turns when you turn the handle, maybe it's to stop the main screw fully unscrewing & coming out??

Does anyone know if dark blue was a Fortis colour ? There's remains of it present & it looks old. It also has a number on it, dunno what that is for (see pic).

Also here's another pic' with its rarer Iron relative

Cheers

 

[dannysheff]

nice pair, no seriously

 

[Vono]

nice pair, no seriously

Cheers Danny much appreciated. I must admit i'm rather pleased with these two.
The new one is my first ever steel vice. Dunno why but i expected it to feel lightweight & less "beefy" somehow (compared to the iron ones) but it's quite heavy.

 

[SteveB58]

It attaches to the end of the main screw. It's rather odd, it turns when you turn the handle, maybe it's to stop the main screw fully unscrewing & coming out??

Does anyone know if dark blue was a Fortis colour ? There's remains of it present & it looks old. It also has a number on it, dunno what that is for (see pic).

Also here's another pic' with its rarer Iron relative

Cheers

View attachment 279069 View attachment 279071

The vices are numbers in case they get lost. Much the same as policemen are.

 

[dannysheff]

vono - or do you wish to be called fortis now,

H

It attaches to the end of the main screw. It's rather odd, it turns when you turn the handle, maybe it's to stop the main screw fully unscrewing & coming out??

Does anyone know if dark blue was a Fortis colour ? There's remains of it present & it looks old. It also has a number on it, dunno what that is for (see pic).

Also here's another pic' with its rarer Iron relative

Cheers

View attachment 279069 View attachment 279071

vono, or should we call you fortis now?

re original colour - I thought mostly green?

sometimes fortis and ajax get slated for the quality of their castings, but these look good

I believe steel has a higher melting point and is somewhat more difficult to cast well (but certainly can be done - see Samsonia. Record steel and others)

and have you found out anymore about the relationship between Fortis, Ajax and Herbert -- all Coventry I believe - is Ajax just a Herbert brand for Fortis? - if so why did they sell both brands? which are very similar - did Herbert (a big machine tool maker and retailer), own/buy Fortis, or their foundry?

anyone?

 

[SteveB58]

MP of iron is around 1250C, while steel is about 1425C, if you wanted to cast then the temperatures would need to be somewhat higher.

Casting steel is more difficult than casting iron. It is less fluid, and more reactive to its surroundings. It also shrinks more as it cools, so more material is needed when pouring. This means risers, or reservoirs, must be allowed for in the mould.

To complicate matters further castings don’t cool uniformly throughout thicknesses cool and shrink at different rates creating stresses within the casting that may need further heat treatment. Steel is more prone to shrink stresses than iron which can possibly lead to voids fractures.

The choice between the two metals could be down to ease of casting, cost, mould manufacture and skill of labour force. Of the two metals cast iron has better compressive strength than steel, but steel is much better at withstanding sudden impact without deforming, or breaking due to its ability to withstand high stress and strain forces. Steel is both strong and ductile. Unlike iron which has strength without ductility so is a brittle material that is susceptible to fracture.

 

[Vono]

vono - or do you wish to be called fortis now,

H



vono, or should we call you fortis now?

re original colour - I thought mostly green?

sometimes fortis and ajax get slated for the quality of their castings, but these look good

I believe steel has a higher melting point and is somewhat more difficult to cast well (but certainly can be done - see Samsonia. Record steel and others)

and have you found out anymore about the relationship between Fortis, Ajax and Herbert -- all Coventry I believe - is Ajax just a Herbert brand for Fortis? - if so why did they sell both brands? which are very similar - did Herbert (a big machine tool maker and retailer), own/buy Fortis, or their foundry?

anyone?

Yes I suppose it should be Fortis now, I'm certainly rather taken with their Vices

Yes I'd thought green too (there are traces of that on the Iron one) but the blue on the steel one does look old & I dunno why but somehow it doesn't look like a repaint (i could be wrong though).

I have seen some very dubious castings from Ajax & Fortis & some are incredibly rough but these do seem alright, the lettering in particular is quite crisp. I wonder if that links to earlier production ??

I haven't really found out anything more (I have looked) but I am fundamentally bad at searching out stuff . I did however spot one thing a while back whereby a chap had bought a Fortis (it was one with the rather crude riveted on name plates on the sides) but when these were removed, Ajax had been roughly ground down so that the plates would fit over it. Possibly does suggest made in same place but bunged out to different customers? It is all a bit odd & all the subtly different naming variations (such as Standard steel on mine) is strange. I'd certainly like to know more.

In the future i'd like another Fortis but the garage is getting rather full... However one of the big ones has a lot of appeal. I think they did a 15, that would be a monster !

Here's a gratuitous pic of my new toy with a tin of 3in1 for scale

 

[SteveB58]

Has anyone seen patterns or moulds for these older vices? Or how the casting process was carried out.

 

[Luggsey]

My portable effort, very useful I found.
The banded hardwood is from an old army wreckers hydraulic foot plate thingy.

 

[Luggsey]

Just saw this on FB local to me!

 

[Laurie Tedcastle]

@dannysheff @Vono
Used to work at Alfred Herbert. Bought my Fortis offset jaw vice though the Small Tools and Equipment division (HSTE) in 1968 (some details of it on here somewhere) at company discount. HSTE was just a distributor for Fortis (along with many other companies) as far as I know. I think there was only a commercial relationship between the companies. Also as a shareholder, I don't remember anything in annual reports about them as a subsidiary.

Laurie

 

[dannysheff]

@dannysheff @Vono
Used to work at Alfred Herbert. Bought my Fortis offset jaw vice though the Small Tools and Equipment division (HSTE) in 1968 (some details of it on here somewhere) at company discount. HSTE was just a distributor for Fortis (along with many other companies) as far as I know. I think there was only a commercial relationship between the companies. Also as a shareholder, I don't remember anything in annual reports about them as a subsidiary.

Laurie

Thanks Laurie, nice to hear something that's not 3rd hand. Was Ajax still a brand sold by Herbert ( from the same maker) when you were there?

Could ask more questions from an ex-Herbert man but that's it for now.

 

[dannysheff]

Has anyone seen patterns or moulds for these older vices? Or how the casting process was carried out.

Very much by chance, I came across these patterns at a business selling used machinery - they didn't want/couldn't say where they came from, but they are for the early version of the Parkinson's Handy (made up to about 1900) size 0. They are not exactly the same - my guess is that they could be from a foundry copying the Handy or from a patternmakers training exercise.

This will have been for cast iron and it's easy to see the split lines where half of the patten was in each half of the mould box, - these lines usually quite

visible on the finished vice.

The later vices had the static jaw in one piece, with the nut inside which might either mean a modest 'core' or heavy machining.

The second picture shows what I believe to be a Handy, size 0, but has an Anglo Lewis plate attached (I guess either resale or just to mark that their works owned it) - as I have commented before, Parkinsons had cast-in markings all over their QR 'Perfect' vises but often only stickers or the size no for the Handy line. Samuel Lewis Anglo Works of Dudley did make and sell tools including possibly a leg vice at one time, but not, I think, cast iron vices.

Much later on, in the '80/90s I visited the Record Parkway works in Sheffield while working on a project - they had a very impressive automated sand casting line for steel and cast iron (and were looking at SG (spheroidal graphite) iron) called Diesamatic.
By then Record were in full high volume production, but most other English vice makers had faded away (Paramo excepted), although Swindens are still in production to this day (steel) in E Anglia.

 

[SteveB58]

Very much by chance, I came across these patterns at a business selling used machinery - they didn't want/couldn't say where they came from, but they are for the early version of the Parkinson's Handy (made up to about 1900) size 0. They are not exactly the same - my guess is that they could be from a foundry copying the Handy or from a patternmakers training exercise.

This will have been for cast iron and it's easy to see the split lines where half of the patten was in each half of the mould box, - these lines usually quiteView attachment 279475View attachment 279477 visible on the finished vice.

The later vices had the static jaw in one piece, with the nut inside which might either mean a modest 'core' or heavy machining.

The second picture shows what I believe to be a Handy, size 0, but has an Anglo Lewis plate attached (I guess either resale or just to mark that their works owned it) - as I have commented before, Parkinsons had cast-in markings all over their QR 'Perfect' vises but often only stickers or the size no for the Handy line. Samuel Lewis Anglo Works of Dudley did make and sell tools including possibly a leg vice at one time, but not, I think, cast iron vices.

Much later on, in the '80/90s I visited the Record Parkway works in Sheffield while working on a project - they had a very impressive automated sand casting line for steel and cast iron (and were looking at SG (spheroidal graphite) iron) called Diesamatic.
By then Record were in full high volume production, but most other English vice makers had faded away (Paramo excepted), although Swindens are still in production to this day (steel) in E Anglia.

Very interesting. These look as if they are iron patterns so would have had a wooden pattern from which they were cast.

 

[dannysheff]

Very interesting. These look as if they are iron patterns so would have had a wooden pattern from which they were cast.

they're wooden patterns, painted as patterns usually are, made of mahogany or similar, as common, just light wear, but the pattern stores usually did take good care of their stock

 

[dannysheff]

Yes I suppose it should be Fortis now, I'm certainly rather taken with their Vices

Yes I'd thought green too (there are traces of that on the Iron one) but the blue on the steel one does look old & I dunno why but somehow it doesn't look like a repaint (i could be wrong though).

I have seen some very dubious castings from Ajax & Fortis & some are incredibly rough but these do seem alright, the lettering in particular is quite crisp. I wonder if that links to earlier production ??

I haven't really found out anything more (I have looked) but I am fundamentally bad at searching out stuff . I did however spot one thing a while back whereby a chap had bought a Fortis (it was one with the rather crude riveted on name plates on the sides) but when these were removed, Ajax had been roughly ground down so that the plates would fit over it. Possibly does suggest made in same place but bunged out to different customers? It is all a bit odd & all the subtly different naming variations (such as Standard steel on mine) is strange. I'd certainly like to know more.

In the future i'd like another Fortis but the garage is getting rather full... However one of the big ones has a lot of appeal. I think they did a 15, that would be a monster !

Here's a gratuitous pic of my new toy with a tin of 3in1 for scale

View attachment 279425

and while we're discussing vices from Ajax, Fortis in Coventry --- by chance there's a largish vice just called 'Coventry' on ebay at present -- doesn't look like those Fortis