Vintage Wilton vise and Atlas drill press resto

[Jon B]

Discovered the Wilton bullet style-very cool looking...

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There’s also a date stamp on the anvil pad, 2-18-1946, apparently this is when the purchasing company put it into service. Fun stuff!

Very nice Wilton, Steve!

I had my old FPU vise apart for cleaning recently.
Made in Poland by Fabryka Przyrzadow i Uchwytow, their tooling is more familiar as FPU-Bial or Bison-Bial.
It's a style of vise more common in Europe, with the front jaw fixed and the rear jaw sliding away.

This one is date-stamped 74, and weighs in at 85 lbs...

 

[Stevehose]

Made in Poland by Fabryka Przyrzadow i Uchwytow, their tooling is more familiar as FPU-Bial or Bison-Bial.
It's a style of vise more common in Europe, with the front jaw fixed and the rear jaw sliding away.

This one is date-stamped 74, and weighs in at 85 lbs...

That is an awesome hunk of iron! How did that make it to the USA given its weight and the domestic vise manufacturing here?

 

[Jon B]

How did that make it to the USA given its weight and the domestic vise manufacturing here?

Steve, they were sold by Fowler in the 70s/80s.
Fowler used to import a lot of tooling and instruments from Europe.

Your restoration, and your picture of the disassembled pieces, reminded me of taking mine apart for cleaning recently.

I included a picture of your Wilton with your comments, but it ended up as a "view attachment" link.
How do I make it a picture, and not a link to click?

 

[Stevehose]

Steve, they were sold by Fowler in the 70s/80s.
Fowler used to import a lot of tooling and instruments from Europe.

Your restoration, and your picture of the disassembled pieces, reminded me of taking mine apart for cleaning recently.

I included a picture of your Wilton with your comments, but it ended up as a "view attachment" link.
How do I make it a picture, and not a link to click?

I'm not sure, all of my pics are uploaded so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[deQuincey]

My neighbor gave me his work bench so obviously it leads me to needing a vise. A vintage one of course. Not knowing a damned thing about vises, off to Craigslist and Facebook marketplace I go. Discovered the Wilton bullet style-very cool looking. Want. Apparently there is quite a collector following for these. Many for sale but not cheap. Stumbled upon one on FB that the PO painted everything flat black and priced right. Looked promising to this blind squirrel. Off to the Garage Journal forum for some research. Apparently this is a 1940’s model. Purchased it even though it was frozen. As found:

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Paint stripped and disassembled for cleaning:

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Forum experts tell me I have a rare pre-war casting, all Wilton vises during WW2 were sold to the govt for war effort. Cast in 1941-1942 based on markings. After the war ended they sold surplus to the public. Original jaws. Mine was sold in Jan 1946:

View attachment 172847

So I disassembled, cleaned, primed, painted, satin cleared, greased, and bare metal dressed with boiled linseed oil. Smooth as butter after 80 years. American iron. Weighs 40lbs. B-17 livery as an homage to it’s cast period. Lights make it look more glossy than it is. I’ll be putting it back in use keeping the E9 on the road!

View attachment 172848

View attachment 172849

There’s also a date stamp on the anvil pad, 2-18-1946, apparently this is when the purchasing company put it into service. Fun stuff!

View attachment 172850

beautiful shape

 

[Drew Gregg]

Steve--The Atlas drill press patina should remain. It's only original once. I have owned a 1950's era AMF DeWalt radial arm saw for over 30 years.
1946 was a good year for me. I still have my original patina with only one upgrade---a pacemaker installed on my 74th birthday. Drew

 

[coupedegrace]

Steve--The Atlas drill press patina should remain. It's only original once. I have owned a 1950's era AMF DeWalt radial arm saw for over 30 years.
1946 was a good year for me. I still have my original patina with only one upgrade---a pacemaker installed on my 74th birthday. Drew

My father, who was born six years before you, built a sideboard for our dining room with a Montgomery Wards radial arm saw. He was usually a Craftsman fellow, but after some comparison of specs and features he decided the Monkey Wards item was superior.

 

[Stevehose]

Finished the motor. I am going to keep the patina of the drill press but the motor needed the full Monty. Cleaned, painted, repaired crusty stator wiring, repacked bearings, fixed the centrifugal switch, etc. Learned a lot about repulsion/inversion motors.

Before:

After (and it runs-what a beast!)

On to the drill press…