Does anyone recognize this vise?

[David Rase]

This weekend at the Oregon Gunmakers Fair one of the presenters showed up with the below posted vise.   As you can imagin by looking at it, gunmakers were very interested in who manufactured this vise and where it could be purchased.  The trouble is, the vise has absolutly no markings on it.  If anyone has any information on this vise, inquiring minds want to know. 
David

[John Archer]

Hi David,

It's from KTSTooling....they call it their rotating bench vise. I emailed the webpage to you. Pricey!

Best,
John.

[David Rase]

Thanks John,
I told the guy that owned the vise that I bet I could find out the maker on this web sight within 3 days.  You completely blew that timeline out of the water.  He had been looking for a couple of years. 
FYI, Keith said he paid about $70.00 for his vise about 30 years ago.
David

[westbj2]

Interesting and perhaps a useful vise.  Capacities listed on their web site seem OK for gun work but if the listing of weight is correct at only 14#, it may lack mass and rigidity.  My 4 1/2" Wilton weights 70#.....that is a huge difference.
Jim Westberg

[David Rase]

Interesting and perhaps a useful vise.  Capacities listed on their web site seem OK for gun work but if the listing of weight is correct at only 14#, it may lack mass and rigidity.  My 4 1/2" Wilton weights 70#.....that is a huge difference.
Jim Westberg

Jim,
The vise is light.  A lot of aluminum in the lower base and arm.  The finish on Keith's vise sure makes it look to be of Asian mnufacture.  The ball is steel as is the clamp ring, jaws and jaw screw and slides.  Inother words, all the working surfaces are steel.  The biggest issue I see with the vise that it clamps onto the work bench vs bolted.  I have a Wilton Power Arm and am not in the market for a vise, my friend was just wondering who made this vise and others were interested in its availability.  Maybe someone will find or know of a US distributer with a better price.
David

[Collector]

FWIW, the clamping mechanism appears to be bolted vis-a-vis a flange, to the body of the vise and shouldn't present as an obstacle, to direct bolting.

My question is this:  If the bench is stable, the vise properly secured (to same) and the various clamping mechanisms, of the vise, itself, are both tight and reliable- what does the actual weight of the vise have to do it? 

Secure something in it and whale away on/at it with a persuader or hand sledge- that's quite a different story altogether.

Alright- whale away! 

[bonron]

  I believe it's wale.........Ron

[flehto]

It's evidently a "light duty" vise judging from the "C" clamp for attahment to the bench. Also the height is excessive and again determines it's for light duty work. ....Fred

[Collector]

I believe it's wale.........Ron

Maybe in Australia... but for the rest of us:


Idioms & Phrases

whale away

Attack physically or verbally, as in Our boys whaled away at the enemy , or The talk-show host whaled away at the hostile critics . The word whale  here does not allude to the ocean mammal, but means "flog" or "thrash." [Mid-1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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There is some 'new and/or current' authority for the use of 'wale' (outside of Australia, of course) but the schools I went to, didn't enforce those rules.  In fact, the building I went to public school in was built in 1880 and some of the teachers, born on, at, or before the turn of 'that' century.  They had a marked appreciation for the advancements made in the educational processes, techniques and tools; most notably the 'pointer,' which had been truly 'weaponized,' by then.  At least that's what we (the students- all 20 of us in 35 sq. mi.) thought and that's all that mattered, as I recall.      

I'm not completely resistant to change, but the 'new and improved' crowd will have to do more (actual work) than to add (or remove, in the instant case) a single letter and then espouse it's new spelling form as definitively 'universal' and/or 'correct.'  

I trust the above will be found sufficient for the purposes for which it was intended.

[Collector]

It's evidently a "light duty" vise judging from the "C" clamp for attahment to the bench

Am I the only one that sees the bolted flange configuration for the 'C' clamp? 

Also the height is excessive and again determines it's for light duty work. ....Fred

That makes total and absolute sense (even to me.)  Thanks Fred.

[Jim Kibler]

The way I sometimes work, a clamping arrangement with weight and rigidity is important.  I think the tendency is for newer builders to use small tools, cut very slowly and not put much strain on anything.  To be efficient, big tools help a lot.  Big gouges, big rasps, big files etc.  Rigidity is important.  Weight helps with rigidity.  Here is a photo of the set-up I use for general stock work and some metal work.  Not perfect, but does a pretty good job.  For really heavy metal work, I also use a big machinists vice.

Jim