I was recently reading a thread on handmade tools, which was cool. It got me thinking about something that always sits on my desk here at the shop... My great-grandfather, and my grandfather both worked their whole lives at Studebaker. My great-grandfather retired as the head machinist is the way the story goes. When he died years ago, he had this small vise that he machined in a safety deposit box at the bank. No one really knows why he kept it, but it must have been special to him since it was in a safety deposit box. It is engraved on the bottom with his initials and 1945. My dad gave it to me a few years back. What amazes me is that the machining on it is so perfect, the thing glides open and closed when you turn it...feels like a perfectly lubricated machine, but there has never been any oil or grease of any kind on it. This was made by hand on a machine back in the 40s, no computer software, no computer guided machinery, and I bet it is every bit as precise as modern machined stuff. And the steel, it is magnetic, even after 66 years only shows very small amounts of surface rust. Was there just better steel back then? The stuff now is getting junky because its recycled over and over again? Anyway, a few pics...
Looks like a student project while learning how to be a machinist, I had to do one like it in high school shop and then in college learning to be an industrial teacher. Never happened as I found out that most kids in class were there to goof off anf I didn't want to end up in jail
I have things I made when I was a machine shop apprentice. A sine bar, parallel sets, v-block, etc. Very cool to see others that hang onto their stuff. That looks like a nice vise, it was probably an assignment where the whole class makes a vise for themselves, some finish them, some don't. That vise even looks ground. so it might be very precise. Just look at it, you have lathe work, threads are tough to single-point on an old engine lathe, I can still do it. The handle is knurled, there is nice milling with close-tolerance fits, and like I said earlier, it looks to have gone onto a surface grinder. Bob
Yeah in machine shop class we made projects like that (brass hammer, screw-jack, tap handle, etc) every time we had an exam so the teacher could measure em and then give them back to us. We made a similar looking vise for the final exam on the next to last day of school and after turning them in the old bastard kept them all and called in sick the last day.
I don't have a picture, but when I was an apprentice at the Naval Air station Alameda CA. I had to make several vises for the instrument repair shop. they had 2 jaws that closed on each other that required a screw with right hand threads on 1 end and left hand thread threads on the other. This was in about 1961 and I made an extra. A few years ago I gave it to my stepson who makes a lot of models. I also have a tool-makers Knee, and sine blocks. A couple of my tool boxes were stolen about 30 years ago, and I lost a lot of tools that I had made.
Im gonna ask my dad more about this, my great grandfather started working there in the 20s when studebaker was still had a plant in detroit. They moved to south bend in the later 20s i believe Maybe it was the date he put it in the safe deposit box...
Just called my dad, he thinks 1945 was the date my great grandfather retired from studebaker. So maybe when cleaning out his toolbox, he engraved it and put it up for safe keeping...
Nice vice, and I like the story behind it. It was probably used to hold small work, and the little vice would then be clamped in the milling machine vice. I bet if you put in on the mill table and checked it with an indicator, it's close to .001 square. I love old hand made tools. There were a few in the full toolbox I bought on Ebay, sold for $100 by the granson of a deceased machinist, who had no idea nor interest what was in there.
It kind of looks like the vices that we use to hold parts on the magnetic base of the surface grinder.
Very cool, I always like to see neat metalworking projects, welded or machined. Ill find myself surfing the net for pics and videos sometimes.
I made mine freshman year of vo-tech in 1981, but for some reason mine was aluminum,I see it from time to time. just turns up, i guess ill have to look for it now and put it somewhere.
Still have my lathe project, no pics though, its buried in a box of stuff at my dads house. We had these big 4" diameter rollers from some kind of mining operation laying around, REALLY trick steel, really hard to machine, had lot of nickel in it, and some other stuff too, when you polished it up it up it had a faint pinkish pearlecent look in brite sunlight. REALLY took a polish well too. I machined a small diameter BB Mopar crank pulley out of it, and put it on my duster. Thing was a BITCH to machine, went through a shitload of carbide cutters on it. Cool piece though.
It looks like a vice he made as a tool maker apprentice. I bet he was a tool maker. It has a lesson in milling, grinding, cutting teeth, lathe work, and so on.
3 generations of homemade machine tools, my grandfather (Lenny) born 1897, his sine bar,Dad born 1927 (Paul) and mine just marked in last name.. all before me fooled with car's ,truck's motorcycle's, boats, plane's and train's ....got to love it
thats a beaut im also from indiana no where near south bend but i have a 1943 south bend lathe and its a gem at any rate its probably high grade tool steel i forgot the number T2 or somethin makes great plastic injection molds then it was probably machined heat treated and then surface ground making a gorgeous final peice ... just remember we built all these damn machines and computers . true machinests are the finest craftsman around IMO your lucky too come from such a heritage you should do your homework those skill probably run in your blood ha !
just a little jig I made for welding band and cut off saw blades ...i dont have a blade welder ,,,,, and have not found one cheap enough,,, so i just tig them when I need to make a new blade..... works reall good at holding them square... almost as easy as the blade welder
Man, that is way cool. I love stuff like that...it has so much mojo. Reminds me of the 1942 Monarch Lathes at the machine shop I used to work at. Those things work perfect to this day. The knobs are all polished from 70 years of hands touching them. The gears mesh when its running that creates a rythem you can tap your foot too
Very nice vise. I have one similar that I made when I was in school for machining. Neat how old that one is. I also have a couple of other projects put away somewhere. Seeing that makes me miss machining. Changed careers after about 10 years of it. Would really like to get a mill and lathe for the garage and get back into making things for fun.
the shop i rent is owned by a retired shop teacher, there are a few of the projects around from his class, some foundry pieces to cast a wood working vice, and these two, the little one is for bending small rod, and a metal lathe, i need to drop the lathe into a molasses bath.
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