Please help me identify this vice
Discussion
During the first lockdown, I built myself a workbench for my garage using plans found on the internet. But it’s been missing a nice heavy duty vice so I’ve been scanning eBay and Gumtree from time to time for old Record vices. The other day I happened on one advertised as a Record No.3 vice not too far from me on Gumtree, and I messaged the seller, paid my £40 and collected it yesterday.
After removing it from the boot of my car this evening, I've realised that it doesn’t seem to be exactly what I thought. More specifically, I don’t think it’s a Record vice at all. It has the number 3 cast into it and some sort of serial number, and on the other side it says Made in England. The jaws are 4” wide and it all operates smoothly. But nowhere is the word Record.
The vice itself seems to be solidly made and weighs 14.3kg according to my bathroom scales. There's no slop in the mechanism. But now I’m curious. If it’s not a Record vice, then who made it and when? I’m not especially bothered what brand it is as long as it does the job of holding stuff firmly. My plan was to clean it up and paint it blue (as you do) and maybe I’ll still do that. But if you can shed any light on what this is, I'd be most grateful.
After removing it from the boot of my car this evening, I've realised that it doesn’t seem to be exactly what I thought. More specifically, I don’t think it’s a Record vice at all. It has the number 3 cast into it and some sort of serial number, and on the other side it says Made in England. The jaws are 4” wide and it all operates smoothly. But nowhere is the word Record.
The vice itself seems to be solidly made and weighs 14.3kg according to my bathroom scales. There's no slop in the mechanism. But now I’m curious. If it’s not a Record vice, then who made it and when? I’m not especially bothered what brand it is as long as it does the job of holding stuff firmly. My plan was to clean it up and paint it blue (as you do) and maybe I’ll still do that. But if you can shed any light on what this is, I'd be most grateful.
After a quick Google of the Rd number, it could be a Parkinson...
https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/show-u...
https://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.p...
Edit to add > https://www.northlincsweb.net/ParkinsonsShipley/ht...
https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/show-u...
https://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.p...
Edit to add > https://www.northlincsweb.net/ParkinsonsShipley/ht...
Edited by Shinysideup on Tuesday 4th January 03:23
Shinysideup said:
After a quick Google of the Rd number, it could be a Parkinson...
https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/show-u...
https://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.p...
Edit to add > https://www.northlincsweb.net/ParkinsonsShipley/ht...
Now why didn't I think of that? I thought it was a serial number so didn't think to try googling it. So it does appear to be a Parkinson Handy of indeterminate age. 1950s-1960s maybe? I'll try to give it a bit of a clean up over the next few days with some Gunk and a wire wheel and see how it comes up.https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/show-u...
https://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.p...
Edit to add > https://www.northlincsweb.net/ParkinsonsShipley/ht...
Thanks very much!
LunarOne said:
Now why didn't I think of that? I thought it was a serial number so didn't think to try googling it. So it does appear to be a Parkinson Handy of indeterminate age. 1950s-1960s maybe? I'll try to give it a bit of a clean up over the next few days with some Gunk and a wire wheel and see how it comes up.
Thanks very much!
It does match the 'Handy' on the 60s era poster in the 3rd link. Looks very sturdy.Thanks very much!
Whatsmyname said:
I once threw a similar looking vice for a distance of 28.1 metres, I think that was some kind of record.
Ha very good! I struggled to get this out of the boot of my car thanks to my bad back, so I doubt I could throw it more than one metre. Maybe they should make throwing heavy things an Olympic sport or something...
Shinysideup said:
LunarOne said:
Ha very good! I struggled to get this out of the boot of my car thanks to my bad back, so I doubt I could throw it more than one metre. Maybe they should make throwing heavy things an Olympic sport or something...
Must at least be on the level of a stanley cup event.
A bit of an update.
I wanted to clean up my new old vice as it's rusty, dirty, grimy, greasy and all the other things you'd expect an old vice to be. I had a go at scrubbing it up with some stiff nail brushes and various cleaners I had in the garage, but they didn't seem to be doing much for the rust. I have a wire wheel for my drill, and that seemed to be doing a slightly better job but it was difficult to get it to stop skipping off the surface. So I did what any self-respecting DIY mechanic PHer would do, and I bought myself an angle grinder. And a couple of wire wheels. And some some flap wheels in various grits. And some grinding wheels. Maybe a bit OTT for this job, but what the hell? I need one, right? I want to get a MIG welder some time in the near future as I was pretty good at it at school, and an angle grinder will be invaluable then anyway. I bought a 115mm (4.5") one as I didn't need anything too big and heavy, but nobody ever complained about too much power, so I got a 900W Metabo - the other brands in the same price range seem to all be about 730-750W.
I already had the Dewalt safety glasses and I used my Peltor active ear defenders which I have for shooting. It was really nice to have an angle grinder in my hands again for the first time in 30 years. In fact you could easily tell how well we were getting on together as those sparks were flying!
And so with the cup wire wheel, I went to work. It took a while to get into most of the nooks and crannies, but it really does look a lot better now that all the rust and gunk are gone. There are lots of imperfections in the metal, none of which seem to have any effect on how well the vice works, and whether I do anything about them depends on whether I'm going to paint it or not. Those Youtubers like My Mechanics (amazing channel by the way) would fill the imperfections, but he also has access to all sorts of tools that I don't have like a lathe, a milling machine, an oxy-acetylene setup, a media blasting cabinet etc. etc. but I'd be happy just to have a nice looking working tool rather than a museum piece.
So here's how my vice looks now after some attention with the wire wheel on the angle grinder:
I haven't tried unscrewing the actual jaw inserts yet, but it looks like they could use a bit of attention.
I'm wondering about using some filler to smooth out this roughness. Or maybe a bit of filing to smooth it out?
Perhaps I'll file off (or grind off!) some of this excess flashing.
I've put some spray grease on the main threads and it's come out thin and brown, so maybe that needs some more attention to remove any rust and re-grease it.
I've bought some primer and the correct shade of paint for a Record vice and my intention is to paint it. But if I do that, I'm going to try to fill in some of the roughness at the back of the jaws just for aesthetics. Or maybe I should just give it a light coating of machine oil and just use it as is. What would you do?
I wanted to clean up my new old vice as it's rusty, dirty, grimy, greasy and all the other things you'd expect an old vice to be. I had a go at scrubbing it up with some stiff nail brushes and various cleaners I had in the garage, but they didn't seem to be doing much for the rust. I have a wire wheel for my drill, and that seemed to be doing a slightly better job but it was difficult to get it to stop skipping off the surface. So I did what any self-respecting DIY mechanic PHer would do, and I bought myself an angle grinder. And a couple of wire wheels. And some some flap wheels in various grits. And some grinding wheels. Maybe a bit OTT for this job, but what the hell? I need one, right? I want to get a MIG welder some time in the near future as I was pretty good at it at school, and an angle grinder will be invaluable then anyway. I bought a 115mm (4.5") one as I didn't need anything too big and heavy, but nobody ever complained about too much power, so I got a 900W Metabo - the other brands in the same price range seem to all be about 730-750W.
I already had the Dewalt safety glasses and I used my Peltor active ear defenders which I have for shooting. It was really nice to have an angle grinder in my hands again for the first time in 30 years. In fact you could easily tell how well we were getting on together as those sparks were flying!
And so with the cup wire wheel, I went to work. It took a while to get into most of the nooks and crannies, but it really does look a lot better now that all the rust and gunk are gone. There are lots of imperfections in the metal, none of which seem to have any effect on how well the vice works, and whether I do anything about them depends on whether I'm going to paint it or not. Those Youtubers like My Mechanics (amazing channel by the way) would fill the imperfections, but he also has access to all sorts of tools that I don't have like a lathe, a milling machine, an oxy-acetylene setup, a media blasting cabinet etc. etc. but I'd be happy just to have a nice looking working tool rather than a museum piece.
So here's how my vice looks now after some attention with the wire wheel on the angle grinder:
I haven't tried unscrewing the actual jaw inserts yet, but it looks like they could use a bit of attention.
I'm wondering about using some filler to smooth out this roughness. Or maybe a bit of filing to smooth it out?
Perhaps I'll file off (or grind off!) some of this excess flashing.
I've put some spray grease on the main threads and it's come out thin and brown, so maybe that needs some more attention to remove any rust and re-grease it.
I've bought some primer and the correct shade of paint for a Record vice and my intention is to paint it. But if I do that, I'm going to try to fill in some of the roughness at the back of the jaws just for aesthetics. Or maybe I should just give it a light coating of machine oil and just use it as is. What would you do?
First thing I'd do is go out and buy some proper goggles if you plan to use the angle grinder again. Especially with the wire brushes. Your de Walt glasses, as good as they are, are not enough for what you're doing.
I painted one of my vices British Racing Green one day during the big lockdown just because I was bored. Cleaned it up like you did because it looked like crap but didn't bother trying to fill any surface imperfections. It looked okay for a while but not long because it gets used a lot. And I do a fair bit of welding which did the paint no favours.
Having got to the stage you're at I'd probably paint it, but I don't think I'd expend too much time and effort on it. I brush painted mine but if I ever do it again I'd hang it up and do it with a rattle can.
I painted one of my vices British Racing Green one day during the big lockdown just because I was bored. Cleaned it up like you did because it looked like crap but didn't bother trying to fill any surface imperfections. It looked okay for a while but not long because it gets used a lot. And I do a fair bit of welding which did the paint no favours.
Having got to the stage you're at I'd probably paint it, but I don't think I'd expend too much time and effort on it. I brush painted mine but if I ever do it again I'd hang it up and do it with a rattle can.
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