# Got a big vise, but what is it?



## aztoolman (Oct 13, 2013)

I got this beast for 10 bucks!! I still don't know what I have though, the label is ripped off but it looks like I can see the letters "SWO" or "SVO" possibly. I have been using a little Wilton Scout for the last few years, but it was time to get something a little beefier. So far got it mounted and hit it with some WD-40, works well but still needs some cleanup. What brand is it, and was it a great deal at 10 bucks? Thanks much!!


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## mdntrdr (Dec 22, 2009)

Looks like a pipe vice to me. :smile:


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## mike1950 (Aug 29, 2010)

Looks like a great deal to me- not like my pipe vice but the bottom of the jaws are different- maybe a picture of that part......


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## Gene Howe (Feb 28, 2009)

Bottom part looks like a pipe vise. The top jaws appear to be normal vise jaws. 
It IS a steal at ten bucks.


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## aztoolman (Oct 13, 2013)

Well that sounds good, I'm glad my 10 dollars was money well spent. The top jaws move together/apart nicely and appear to have only moderate usage. The upper jaws are 5 inches by the way. It kind of looks like the pipe vise got more use. Still wondering if someone knows what brand this could be?? Thanks for the help!

-Pat


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## GoNavy429 (Oct 7, 2013)

aztoolman said:


> I got this beast for 10 bucks!! I still don't know what I have though, the label is ripped off but it looks like I can see the letters "SWO" or "SVO" possibly. I have been using a little Wilton Scout for the last few years, but it was time to get something a little beefier. So far got it mounted and hit it with some WD-40, works well but still needs some cleanup. What brand is it, and was it a great deal at 10 bucks? Thanks much!!


That is an Allied Multi Purpose vise. I have the exact same one only painted red, I inherited from my dad, who I believe bought it from sears back in the seventies. They are made in china...of course..lol...and are about $100 new. They are pretty bullet proof, get the rust off that one , oil it some and put a coat of paste wax on the ram, and it should be good to go. The bottom part is for pipes and/or anything round. Those jaws come out and can be replaced with other accessories jaws they sold, they are just loosely in there and pinned in place by fiction from the nuts from a threw bolt on each side. The entire unit rotates by loosening the small bar locks on the side, which from that picture looks like your missing, should be a small bar on each side at the base.


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## aztoolman (Oct 13, 2013)

GoNavy429 said:


> That is an Allied Multi Purpose vise. I have the exact same one only painted red, I inherited from my dad, who I believe bought it from sears back in the seventies. They are made in china...of course..lol...and are about $100 new. They are pretty bullet proof, get the rust off that one , oil it some and put a coat of paste wax on the ram, and it should be good to go. The bottom part is for pipes and/or anything round. Those jaws come out and can be replaced with other accessories jaws they sold, they are just loosely in there and pinned in place by fiction from the nuts from a threw bolt on each side. The entire unit rotates by loosening the small bar locks on the side, which from that picture looks like your missing, should be a small bar on each side at the base.


Thanks for the info, I had a hunch that it might be from China. Oh well. It's a beast and it seems to work well, I am going to fix it up a bit and use it for a while. Again, for 10 bucks I guess I did okay.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*this one is similar to one I have*

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-inch-multi-purpose-vise-67415.html

It works by tightening the object in the jaws and then locks at what ever angle you have the head rotated to. You can rotate it so the pipe jaws are on top OR the metal jaws are on top OR any angle in between.


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## Alchymist (Jan 2, 2011)

Good deal - even the Harbor Freight version is $70!


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## aztoolman (Oct 13, 2013)

Alchymist said:


> Good deal - even the Harbor Freight version is $70!


That shriek from the movie Psycho just rang in my head when I read "Harbor Freight." Haha! 

I mainly use my vise to clean these little guys, this is my staging area for planes I haven't cleaned yet...


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

I highly doubt that, if the vise was made in the '70's, that it was made in China. We weren't doing much business with them back then. Japan, or Taiwan, maybe?


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## aztoolman (Oct 13, 2013)

Wrangler said:


> I highly doubt that, if the vise was made in the '70's, that it was made in China. We weren't doing much business with them back then. Japan, or Taiwan, maybe?


Japan sounds better to me....


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## GoNavy429 (Oct 7, 2013)

Wrangler said:


> I highly doubt that, if the vise was made in the '70's, that it was made in China. We weren't doing much business with them back then. Japan, or Taiwan, maybe?


Damn it's 36 degrees outside and you guys are making me go to the garage to take a couple pictures...lol... I think my dad built this workshop/garage in 76 or 77 and pretty sure he got the vise then, but it was for sure there in 1980 because I used it then, came home on leave from the Navy, I forget what I was doing..anyway sure looks like it say China to me. Thinking he got it at Sears he loved that store, but may have got it somewhere else. It is on the garage side not the workshop side so it's a little messy..lol


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## Tilaran (Dec 22, 2012)

aztoolman said:


> Thanks for the info, I had a hunch that it might be from China. Oh well.


Faint order of egg rolls perhaps:huh: ? 
If you squint really, really hard you'll find a name on it. They imprint like that to keep their eyes in shape !:yes:


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

GoNavy429 said:


> Damn it's 36 degrees outside and you guys are making me go to the garage to take a couple pictures...lol... I think my dad built this workshop/garage in 76 or 77 and pretty sure he got the vise then, but it was for sure there in 1980 because I used it then, came home on leave from the Navy, I forget what I was doing..anyway sure looks like it say China to me. Thinking he got it at Sears he loved that store, but may have got it somewhere else. It is on the garage side not the workshop side so it's a little messy..lol


I stand corrected. I just don't remember seeing Chinese products much before the late ’80s. Environmental reg killed off many foundries in the US at that time, and I started seeing tools and machines coming from Taiwan and India with higher priced stuff from Japan. I thought the move to buying from China didn't really start until the '90s.


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## GoNavy429 (Oct 7, 2013)

Wrangler said:


> I stand corrected. I just don't remember seeing Chinese products much before the late ’80s. Environmental reg killed off many foundries in the US at that time, and I started seeing tools and machines coming from Taiwan and India with higher priced stuff from Japan. I thought the move to buying from China didn't really start until the '90s.



I think some industrial stuff was coming out of china, but your right the big move came in the 90's I think because that is when Walmart started importing from china, and every one else had to follow suit to compete, hard pressed to find anything in Walmart not from china, except maybe the American flag, but that's because it's illegal to make a our flag anywhere but the U.S.A. Started when Sam Walton's idiot kids took over after he passed in 92. Until then Sam did business by finding failing companies and bailing them out by giving them a large contract in exchange for selling to him at a slightly cheaper price or exclusively to him, the company stayed in business, jobs stayed here and Sam got cheap goods, we got a better prices... every body wins. Then he died and his idiot kids took over, their solution, buy Chinese


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

GoNavy429 said:


> I think some industrial stuff was coming out of china, but your right the big move came in the 90's I think because that is when Walmart started importing from china, and every one else had to follow suit to compete, hard pressed to find anything in Walmart not from china, except maybe the American flag, but that's because it's illegal to make a our flag anywhere but the U.S.A. Started when Sam Walton's idiot kids took over after he passed in 92. Until then Sam did business by finding failing companies and bailing them out by giving them a large contract in exchange for selling to him at a slightly cheaper price or exclusively to him, the company stayed in business, jobs stayed here and Sam got cheap goods, we got a better prices... every body wins. Then he died and his idiot kids took over, their solution, buy Chinese


I did not know of Walmart's policy under Sam. As a Yank, I never heard of Walmart until the 2nd generation took over.


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