Posted by Gerald Halpern
(Plainview NY)
I have been very fortunate to have a well equipped wood working shop in our basement. It has taken a long time in the acquisition mode and I have a wonderful understanding wife as well.
The Oliver cabinet makers vise was acquired at an auction of equipment that my firm was liquidating. At the time it was attached to a bench and I had to bid on the bench with the vise attached.
The particulars on the vise include the ability to shift from a woodworkers vise to a metal worker vise by revolving the unit. It also has the flexibility to tilt upward. The jaws also adjust to allow for irregular shapes to be held.
I built a bench of maple, mahogany and cherry. The unit in mounted on the end of the bench. It weighs in at about 75 to 100 lbs and it was quite a job installing it. Since I did it alone,I had to disassemble the unit and install it in pieces.
It was a lucky haul which I am very proud.
I’m a former woodshop teacher, cabinet and furniture maker, and avid tool collector. I’ve been collecting antique woodworking tools and restoring old Craftsman and Delta machines for almost forty years. I love the quality of the old Delta, Craftsman, Walker Turner, and other woodworking machinery from the 1940s through the ’70s. They just don’t make tools like that anymore and no one is going to be restoring woodworking tools purchased at big box stores fifty years from now. You can see my OldWoodworkingTools.com website about hand tools.