Antique workbench from Great Grandpa-Cam vice

[Joe Petersen]

Been a while since i been here. Figured I'd start with a post from this past weeks happenings.

My grandmother passed away and Me and my family drove the car to Iowa for the funeral. She lived in the house her parents built. I was not close with her dad (My great grandpa). When we spent time there as kids he was Old, blind, and approaching Alzheimer. Long story short he was a woodworker many many years ago and a workbench was forgotten in the basement.

I broke it down and loaded in the trunk of the car for the trip home. It is only 32" tall but is solid. The trusses are doweled and bolted. The top had de-laminated and is currently glueing up. It has a shallow tool tray. I have cleaned and lubed the vice. The pop-up dog is missing so I will have to fab one. This will be an assembly table for me and a scrollsaw table for my son.

I wanted to share pics because I am proud to own them. I thought the vice was unique so I thought I would share pics.

[Bill Houghton]

Owning a tool of any kind that belonged to an ancestor is nifty; owning a bench niftier yet, because every time you work at it, you can feel part of a tradition.

I've seen pictures of those cam vises, but never one up close. Cool design.

[Marty Gulseth]

(I'm brand new to Sawmill Creek)

Well, how 'bout that? My late father-in-law, coincidentally also an Iowan, gave me an almost identical, if not exactly identical, vice a few years ago. Way busy with our kids at the time, I set it aside. Recently got it out, stripped the chipped orange paint (probably some farm equipment color), cleaned it up, and repainted it. Now pending a new work table to mount it on - hopefully soon.

Anybody here got any insight as to the make and/or vintage of those vises?
Marty

[David Keller NC]

Very, very interesting. A local person that deals in "user hand tools" brought one of those cam-lock vises into a class that I was taking. He noted that it was the only one he'd ever seen, and he's seen a lot of old tools. The example he had did not have a maker's mark on it - if yours does, I'd be very interested in a photograph.

[Joe Petersen]

I was wondering the same thing and have found very little info on the vice. It has no marks.

I did find the following picture at this link (http://www.old-woodworking-tools.com/index/pages/096.htm) on the net which looks pretty close to what I have. A search for Norbourn turns up nothing. Not sure the cam is the same though. I have seen some cam vices in books that place the cam at the rack teeth. What a perfect example of why to save catalogs! (If my wife would only believe me)

I know little about my grandfather, and neither do my mothers generation I guess. No one left to answer the questions I have of what he did with it. His first career was farming and I don't suspect he did any woodworking per say. He probably just repaired things on the farm. As he got older he became a tax assessor and what he used the bench and vice for is lost forever.

I have to make a few repairs to the bench. The vice is not mounted flush with the front of the workbench so I will have to remedy that. The underside was notched out (poorly) to receive the vice (You can see the notch in the 5th picture). It was notched right at the joint of the breadboard ends and has caused splitting and joint failure. Not to mention 50+ year old glue. I'm going to rout out a slot and re-enforce with a square inlay.

I was contemplating leaving it alone. I figure if he was using it, he would have fixed it too. I will however leave the surface as is. It will live on as his bench and someone will get it after me.

It has dog holes and a steel dog that doesn't fit. Someone hammered it in place and was a bear to remove. It also had an iron inset for a pop-up stay. The stay is missing, but I think I can cast a new one.

I will post more pics when it is done.

The link dates the catalog as 1897 if it is the same vice. Could have carried the model for years though.

[Bill Houghton]

You might post a picture and query over on the Neander side - most folks there also visit here, but I'm not sure they all do, and many Neanderthal workers are very knowledgeable about vises (note the spelling, to distinguish it from vices...).