Monster vise help

[Jim Ritter]

I got this vise off Craigslist this past fall and it is unlike any I've ever seen and I've been looking at vises for a long time. The weight is 80# and the jaws are 12" across and it can clamp 18" between the jaws, the beam is 3" square. There are casting numbers and every piece is hand stamped with a two, most likely when they were machined and fitted together. Has any one seen one like this before? What ever shop they were made for must have made some big stuff. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. I'm just looking for info. Thanks in advance.

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/13d2c72a.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/8080aaa0.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/8518223e.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/9acfdd2c.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/de5a10fd.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/d5997f37.jpg

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m628/boatman53/b61acd1b.jpg

[James Taglienti]

Awesome! ... Sorry, no help here. Looks very well made.

[Jim Ritter]

Yes it is very well made, there I almost no deflection or wracking of the jaws. Now I need to build a bench to handle it.

[george wilson]

That vise will eventually warp a bench top. Send it to me so I can saw it up and use the cast iron for projects!!!

[Jim Ritter]

I've got some other cast iron for you. Come and get it. Jim

[James Taglienti]

I've got some other cast iron for you. Come and get it. Jim

WhiLe youre giving away vises, i'll take that junker screwed to your bench

[Justin Green]

Carriage maker's vise is my guess. :) When carriages would come back to the shop for repairs, it was much easier to chuck the whole carriage or coach into the vise as opposed to disassembling and reassembling the carriage.

[george wilson]

That is an extremely nice,heavy duty vise! Actually,the best made I have seen,with the large amount of cast iron,and the large sliding surfaces.

[James Taglienti]

Agreed, the machined surfaces are almost excessive! They could have cast reliefs into it in a lot of places to avoid machining... George can you call the lead on that screw by eye? It looks like double?

[Jim Ritter]

It is a double lead screw with two rotations per inch. I hadn't thought of carriage making, that might be it. In one of Chris Schwartz's books on benches there is a photo of a bench in an airplane shop. The bench is about 14' long and there is a big vise mounted but the print is too grainy to tell much other than it is large.

[Jim Matthews]

I have to wonder if this came from either a shipyard or locomotive works.
The force this thing must apply, over such a large area.

You could go into the diamond making business.