John, you made me chuckle with the drive-by gloat. I'm sure it does look that way. Honestly though, I just wanted to know if anybody knew anything about it and I also thought it was worth sharing.
Tony, I have used electrolysis on a few different vises now and it does work very well. First, I will take it to a local radiator shop and dip it in the hot tank then I'll electrocute it. I am going to sandblast the table though.
locoguy, I would looove to find a vise out of one of the C&O shops! I've never had an opportunity to buy anything from them, but I'm always on the lookout.
I actually have one other question, too. Is it considered to be in bad taste if I post these pictures on two different forums? I'm a more active member at another one, but there seems to be more of a cult vise following here. Just wondering and don't want to inadvertently do something that is frowned upon.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program. Here are a few more pictures now that its back in my garage.
I tried to take a picture to demonstrate just how thick the side walls are, but it didn't turn out as well as I wanted. Usually the inside is pretty hollow because the sides are narrower than the surfaces that contact the slide. Not so on this one, though. The inside walls are only about 1/4" thinner.
This one shows some repair that was done at some point to the jaws. I guess they broke the jaws off and then welded them back on our something.
Here's the back
And I just had to post this one since it was taking up almost that whole piece of plywood I had sitting there.