L.S. Starrett Co. 324 1/2 Vise Still in Service

Been a few months since Ive been active. A lot of self reflection and a new start including a new job.

This company had been around since 1911 and is still in its original location despite large growth. So needless to say there are a lot of old machines and tools that fell through the cracks during expansion over the years. Here was the first gem I spotted.

I know there were past posts about these vises and I recall a few different mold patterns and maker's markings. So couldn't hurt to post.

I also saw a dividing head with matching tailstock. It was under a couple decades of dust but if anyone recognizes it without me cleaning it off itd be interesting to know.

Blough:

All good luck to you in your new job. Hopefully, a company in existence since 1911 is a solid entity and will provide good working environment and stability for you.

I believe the vise you have posted pictures of is a "mechanic's vise", as opposed to a "machinist vise". The reason for this is the ability to take pipe jaw inserts in "pockets" in the movable and fixed jaws. These vises were made by all the major vise makers. They were medium-to-heavy duty vises. The pockets in the jaw castings for the pipe jaw inserts required the jaws to be taller than on a machinist vise.

The vise you have pictured looks like it has seen hard use, maybe someone really beating on it to have busted a chunk off the moveable jaw. To find a vise of this type with the pipe jaw inserts still there is unusual. Often, these go missing as they are a PITA for most other vise work. I've got a Rigid-Simplex vise of this type on my workbench. It has (I believe) 4 1/2" jaws with the pockets for the pipe jaws. Never had them from the time I got that vise. This Rigid-Simplex vise seems to be either exact or very close to a Columbian vise of the same dimensions that I have as "new in the box" on a shelf for the past 47 years. The new Columbian vise does not have the pipe jaw inserts, either, though it has the pockets for them.

I am fortunate in that I have a Rigid "tri stand" with pipe vise, so never missed the pipe jaw inserts for my mechanic's vise.

The "gems" you posted photos of are "survivors". They have evidently sat unmolested gathering moss for ages and escaped shop reorganizations and cleanups. To gather as much "patina" as the dividing head and tailstock have accumulated, they had to have been sitting for ages in some quiet spot in the shop. It is hard to imagine how they escaped the usual evolutions that working shops and working industrial plants go thru. Who knows ? Now that you have unearthed these gems, you may get told " you want 'em.... take 'em... and here's plenty more where those came from..." I hope you have a sturdy vehicle with heavy rear springs.

That triplex dividing head is much more interesting to me than yet-another-bench-vise. The 3x dividing head was used, almost certainly on a horizontal mill with ganged cutters, to index three parts in a single setting. For example, to cut splines on three pieces at the same time. You see lots of yet-another-bench-vises, but very, very few duplex or triplex dividing heads!

I think I saw a similar triplex dividing head in an old Brown and Sharpe Catalogue or the Brown and Sharpe Treatise on Milling .
Others made them as well.
I have seen some that were used to flute reamers .
I think they made a special universal milling head for some machine so that you could mill 2, 3, or more tools at once withe the dividing heads geared to the table lead screw to cut spiral flutes on the likes of drills, end mill, or reamers.
There have been some other examples of these shown on this forum in the past.
I can’t seem to get what I’m thinking of to turn up in a search right now.
They are not common in general machine shop work but would be better known in places making cutting tools or as was mentioned splined shafts in large quantities .
Regards,
Jim
P.S. I found the B.&.S. example I was thinking of here
1904 Catalogue : Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. : Machinery and Tools : Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
They show a couple of larger sizes if you scroll down but the pages didn’t scan well .
Maybe another newer edition will show more .

Here are links to a couple of more modern Cincinnati examples of multi spindle indexing setups

A treatise on milling and milling machines. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library | HathiTrust Digital Library

A treatise on milling and milling machines. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library | HathiTrust Digital Library

Jim

It does remind me of a Brown & Sharpe indexing head I posted a while ago But I am not sure how similar the castings looked between manufacturers and models.