Picked this vise up today at a garage sale for $5. I can't find any markings on it. Does anyone have one like it? Personally I've never seen one like it, thought it was interesting. Any info would be nice. It weighs just under 18lbs, jaws are 3".

Very few vises I have seen have mounting flange to fasten to front edge of bench. Wood working vises do but most machinists vises mount to top and probably half of those have a rotating base to turn vise to access work easier. I found a small vise on Ebay with round guide and front mounts, but no name only a June 1885 patent date.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=antique+bench+vice&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=5791D6279FB4C1159D079FEAC132EC4F643D3B4F&selectedIndex=88

Nice find.

The machinist's vise with a front mount like that is rare, but not unknown.  A million years ago, I took an intro to machine shop practices course, and one of the student projects was a little machinist's vise with that same kind of mounting.  This is back in the days when high schools had foundries as part of the machine shop classroom...a long time ago now.

> June 1885 patent date

Perhaps a variation on Coltons vise, not certain....

http://www.google.com/patents/US320224

Thanks for the input. I've been trying to clean this up a little & found some numbers. It's a little hard to make out but looks like "1016" to me. I can't find no other markings. I would love to figure out how old this thing is.