ECLIPSE No:180 Instrument Vice info needed please

[Rod RenshawParticipant @rodrenshaw28584]

Re the hole in the 180 vice casting.

I bought my 180 in the late 1970s or early eighties and the price of £12.00 seems to stick in my mind, certainly it seemed a a lot at the time.

The copy of the original vice advert posted by Nick shows that Eclipse thought the vice might be useful for anglers who were fly tyers (sp?). The vendor who sold me the vice ( Blackshaws in Macclesfield ) told me the hole was for use by fly tyers to attach user-made brackets for holding such things as miniature reels of silk, and I note that such attachments are often available for use with specialist fly tying vices.

Rod

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

I was beginning to wonder, Hopper

MichaelG.
.

Edit: __ Rod’s suggestion is very reasonable, but it does seem strange that I can find no ‘official’ statement to that effect.

The price of high-end “tie-flying” vices make the No.180 look a real bargain !

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

My fly tying would not improve by using an instrument vice, and it needs a bit of improvement!!!

[toolnutParticipant @toolnut]

Here are other gems from Eclipse, especially their pin tongs, no longer made or found anywhere:

1. no. 130, a set of pin tongs to hold the tip of a pin, wire, or rod of any length, firmly and at a safe distance from a heat source;
2. no. 110, hand vice, with non-marring jaws, that holds flat material (up to .17″ thick) as well as rods (.040″ to .11″ dia.) in a V-groove.

I used to own a set of Eclipse pin vices as well, now lost forever, but replaced by two equivalent Starrett sets (more on that later).

 

[toolnutParticipant @toolnut]

Below would have been a photo of the equivalent pin vices (or “vises”) made by Starrett, which I tried but couldn’t upload earlier. I still can’t: the file size is only 1.5 MB, well below the 8 MB limit.

Anyway, here are a few links to facts about the ages-old L.S. Starrett company, making precision tools since the 1880s, still going strong in Athol, Massachusetts.

1. All their catalogs are downloadable here: https://www.starrett.com/resources
2. A 3-part series of hour-long video tours of the plant in Athol,
   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt7S6i93sKo&t=0s
   2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrR9XIlwx2M&t=0s
   3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9e3IAWKrxk

 

[Author]

Posts