I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main casting it
says GRAND DualGrip REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A and 40
(presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. max opening is 4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.

to operate, squeeze, slide the clamp bar down, release (spring force pushes
it together) and tighten the screw. to release, loosen screw and rotate
clamp bar 90 deg to disengage ratchet.

I tried to post to the dropbox but it seems that the metalworking.com site
is inoperative right now - and I always go there first to get the address du
jour.

so meanwhile - anyone recognize it from the above description? I can't find
anything on line about it, the company, or anything - the heavy copper
plating with nickel suggests to me that it's probably pre WWII, but that's
all I've got to go on

if you would like a photo, get my email from my web site (below) and send me
a request and I'll send you the photo I was intending to put into the drop
box

--
Bill -
www.wbnoble.com

wouldn't you know it - as soon as I whine about the site being down, it's
up - so the photo of the odd c-clamp is posted (see below) - the file name
is: "Quikcet - Grand DualGrip C-clamp.JPG" - it should be in the drop box
about the time this note makes it to the NG

"Bill Noble" wrote in message
...
I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main casting
it says GRAND DualGrip REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A and
40 (presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. max opening is 4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.

to operate, squeeze, slide the clamp bar down, release (spring force
pushes it together) and tighten the screw. to release, loosen screw and
rotate clamp bar 90 deg to disengage ratchet.

I tried to post to the dropbox but it seems that the metalworking.com site
is inoperative right now - and I always go there first to get the address
du jour.

so meanwhile - anyone recognize it from the above description? I can't
find anything on line about it, the company, or anything - the heavy
copper plating with nickel suggests to me that it's probably pre WWII, but
that's all I've got to go on

if you would like a photo, get my email from my web site (below) and send
me a request and I'll send you the photo I was intending to put into the
drop box

--
Bill -
www.wbnoble.com

Hey Bill,

Thanks for persevering, 'cause I was lost with the written
description!!

Never seen one like that, but it sure looks pretty neat. I bet it
does away with some of the damage caused by twisting the C frame of
standard clamps too, and it places the working part in a better place
for many jobs.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.

XXXXXXXXXX
On Sun, 16 May 2010 21:06:57 -0700, "Bill Noble"
wrote:

wouldn't you know it - as soon as I whine about the site being down, it's
up - so the photo of the odd c-clamp is posted (see below) - the file name
is: "Quikcet - Grand DualGrip C-clamp.JPG" - it should be in the drop box
about the time this note makes it to the NG

"Bill Noble" wrote in message
...
I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main casting
it says GRAND DualGrip REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A and
40 (presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. max opening is 4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.

to operate, squeeze, slide the clamp bar down, release (spring force
pushes it together) and tighten the screw. to release, loosen screw and
rotate clamp bar 90 deg to disengage ratchet.

I tried to post to the dropbox but it seems that the metalworking.com site
is inoperative right now - and I always go there first to get the address
du jour.

so meanwhile - anyone recognize it from the above description? I can't
find anything on line about it, the company, or anything - the heavy
copper plating with nickel suggests to me that it's probably pre WWII, but
that's all I've got to go on

if you would like a photo, get my email from my web site (below) and send
me a request and I'll send you the photo I was intending to put into the
drop box

--
Bill -
www.wbnoble.com

On May 16, 11:06*pm, "Bill Noble" wrote:
wouldn't you know it - as soon as I whine about the site being down, it's
up - so the photo of the odd c-clamp is posted (see below) - the file name
is: "Quikcet - Grand DualGrip C-clamp.JPG" - it should be in the drop box
about the time this note makes it to the NG

"Bill Noble" wrote in message

...



I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main casting
it says GRAND DualGrip *REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A and
40 (presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. *max opening is 4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.

to operate, squeeze, slide the clamp bar down, release (spring force
pushes it together) and tighten the screw. *to release, loosen screw and
rotate clamp bar 90 deg to disengage ratchet.

I tried to post to the dropbox but it seems that the metalworking.com site
is inoperative right now - and I always go there first to get the address
du jour.

so meanwhile - anyone recognize it from the above description? *I can't
find anything on line about it, the company, or anything - the heavy
copper plating with nickel suggests to me that it's probably pre WWII, but
that's all I've got to go on

if you would like a photo, get my email from my web site (below) and send
me a request and I'll send you the photo I was intending to put into the
drop box

--
Bill *-
www.wbnoble.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I found two similar US patents: US3147003 and US078781, but not
exactly like the one you have.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=LfZ...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/patents?id=9JU...page&q&f=false

"Bill Noble" wrote:

I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main casting it
says GRAND DualGrip REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A and 40
(presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. max opening is 4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.


No ideas on it but you know how I hate not having direct links

http://metalworking.com/dropbox/Quik...ip_C-clamp.JPG

http://metalworking.com/dropbox/Quik...ip_C-clamp.txt

Wes

Wes wrote:
No ideas on it but you know how I hate not having direct links
...

Me too. I was waiting for someone to post them, but finally went ahead
to the DropBox. It's much better, even OK. It used to be that
displaying the list took FOREVER (maybe 30 - 45 secs), which the
immediate-gratification me couldn't handle. Now it loads lickedy-split,
as they used to say G.

Bob

"Denis G." wrote in message
...
On May 16, 11:06 pm, "Bill Noble" wrote:
wouldn't you know it - as soon as I whine about the site being down, it's
up - so the photo of the odd c-clamp is posted (see below) - the file
name
is: "Quikcet - Grand DualGrip C-clamp.JPG" - it should be in the drop box
about the time this note makes it to the NG

"Bill Noble" wrote in message

...



I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main
casting
it says GRAND DualGrip REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A
and
40 (presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. max opening is
4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I
polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.

to operate, squeeze, slide the clamp bar down, release (spring force
pushes it together) and tighten the screw. to release, loosen screw
and
rotate clamp bar 90 deg to disengage ratchet.

I tried to post to the dropbox but it seems that the metalworking.com
site
is inoperative right now - and I always go there first to get the
address
du jour.

so meanwhile - anyone recognize it from the above description? I can't
find anything on line about it, the company, or anything - the heavy
copper plating with nickel suggests to me that it's probably pre WWII,
but
that's all I've got to go on

if you would like a photo, get my email from my web site (below) and
send
me a request and I'll send you the photo I was intending to put into
the
drop box

--
Bill -
www.wbnoble.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I found two similar US patents: US3147003 and US078781, but not
exactly like the one you have.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=LfZ...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/patents?id=9JU...page&q&f=false

at www.uspto.gov it's a bit easier to read - following the ref in the
johnson patent, 2755681 seems relevant (dated 1954) but it isn't the same -
I would swear that this was pre WWII from the looks of it - what do you guys
think? It just can't be 1961

"Bill Noble" wrote in message
...


"Denis G." wrote in message
...
On May 16, 11:06 pm, "Bill Noble" wrote:
wouldn't you know it - as soon as I whine about the site being down,
it's
up - so the photo of the odd c-clamp is posted (see below) - the file
name
is: "Quikcet - Grand DualGrip C-clamp.JPG" - it should be in the drop
box
about the time this note makes it to the NG

"Bill Noble" wrote in message

...



I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main
casting
it says GRAND DualGrip REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A
and
40 (presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. max opening is
4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I
polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.

to operate, squeeze, slide the clamp bar down, release (spring force
pushes it together) and tighten the screw. to release, loosen screw
and
rotate clamp bar 90 deg to disengage ratchet.

I tried to post to the dropbox but it seems that the metalworking.com
site
is inoperative right now - and I always go there first to get the
address
du jour.

so meanwhile - anyone recognize it from the above description? I
can't
find anything on line about it, the company, or anything - the heavy
copper plating with nickel suggests to me that it's probably pre WWII,
but
that's all I've got to go on

if you would like a photo, get my email from my web site (below) and
send
me a request and I'll send you the photo I was intending to put into
the
drop box

--
Bill -
www.wbnoble.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I found two similar US patents: US3147003 and US078781, but not
exactly like the one you have.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=LfZ...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/patents?id=9JU...page&q&f=false

at www.uspto.gov it's a bit easier to read - following the ref in the
johnson patent, 2755681 seems relevant (dated 1954) but it isn't the
same - I would swear that this was pre WWII from the looks of it - what do
you guys think? It just can't be 1961

I have to disagree. It is just too fancy. It definitely looks post-WWII
consumer age. The fact that the ratchet part was plated, but the plating
was thin enough to wear away indicates it was made to look fancy but not
designed to wear like a professional tool. Then there is that somewhat
unnecessary spring to make it just a little more convenient. If you search
on Quikcet, it seems they made a similar acting vise in the mid 50's.

"anorton" wrote in message
m...

"Bill Noble" wrote in message
...


"Denis G." wrote in message
...
On May 16, 11:06 pm, "Bill Noble" wrote:
wouldn't you know it - as soon as I whine about the site being down,
it's
up - so the photo of the odd c-clamp is posted (see below) - the file
name
is: "Quikcet - Grand DualGrip C-clamp.JPG" - it should be in the drop
box
about the time this note makes it to the NG

"Bill Noble" wrote in message

...



I picked up an interesting C clamp today, on one side of the main
casting
it says GRAND DualGrip REG US PAT OFF, on the other side it says 40A
and
40 (presumably casting numbers), and QUIKCET Pat Pend. max opening
is 4
inches. The copper colored parts were probably nickle plated, I
polished
them and there is a little silver still visible.

to operate, squeeze, slide the clamp bar down, release (spring force
pushes it together) and tighten the screw. to release, loosen screw
and
rotate clamp bar 90 deg to disengage ratchet.

I tried to post to the dropbox but it seems that the metalworking.com
site
is inoperative right now - and I always go there first to get the
address
du jour.

so meanwhile - anyone recognize it from the above description? I
can't
find anything on line about it, the company, or anything - the heavy
copper plating with nickel suggests to me that it's probably pre
WWII, but
that's all I've got to go on

if you would like a photo, get my email from my web site (below) and
send
me a request and I'll send you the photo I was intending to put into
the
drop box

--
Bill -
www.wbnoble.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I found two similar US patents: US3147003 and US078781, but not
exactly like the one you have.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=LfZ...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/patents?id=9JU...page&q&f=false

at www.uspto.gov it's a bit easier to read - following the ref in the
johnson patent, 2755681 seems relevant (dated 1954) but it isn't the
same - I would swear that this was pre WWII from the looks of it - what
do you guys think? It just can't be 1961

I have to disagree. It is just too fancy. It definitely looks post-WWII
consumer age. The fact that the ratchet part was plated, but the plating
was thin enough to wear away indicates it was made to look fancy but not
designed to wear like a professional tool. Then there is that somewhat
unnecessary spring to make it just a little more convenient. If you
search on Quikcet, it seems they made a similar acting vise in the mid
50's.

Now I see a reference to the Quikcet vise just after the war in what is also
a very interesting Scientific American
http://tinyurl.com/2ebdn72

"anorton" wrote in message
m...

snip


I found two similar US patents: US3147003 and US078781, but not
exactly like the one you have.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=LfZ...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/patents?id=9JU...page&q&f=false

at www.uspto.gov it's a bit easier to read - following the ref in the
johnson patent, 2755681 seems relevant (dated 1954) but it isn't the
same - I would swear that this was pre WWII from the looks of it - what
do you guys think? It just can't be 1961

I have to disagree. It is just too fancy. It definitely looks post-WWII
consumer age. The fact that the ratchet part was plated, but the plating
was thin enough to wear away indicates it was made to look fancy but not
designed to wear like a professional tool. Then there is that somewhat
unnecessary spring to make it just a little more convenient. If you
search on Quikcet, it seems they made a similar acting vise in the mid
50's.

Now I see a reference to the Quikcet vise just after the war in what is
also a very interesting Scientific American
http://tinyurl.com/2ebdn72
good - thanks for finding that - I actually did search on Quikcet and didn't
find anything useful - now that you found it, it turns up on the first page
of search results - how odd is that? So, the SA advertisement is 1945,
which I think still supports my feeling that this is pre war - the other
reason I think it is pre war is that the parts that show in copper have VERY
heavy copper plating with nickel over the copper - what wore away is the
nickel - it's pretty soft, this is typical of stuff that is from the teens
through the 30s. in fact, I may be at fault for removing the plating when I
polished it - there was probably more remaining but I figured "shiny is
good" -

still it must be somewhat rare or one of us would have found out more - I
found nothing on the company at all. But now we know that they made both a
vise (from the SA advert) and a C clamp.

"Bill Noble" wrote in message
...


"anorton" wrote in message
m...

snip


I found two similar US patents: US3147003 and US078781, but not
exactly like the one you have.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=LfZ...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/patents?id=9JU...page&q&f=false

at www.uspto.gov it's a bit easier to read - following the ref in the
johnson patent, 2755681 seems relevant (dated 1954) but it isn't the
same - I would swear that this was pre WWII from the looks of it - what
do you guys think? It just can't be 1961

I have to disagree. It is just too fancy. It definitely looks post-WWII
consumer age. The fact that the ratchet part was plated, but the
plating was thin enough to wear away indicates it was made to look fancy
but not designed to wear like a professional tool. Then there is that
somewhat unnecessary spring to make it just a little more convenient.
If you search on Quikcet, it seems they made a similar acting vise in
the mid 50's.

Now I see a reference to the Quikcet vise just after the war in what is
also a very interesting Scientific American
http://tinyurl.com/2ebdn72
good - thanks for finding that - I actually did search on Quikcet and
didn't find anything useful - now that you found it, it turns up on the
first page of search results - how odd is that? So, the SA advertisement
is 1945, which I think still supports my feeling that this is pre war -
the other reason I think it is pre war is that the parts that show in
copper have VERY heavy copper plating with nickel over the copper - what
wore away is the nickel - it's pretty soft, this is typical of stuff that
is from the teens through the 30s. in fact, I may be at fault for
removing the plating when I polished it - there was probably more
remaining but I figured "shiny is good" -

still it must be somewhat rare or one of us would have found out more - I
found nothing on the company at all. But now we know that they made both
a vise (from the SA advert) and a C clamp.

The 1945 ad is actually a new product announcement in the "New Products and
Processes" column. The patent for this vice was filed in 1945
http://tinyurl.com/26ww8db , so the vise was probably not produced before
the war.

So the question is which came first, the clamp or the vise? Grand
Specialties (maker of the Quikcet vise) also has a design patent for a
ratcheting C-clamp from 1945 but it lacks the extra tightening
screw and hinge: http://tinyurl.com/2dhakoz . The fact it is a design patent
means they probably actually manufactured something that looked just like
that. The same inventor has a utility patent from 1943 for a ratcheting
C-clamp with with hinge, but a lever instead of the additional screw, and
no spring:
http://tinyurl.com/247lcl5. This makes me think that your C-clamp with all
its refinements came a little later.

The same inventor who filed patent # 3147003 in 1961 also had a slightly
earlier version http://tinyurl.com/2dsgxqj that looks even more like your
clamp. It was assigned to another individual, so someone must have bought
it.

Too bad I am not patenting a clamp. I have already done all the searching.