Record 34P Heavy Duty Engineers Vice Restoration - Pic Heavy

[Dieselman 63]

Hello,

I have frequented this site many times in the past to look at tool restorations people on here have been undertaking, and thought I should pay back the favour of having such a good resource at my fingertips and show you my own restoration.

I am in the process of tooling-up so to speak, and I buy almost all my stuff second hand partially as a cost measure but also because old things are better quality. The demise of British steel saddens me greatly, but that's a story for another day. I started about a year ago, and 8 months ago I bought my first vice - a Marples 6" portable woodwork vice. It's pretty flimsy but it was a lifesaver at the time, and fun to restore. I now have four vices (the 'grip' of the hobby is taking hold ), three of which are woodworking ones and my latest one - as per the title, is for metalworking.

So, on to the pics!

Sitting on my knee at just over 15kg, this was the condition I picked her up in. Someone has decided that Record blue is soooo 1960s and light grey would make it a far nicer vice.

Back at home, and it was thanks to someone on here that I got the thing apart. There's a piece on the end of the screw with a pin that you can knock out to free up everything. I had previously doused the thing in WD40 to get it all moving again, hence the 'wet' look. I had started to grind off the weld slag on the anvil with my Dremel.

There are very few parts that make up the vice. The brass washer on the screw has not been taken off yet. The next step was to degrease everything.

After degreasing, I was able to start removing paint, but wait! A staggering amount of original Record blue was still in place. The person who had painted it grey had never taken it apart, so the insides were saved from that little horror-treatment! I'm not even sure if the grey was metal paint, as it came off really easily - the Record stuff did not!

I thought that since there was no rust, it would be pointless removing good paint, so used any remaining from the wire brushing as a sort of primer.

I decided that to prevent flash-rusting, I would paint sections as I went, then once they had all been coated I would do a whole, final coat to bring it all together. Here are the two main components with a first coat of Hammerite Smooth Blue.

More paint getting removed; the blue you see is original. Over 50 years old and still in superb condition.

I finished with a test-fit of the two parts. Although there was still a long way to go, I was happy with the new look.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Now, I'm not sure what the consensus is on here about cleaning up castings on old tools, but I thought since I was going to repaint the thing I might as well clean up any little bits at the same time. Here is the kind of thing I mean.

And cold-chiseled and filed off.

I think it looks nicer, and it's how it was meant to be. The factory had to make them quickly and functioning, whereas I have all the time I want so I can make it look pretty

After this, I got the right side painted up.

Now things were starting to come together. I mounted it on this old computer desk we have, which I modified to be a little vice stand.

 

[Kent]

Nice though I think it needs a more substantial base than a computer desk. You don't want it landing on you one day

Your correct old stuff properly restored is so way better than the cheap made Internet junk of today.

Another one saved!

 

[arther dailey]

I am with kent really good vice, but base should be way stronger for safety sake. cleaned up real good defo prefer the blue. Arther

 

[Dieselman 63]

The last photo is my work space. It's small, and I have two separate benches, one for wood and one for metalwork, and the tools are separated accordingly. The two hacksaws were only $2 each, one is a 20T Eclipse and the other is a Sandvik. Amazing quality at that price. All our power tools still have their English plug sockets on them, so I have a kiwi adaptor running to a 4 multi-plug - a bit of a Brian Potter (Phoenix Nights) arrangement, but it works. I switch it off at night so I can sleep easy!

I got onto serious painting once I had all the separate bits in their first coats. It always annoys me when people paint the milled surfaces of their vices - they're bare metal for a reason. I use automotive tape for masking - it's not too expensive but the finish is superb, plus it leaves no residue.

The aforementioned machined surfaces, and the painted areas touched up with a single coat of blue.

I didn't paint the inside because it was already painted and there was very little corrosion that could pose a problem. Here all the surfaces are painted fully.

And here it is, from the left fully painted...

...And from the right. Note the flash rusting appearing on the bare-metal anvil. I later brushed this off and coated it in oil to prevent it happening again.

Second mounting, this time with proper nuts and bolts instead of coach screws. The 'MADE IN ENGLAND' lettering was a right pita to do. I used the engraving head on my Dremel to gouge out the caked grey and blue paint, then quickly applied a coat of Hammerite. This was my last shot of the day.

Thanks Kent, and yes, the PC desk is only a temporary arrangement. You have to do a bit of a gorilla walk carrying the thing, it's very dense - I'd hate think what it'd do falling on a man!

As I was grinding off the slag from the front of the sliding jaw, a small hole appeared, which soon became quite a large hole - about 2-3mm dia opening with a cavity under the surface. I checked with small rods and wires but thankfully it didn't go right through the casting, so I can only assume it was a bubble. I have a steel epoxy - pretty useless stuff I must admit but for this sort of job I thought it would work well. I filled the cavity, let it dry for a few days and then painted over the area.

Here is a shot with the big Record 4 1/2" next to my very first Marples 6" vice. Although I have been tempted to sell it now that I no longer need it, I am sort of attached to it as it was my first, so it lives on in the workshop!

 

[arther dailey]

Glad I am not the only one who cant stand machined surfaces painted, If you dont use the maples sell it, with those bucks buy something you would use.and enjoy it. Arther

 

[brightspark]

nice vice but the bench is hardly usable . its not even fastened to anything solid. so sawing or filing ect it would be rocking back and forth

 

[Dieselman 63]

It is fastened to the wall you can't see in the photos.

 

[Bsmith]

I think that kind of record vice is unbreakable, hammer all you want on it, made of cast steel or mallable cast

 

[Dieselman 63]

Early 34/35/36 Series were indeed steel, but after the discovery of ductile iron in the war they made them out of that instead.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I've run out of turps so painting has come to a halt for a bit, so I've decided to do some tidying instead. I think I read on here that you can only refurbish a vice is you already own another vice! In this case the Woden woodworking vice is earning its keep in helping fix its brother. I put the 34P back together and couldn't find a purpose for the two lugs under the screw cap that holds the tommy bar on, and they looked dead rough so I can only assume they are either casting excess or something to do with the QR mechanism, as the sliding jaw is the only half shared between the two models 34/34P. I sawed them off and tidied the area.

However, I didn't like the casting mould at the top, so decided to file and sand that flat too.

Above that is a little lump of iron that has been roughly filed off in the factory - it's the panel that would be stamped 'OIL' for the QR version. I have decided I would like the whole thing off and the curve to be flush, so with some light chiseling I have arrived here. After I will use the Dremel to neaten it all up.

Thanks for looking

 

[Dieselman 63]

Quick update, but I got bored and nipped over to the workshop to grind off all that excess metal. Record iron is tough stuff, but I'm happy with the finish I got, even though it did take a bit of work with the file and the Dremel. See what you think.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Well, a bit of progress but also a bit of bad news which I will explain. The jaws were stuck fast on, I bought an impact driver (manual hammer type) but no amount of blows from that, oil, WD40 or anything would shift the bolts, so I resolved to not take them off until I was lying in bed last night trying to think of how it could be done! Well this morning I took to (gently) tapping the jaws from left to right with a small hammer, and hey presto, after dousing in oil we had some movement!

At $113 for a new pair of jaws I was spurred on to get the other out - they're really in very good condition, though the holes are drilled off-centre so I can't flip them to get a flush finish. On to the other side!

These were stuck even tighter than the others, like actually dead, no movement, dreadful corrosion. I'd sat them in a bath of WD40 for about a week but no jow, so tried the tapping as a last resort. Well, one came out, and the other did this little delight...

\

So now I have three ******** screws (the thread is knackered from the corrosion and the head is from all the impact driver madness) and one shawn off still in the vice. Thinking I'll take it into uni when it opens in 4 weeks and see if they can help me as I don't have a drill press or a means to tap a new thread. Bloody annoying though. Also, does anyone know where I can get new screws for a Record vice? They're a special type, with a sort of conical head that fits with the hole on the jaws. I was gonna buy some hex bolts but they won't have the conical head so I'm stumped. Restoration will stop til all the machining is done now I think.

 

[Dieselman 63]

No the taper is longer. I will post some in a sec

 

[Dieselman 63]

Hopefully these are good enough - hard to steady the phone camera and get it not blurry

They are one inch long

Any ideas?

 

[Covert]

If you find out the thread you could have some made on a lathe , wouldnt cost that much

 

[Dieselman 63]

How could I do that? What kind of steel would I need?

 

[Covert]

You would need a thread gauge to start with , as for type of steel someone will be along in a min to answer that , much more knowledgeable people on here than me

 

[Seadog]

EN3B would probably be suitable, they're not doing a great deal other than holding the jaws in position. It's a free turning mild steel. If you have some EN8 that's slightly tougher.

 

[winchman]

Just Email Record and ask