Record vice handle material and replacement

[Kent]

Any large coil springs knocking about? To be fair I should straighten it, they only generally get bent with two meat heads swinging on a long cheater bar

 

[sardine]

Depleted uranium .

 

[MattF]

As others have mentioned, bending a handle requires some abuse.

If the bar is the weak point in the system and bends, it's the easiest bit of the vice to fix. In fact it still works even with a bent bar. If you strengthen the bar, will you put extra stresses on the rest of the system?

Yup. The handle material should be chosen so as to give before any other part.

 

[brightspark]

anyone bending the handle isn't fit to use a vice .no wonder they crack them and knack the jaws. if the vice was designed to take more force they would have made the handle longer

 

[grim_d]

It's like when you see a chuck key all bent up.

The poor scroll and jaws.

 

[bletchmonster]

Blimey you lot!! The man didn't bend his handle, he just wants to know what to replace pre bent item with .
If it's been proper kinked it's going to take some doing to get it ding and wobble free.
A piece of bright steel would be my choice. Abit tougher than mild, and dimensionally a lot truer.

 

[MattF]

Blimey you lot!! The man didn't bend his handle, he just wants to know what to replace pre bent item with .
If it's been proper kinked it's going to take some doing to get it ding and wobble free.
A piece of bright steel would be my choice. Abit tougher than mild, and dimensionally a lot truer.

Oy, don't include me. I was just mentioning that any steel takes a lot of abuse to bend. Mild is, I believe, what they normally used for handles, as it's never taking more than the weight of a person. Any steel/iron is fine for a handle though, provided the vice is used as it ought be.

 

[Paul G]

The bar on mine was well past its best when I got it, so I used some 316 and got a couple of ball ends off eBay.

View attachment 118361

You've got to have balls to do this.

Paul G

 

[bletchmonster]

Oy, don't include me. I was just mentioning that any steel takes a lot of abuse to bend. Mild is, I believe, what they normally used for handles, as it's never taking more than the weight of a person. Any steel/iron is fine for a handle though, provided the vice is used as it ought be.

I wasn't getting at anyone, MattF@, I just felt a bit sorry for Dan. It felt like the poor man was heading for being dragged out of his bed, tied to a stake and torched for despicable handle bending witchcraft

 

[Dieselman 63]

Here's a project that I follow that's probably doomed to failure but I still follow anyway. Here's a good example of that pipe on the vice trick in action:

 

[brightspark]

all that was mentioned was a new bit of mild steel will do the job satisfactory so no need to go ott and use some fancy steel that would hold up an oil rig on a crane

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Haha bletchmonster, no I bought it cheap with a bent handle and needing new jaws. I've swapped all the screws out as they were nearly so chewed up I couldn't get them out. Got new jaws and bolts. Cleaned all the crud off and greased it up. Just the handle to do. Though the parts diagram shows a washer on the screw that mine doesn't have?

 

[MattF]

A washer where on the screw? There's usually a thick washer at the rear end of the screw so that you can't run the slide out too far, but that's the only washer usually. No biggie if it's missing though. Common sense will tell you where to stop when you're opening it.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Thats the one. Mines got two cap heads that stop the slide coming out by hitting the side of the body. I imagine if you really pulled hard it might damage the slide but unlikely.

 

[zzr1200]

I have some shortish bits of bright bar depending on the diameter you need l might be able to help you out.

 

[MattF]

Wouldn't worry about it. You'd have to be yanking the front jaw out like a loon to have problems. The screws through the slide are a good enough option too. Seen that approach used several times, and never seen a vice damaged due to them.

If you do decide to fit a washer at a later date, just any thick washer which will fit over the rearmost, non threaded portion of the screw will do. All it does is to hit against the rear casting where the half nut is, to prevent the rear hanger on the slide going through.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Zzr1200 that's a kind offer. It is just over 16mm if I remember right,and about 400 long but I'll check, need to find how big the end swells are as I pike the ball idea someone had above, could just tig them on if needed.