Repair a broken vise

[Screwdriver]

Incredibly, TIG brazing seemed to work! I certainly wouldn't be so casual with anything life threatening but I thought I'd have a go.

From stone cold, 60 amps, AC, with +ve bias and -ve, seemed to go on ok but spatter.

Went to DC which was virtually the same though I think I cranked the amps up a bit. Again lots of noise, spatter and the silicon rod really would boil off in an instant. But it stuck fast! I even managed to braze it with a bolt in situ so I didn't have to muck about trying to find a hole etc. Was a right pig to get it out but it did screw out eventually.

Tidied up with a hand file. Where the TIG hit the cast iron, it went glass hard. Had to dremel a couple of spots off with a stone when I flattened it back. Drilled and tapped the back cap and all went together ok. The grub screws are only there to prevent the front jaw from being pushed into the vice, which is how the postie managed to break it when he dropped it.

Paint prep.

Last look at the repair piece.

And we're nearly there....

Just a pair of jaws to knock up.

S.

 

[Turbo]

Nice job on the vice repair.That's another one rescued from the scrap man.

If you wanted curved jaws here's a suggestion. Get a suitably sized piece of solid square section, bore a large hole down the middle then split it down the middle longways, giving you a pair of jaws.

 

[Screwdriver]

Nice job on the vice repair.That's another one rescued from the scrap man.

If you wanted curved jaws here's a suggestion. Get a suitably sized piece of solid square section, bore a large hole down the middle then split it down the middle longways, giving you a pair of jaws.

What I am thinking is knock up four flat square jaws in plastic, mount them on a board or inside a large section of pipe, fix that in the lathe then bore a semicircle out of them.

I don't really want to bore a hole through two inches of material and throw so much of it away. With a jig like that I can do some in alloy and mahogany too. It pains me that no matter what I do, I will have to offset the mounting holes to match the inaccuracy in the vice!

S.

 

[Screwdriver]

Well I can never really wait for paint to dry, it's a sort of thing with me. Everything I paint has my fingerprints on it somewhere. So I put the thing together while it was still tacky!

In my defence, I needed to fit that great big circlip before painting over the barrel.

So that I could do this:

...and here it is again with the repaired jaw at the top. Oh and speaking of "tacky", no I am not going to pick out the lettering in a contrasting colour!

Been busy trying to make room for "just one more" motorcycle but I wanted to get this second painting session over asap because I think the paint is going to take a week to dry off to any sort of hardness.

S.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Well I can never really wait for paint to dry, it's a sort of thing with me. Everything I paint has my fingerprints on it somewhere. So I put the thing together while it was still tacky!

In my defence, I needed to fit that great big circlip before painting over the barrel.

So that I could do this:

...and here it is again with the repaired jaw at the top. Oh and speaking of "tacky", no I am not going to pick out the lettering in a contrasting colour!

Been busy trying to make room for "just one more" motorcycle but I wanted to get this second painting session over asap because I think the paint is going to take a week to dry off to any sort of hardness.

S.

Looks good. I have been known to bung stuff in a low oven, when the missus isn't looking, to cure off tacky paint, gives a real good finish!

 

[malcolm]

Won't the paint on the shaft scrape off when you extend the vice? Looks a good repair.

 

[Screwdriver]

The rear of the external body rotates but the slide is another huge concentric shaft which runs inside the outer. And inside that is about eight inches of acme nut. It's a very robust vice.

Notcher went through my old chopping board no problem.

Tidied up on the linisher.

Then drilled out remembering the 1mm offset

Countersunk finally with an old 17mm drill bit (I have carefully hidden one slight disaster).

Bit of fettling to fit and I need to order up some more countersunk allen bolts.

They're the same size as the original jaws so the large set clamps up too..

Now I really need to wait for the paint to dry before I knock any more of it off. I'll make up another set of soft jaws with a slight radius.

S.

 

[roofman]

love it..

 

[Screwdriver]

...and so, the last post. I'm not over happy with the jaws, I'll need to fabricate a jig to get the concave sections exactly parallel but they're not bad.

Bolted it down finally and set square. Note: I had to cut four inches of overhang off the worktop (quarter inch steel plate).

I've been meaning to do that for ages. There's a bit of a story about that bench. Bought it secondhand and when I turned up to collect, the seller casually mentions "oh, by the way, the top is bent". Doh! He'd dropped an engine on it and the massive angle iron had sagged by half an inch. You can see where I've jacked it up with hydraulic car jacks. It's better but not being flat makes it useless for setups or longer parts.

I really struggled to cut off the excess. My trusty old plasma needs new tips and just wouldn't cut it. Or at least so I thought. It did one small section perfectly, I mean dead straight, paper edge clean. I realised later why; I was too close to the angle iron support. My6 little plasma was struggling to cut through four inches of solid steel!

Anyhow, I broke out the oxyacetylene kit and spent the most terrifying hour ever trying to get it to cut. Dodgy cylinders, a bleeding oxygen regulator which gradually allows the pressure to run off the scale (!), blocked torches. Everything went wrong. Couldn't get a good looking flame and swapping out torch heads and bodies, it would still give me a massive flame then a gigantic sharp bang as the gas cut out. Terrifying. Serves me right for buying secondhand. I gave up and took the edge off with a disk cutter.

When I have a bit more time, I'm going to have a look at the other side of the table, see if that's got a decent edge because I really want a nice deep skirt on the front; set at 90 degrees with clamp holes or threaded/studded fixings for accessories or for use during welding.

Took half a dozen disks to cut that edge off and made a right mess. Where I'd been trying the oxy, I had a diamond hard scale. The plasma slot drove the disk into the supports. Finally cut it off and of course covered the whole area with a thick coating of grit.

So it was with no little relief I finally got to play with the new vice. And of course the first thing I wanted to do was give my brazing skilz a decent test. Clamped down solidly on a scaff pole.

Then with six foot of scaff pole hanging off one end, see how strong it is. The verdict is; super strong!

The newly repaired jaw didn't snap, the HDPE jaws work really well and the rotating clamp is as solid as a rock. Result! I might even keep a sensible size bar handy for use as an arm rest or prop for welding.

The fact that you can easily do this:

Is going to be FANTASTICALLY useful.

I ended up playing around with the new vice for ages. It's a real pleasure to use.

Did a fair bit of tidying up and tried to grab the money shot but will settle for a before and after.

So there it is. All done and I am absolutely delighted with the result.

Screwd.

 

[roofman]

thats an awesome vice that and i would like one so much...this has been a cracking thread screwdriver and the finnished result is very very nice. Would you sell it??

 

[mr migwire]

is there not a certain member on here with a vice fetish??? im sure he will be along to make an offer..

fantastic repair and the finished vice looks brilliant, i may pinch your idea about chopping board jaws for one of mine....

 

[MattF]

is there not a certain member on here with a vice fetish???

Cwazywabbit hasn't been online for a while though, has he?

 

[MattF]

That's a fine repair job you've done there Screw'.

 

[Screwdriver]

Thanks guys. No I don't think I'll be selling it, should come in dead handy for my bike projects.

Whats it worth anyway?


<PS I have a rather nice Wilton bullet vice waiting for a resto too...>

 

[Screwdriver]

Well something turned up this morning. What could it be?

LOL. At last an honest seller on Gumtree. That was a punt in the dark I have to say but it was cheap enough to gamble.

I asked him to clamp up the jaws in case it got dropped and he did too.

No sign of any damage.

No surprises here, except perhaps that it still has all original fixings.

Not much to it really, nice to see the machined surfaces are all still good. I did spot a crows foot stamped into the body, so another ex MoD item.

And there it is, all petrol washed. I just need to remove a couple of stuck jaw bolts where the thread has been peened over the nut.

Then I just need to decide what to do with it. I might just wire brush it and wax it. Bare cast iron really does look lovely. I am planning to sell it so offers invited. Think BIG.

Screwd.

 

[awemawson]

So now that you have a breeding pair are you going to sell little ones

 

[Chris Stevens]

Incredibly, TIG brazing seemed to work! I certainly wouldn't be so casual with anything life threatening but I thought I'd have a go.

From stone cold, 60 amps, AC, with +ve bias and -ve, seemed to go on ok but spatter.

Went to DC which was virtually the same though I think I cranked the amps up a bit. Again lots of noise, spatter and the silicon rod really would boil off in an instant. But it stuck fast! I even managed to braze it with a bolt in situ so I didn't have to muck about trying to find a hole etc. Was a right pig to get it out but it did screw out eventually.

Tidied up with a hand file. Where the TIG hit the cast iron, it went glass hard. Had to dremel a couple of spots off with a stone when I flattened it back. Drilled and tapped the back cap and all went together ok. The grub screws are only there to prevent the front jaw from being pushed into the vice, which is how the postie managed to break it when he dropped it.

Paint prep.

Last look at the repair piece.

And we're nearly there....

Just a pair of jaws to knock up.

S.

TIG brazing requires specific rods without zinc, and DC unless you are using aluminium/bronze rods.

 

[Pete.]

That one hasn't seen much use. You can tell by the thickness of the flange at the base of the screw. Mine was about half the thickness.

This one looks like it has sturdier jaws than the broken one too.

 

[MattF]

Is that the Bircotes one Screw'?

 

[Screwdriver]

Took off the seized jaw bolts using my handy Swindens!

Spent some quality time with a wire wheel.

Including all the fiddly bits.

Cleaned up inside the moving jaw which appeared to have quite a bit of casting slag still on the inside.

But it turned out to be fossilised grease!

Solid as a rock, I left some in there on the grounds that it wasn't doing any harm. How old is this thing anyway?

Zoiks. And it survived this long. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Handle was slightly bent.

But one bounce on the flypress and it's as straight as I can measure it!

The only "issue" with this particular vise is the logo is pretty much worn off.

The castings aren't the prettiest I've seen, in fact this one is decidedly ugly so it is going to get a lick of paint.

Can't believe it's almost done already. Need to find something else to do I guess.

S.