I stand corrected, I knew Fortis started in Birmingham and then moved to Coventry and I presumed (wrongly) they were taken over by Alfred Herbert, the Fortis and Ajax castings are very similar to each other
Know it's sad, lol, but I actually found my first post when acquiring this Swindens vice. If interested, you can see the carnage bestowed upon it on page number 141 post number 2802 .
Can't even program a VCR, and they have been obsolete since .......... 
On the contrary there is nothing wrong with this type of repair/refit, taking something that is damaged or broken and making it useful again is laudable. It's this kind of pointless, uninformed 'restoration' that I dislike.I guess I'd better apologize for this then. I bought it off of @Gingle , a Woden 4 1/2" vice thats had a miserable life. The original paint was dark blue, buried under layers of cream and black paint. The jaw fixing holes in the fixed jaw had been plugged with wood
View attachment 309420
to this at the mo, awaiting paint and new jaws:
View attachment 309421
Its been wire wheeled, torched (to soften the arc welds), the jaw seats squared up and flattened on the mill and new jaw screws made for it. Still have to decide if I keep it (not sure where) or sell it on.
Rob
This vice the kid spruced up was in very poor mechanical condition with a lot of slop in the jaws, but although not up to the standards of what many of us would accept, I have to give him credit for the effort he put in. This reminds me of when I was a teenager (eons ago). I spent what little money I earned going to garage sales and looking for bargain tools I could restore and use. Although some were not very good, I acquired useful tools that worked that my friends didn't have, and took pride in making them look the best I could; just like I did with my first used car and beat up motorcycle.
Yes.
How will it help if I have to come to your house to sit and look at it????
Easy, when you come down to my house for coffee to look at it.
nTh.
Can we come over and play the records while admiring your Yorks and Fortis ... what kind of music? any old rock n roll? Bring a bottle?
We need photo's
Of Vice's and Vise's .We need photo's
Hardly in poor mechanical condition, it wasn't seized nor were the jaws misaligned. It looks as if pin that retains the spring had sheared but that's not a difficult fix.
It came with nuts on the wrong size coach bolts, I will have to have a proper look at the other one I have to see whats correct
www.york.cz
