Worst Swinden's ever

[Screwdriver]

Pretty sure this came from a squadron leaders shed (the one with the Bentley in the garage), bought a small shaper and a ton of other stuff including a completely mint Record 85M off his nephew who let me loose in there. Among that lot were some boxes of new old stock tooling, including this drawer.

Note the horizontal space in front of the drawer, I haven't opened it in years! But it contained this:

A box of brand new cobalt parting off blades, now installed. That gave me the confidence to do this:

But it still really didn't want to part off, it took a huge amount of pressure even after I tried different speeds, adjusted the height etc. It probably needs a specific back rake and end clearance, I might check that out on Google but it's done now.

Wait. What! Why are you making another spacer from that hard as nails ally bronze? Well, after fitting everything up checking for clearance, it was still binding when I tighten down the clamp so I trimmed off a bit more from washer number one and at the same time decided to take the edge off the button head machine screws. They were catching on the clamp...

They look great I think but little did I know that interference had been distorting the clamp sufficient to bind on the main screw retaining boss. I had been thinning down the washer not realising that wasn't the issue and now the screws are done, the washer was too thin!

It is now perfect, just exactly the amount of tiny clearance and all of the clamping forces will be bearing on the bronze thrust washer. <proud>

Now for the back cap. Many Swinden's lose these so it's not the first one I've made but it is the most bling. Found an old brass(?) door plate in the non-ferrous scrap and marked it up. It was tight with the width being exactly 2.5 inch, same as the vice. Then I had to mark it out again when the two screw holes hit the edge of the diameter (just). From now on there are two sets of layout lines!

Glued a bearing case former to the back and screwed it onto a piece of wood.

Then beat the shape into it with a plain old ball pein.

In hindsight I should have pressed something into it on the flypress but it's ok.

Coming next: The Flypress> Can it punch a 2.5 inch hole in 2mm sheet brass???...

 

[arther dailey]

Still alive, thats the right attitude keep fighting .

 

[Screwdriver]

I really wasn't sure about this!

never used such a huge punch before, never really thought about doing it to something this thick and this hard either.

But I wasn't going to take no for an answer and I gave it everything. Several very high speed swings on the flypress and to my amazement, the device would flex sufficiently for the stop nut to hit the stop before the punch went through the material. I had set it to just go through but it needed to be set to penetrate a full 2-3mm then give it the most violent swing I could muster.

It went through with an ALMIGHTY bang! Almost like the first crack of thunder or a bullet being fired from a gun.

Just caught the edge of the 2.5 inch plate with the 2.5 inch punch. I'm not unhappy about that though I did need to offset the hole ever so slightly from the centre of the divot, just to miss the edge of those blasted holes, again! Surprising how little "off" it needs to be to be noticeable but I'm not going through that again. I need a lie down.

Just glued on at the moment to check clearances and later mark up some holes. I need to trim the edge a tad because this part fits inside the fixed jaw and it's a snug fit.

 

[MattF]

Similar to what I did on my Air Ministry one. I used copper though.

 

[Seadog]

But it still really didn't want to part off, it took a huge amount of pressure even after I tried different speeds, adjusted the height etc. It probably needs a specific back rake and end clearance, I might check that out on Google but it's done now.

I think it works hardens very quickly. I made some valve guides from ali bronze, back in the '80s, but don't remember having any problems with it.

 

[Screwdriver]

I think it works hardens very quickly. I made some valve guides from ali bronze, back in the '80s, but don't remember having any problems with it.

Yes that makes sense. Once it got going it was sort of ok.

 

[Screwdriver]

That took a ridiculous amount of time....

Still it's on and it looks original. Jaws next!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Jaws next!

Go and rest! [given your other post ]

 

[MattF]

Looks good. Much prefer a dished cover to the original style.

 

[Cris B]

Proper resto. That brass bar that was just the right size for the jaws... use it

 

[Screwdriver]

Proper resto. That brass bar that was just the right size for the jaws... use it

Noooo. My preciousssssss....

I found a decent chunk of aluminium which looks the perfect size. When I recover from this damned flu I can crack on with this vice.

 

[Screwdriver]

Well I am still cracking on with this. It has become more of a quest really and I am having to dodge some health issues in between Swinden's.

Next task is to sort out the moving jaw which looks to have been ground down. Screw and washer(s) for reference only.

It is tempting to stick it in the forge just to get a bit of heat into it prior to stick welding. Plan is to build up the front where the nut and washer needs to be. It doesn't need it as such but it's for a mate (who's taken a liking to it) and I'd like it to be as good as possible. It will get custom jaws any day soon.

What do we think about the welding? Pre heat? Stick/Mig? (I'm out of Tig gas).

I'm thinking of making up a largish chill block in aluminium to mould the washer relief and weld around it. Save me grinding out the recess.

 

[Screwdriver]

Some progress. Since it's been too wet to go outside I haven't been able to get into the far corner to sort out the stick welder so, I migged it.

The aluminium plug sort of worked, it didn't build up inside the flat area but I didn't get the precise coverage I was after. it doesn't need any real strength, just enough to support the edge of a nut.

It got a LOT more build up than I have shown here but I was on a roll so just went at it without stopping for selfies.

Knocked off the outside easily enough with a massive 9 inch grinder (!) and a little flap disk.

Believe it or not, I decided the best way to trim the inside surface was with a cold chisel. Yep. I just chipped away at the excess like a regular Michelangelo. Gave me a lot more control over the removal process, "proved" the strength of the weld and was a lot easier to get a reasonable flat than using a Dremel grinding wheel. Plus of course, you're a lot less likely to slip and make a bad cut. Then distressed the surfaces a little bit to match the existing castings.

I only mildly worried it really, once I'm done shaping, I will get in there and really distress it. It not as if a Swinden's could ever get any uglier.

But it worked, the nuts have full surface contact and now I can make up some jaws (for a specific purpose) and fix them with some through bolts.

Remember, I was intending to restore this for myself but a mate popped over and is now a fan so it's actually going to a new home. I wouldn't normally spend such vast amounts of time on a buy-to-sell!

 

[arther dailey]

your chipping hammer would be good to get the right amount of distress maybe ? getting there though eh.

 

[Screwdriver]

Made up some simple jaws from a spare bit of alloy. Note. they are about 5mm thicker than "usual".

It's not rocket science but they are thicker because they are going to get a stud screwed in from the rear and the extra thickness also helps strengthen the pipe jaws on the other end.

Alloy is threaded about 10/12mm, bolted down hard with thread lock then cut off the heads.

Pipe jaws will be Delrin and I have to make them out of a very odd shaped bit. Split to thickness.

Then turned mostly to flatten and parallel.

The finish is glassy smooth (I love turning Delrin) and the weird "lump" is in fact an optical effect from the ultra fine surface finish. It is perfectly flat and completely smooth!

Blocks are trimmed to the size of the jaws, the odd shape meant there could be no overhang (I only just got two pieces from this chunk) which is probably a good idea due to the material.

next step work out how to machine a ~3 or 4 inch diameter concave jaw form. Either make up a bracket to hold them in the lathe jaws and bore them out or maybe flycut again on the lathe. I might even use the lathe as a "shaper" and cut some teeth into the curved surface.

The vice is going to a good home and will be used primarily for motorcycle maintenance and project work. A subject dear to my heart so I was always building this one to my own requirements which happen to match the lucky new owner. I specifically wanted to go with a plain aluminium soft jaw because I'm always fiddling with stupid "soft jaw" covers. I figure I'd be happy to use the vice as-is for working on bike parts then fit a hard jaw cover if I need to clamp something where I don't mind marring the finish. It's also why these jaws are completely smooth with no recessed screw heads getting in the way either.

 

[pedrobedro]

next step work out how to machine a ~3 or 4 inch diameter concave jaw form.

Heat the pipe up and clamp it in the jaws and melt a curve in them.

 

[Screwdriver]

Heat the pipe up and clamp it in the jaws and melt a curve in them.

I am familiar with that technique for forming threads in Delrin, not too sure for this application with the volume of material that needs to move.

Not a bad idea at all though since I will need to accommodate some irregularity with the rear of the jaw surfaces. I might test that with some offcuts to see what sort of finish I get and how soft the whole block might get. I have about 2mm per side of wiggle room to get both sets of jaws to meet at the same time.

 

[Parm]

Somewhere on the Internet I’ve seen that done on wood. It was to create a curved bottom dished type situation for a pen holder that was going into a writing slope being restored.

The wood was run perpendicular to the saw blade which was raised enough to creat the required diameter shape. Job was fitted to a simple jig to keep fingers out of the way. Once set up it was very simple

Wonder if that technique would work with Delrin, of course in time honoured fashion I can’t remember what I was looking at and no way of finding it now

 

[Screwdriver]

On a bandsaw?

You remind me though, I did buy one of those hilariously dangerous chain saw bladed angle grinder disks. It happens to be the perfect diameter. I'll be sure to keep my fingers away from that!

 

[Richard.]

I totally get the soft aluminium flat jaws but plastic pipe jaws just limit dramatically what that tool is meant to do.
The pipe in the vice is going to be ground, cut, welded, pulled, etc. That Delrin isn’t going to last long if the owner actually intends on using it for purpose imo.