Vise Repair

[Tony]

Greets all. Hope everyone had a good / fun / safe new years.

Have been thinking about breathing some new life into this vise:

I got it with my bridgeport, and its been a good workhorse vise .. but theres
a few things that have kept it from really shining. Its a bit buggered, so
don't mind the holes -- but have a look at the bottom -- the slides in
particular.



Before they get to the fixed jaw, the casting tapers in. Those aren't
broken or cut .. they're cast that way.

Also, the top flats of the slides stop about 1/8" short of the fixed jaw.
This has always made using thin parallels a bit of a pain in the bum.



So I think this thing is cast steel. Judging by the way it cuts
And I'm considering welding up the slides -- making them the same
width all the way to the fixed jaw.. and filling in the part right under
the fixed jaw. Then machining it back down.

Tig welding, slow build-up. Steel rod.

I doesn't look like there would be any collisions with the parts of the
moving jaw. But I'm wondering if I might not be doing more damage by
welding. Like giving it a place to start a fracture.

Thoughts? Buy a new machinist vise and only use this one for the rough
and tumble? Thats what I'm thinking too.

This vise has no adjustment gibs. Just some steel flats bolted to the
bottom of the moving jaw. But its got absolutely no slop, and, surprisingly,
jaw lift is almost zero.. so if I can make it more useful, that'd be slick.

-Tony

(thats odd, I've only put in 3 pictures.. and I get an error saying I've added
5 and can only do 4 .. but deleting one link makes it work.. so only two
pictures it is).

[Tony]

Here's the whole vise that I meant to add in my first post:

[Peter Neill]

Tony, the smiley is counted as a picture, so that's what limits the photos.

Back to the vice - are those sides straight/parallel and not tapered?
I have a nice Abwood vice that's seen better days and often thought of repairing that.
However, rather than welding what I thought of doing was machining the base back than fitting a piece of gauge plate with c/sunk screws and then grind it back flat and square to the base.
Only works like that if you have a surface grinder of course, but milling and stoning would produce a similar effect.

Peter

[strokersix]

A thicker jaw insert would fix the thin parallel problem.

[Doc Nickel]

I'd be very surprised if it's cast steel. It's much more likely to be ductile iron at best.

In which case welding is a nonstarter- you'd do more damage than good.

Stroke's got a good idea- make a thicker fixed jaw insert. Or one with a "step" at the bottom to help fill the gap, with a slightly longer tongue in the center where the recessed area is.

Doc.

[Your Old Dog]

I can't offer much advice on your vice but can tell you what a joy it is to have decent vice under the quill. I have a decent import that I paid around $150.00 with the rotary bottom piece. It is true to my mill and makes using parallels very reliable. If it were mine, I'd relegate it to the drill press and buy you self a nice Kurt look-a-like. Mine came from Enco with the free shipping deal.

This is the one I use. If you're short on cash, well I understand that too as I've been there done that!

[John Stevenson]

These are 8" copies of a Vertex vise, I have a few kicking about.



These two in the pic have different depths of slot cut in them but they were bought at the same time.
It is a nuisance having that gap but I tend to use wide packings or if I have to use thin ones I drop one of the others down to act as a base.

I do have wider jaws but they are a lot higher. This pair are cast iron, not steel as I had to modify the slots in the side so that I can use them as patched pairs. No idea where mine were made but they are not genuine Vertex, having said that I have had this pair in constant use for 12 - 15 years with no problems.

.

[Tony]

holy smokes that was quick. thanks.

Thicker fixed jaw -- why didn't I think of that? pure genius.

John, yours look to have an oiling port back by the handle. I might just
add one. Couldn't hurt the vise. Funny to see that eye bolt on there too,
these things sure are heavy (50#?).

-Tony

[John Stevenson]

Tony, I fitted the eye bolt, all the mills have cranes attached and the other heavy gear like dividing heads also have eye bolts.



When the vise is fitted the eye bolt lives in the hook of the crane so It doesn't get lost.



.

[Black_Moons]

I somehow assume the gap is left there so there is a place for swaff to go, especialy when you fully close the vise or slide a parallel against the jaw.. but yea, its an annoying gap isent it? seems like it should at least be much smaller