Rescued leg vise

[mlinn77]

Hi I just picked this up at auction and at a good price, it was all seized up and rusty, but all there, works like new now, just curious about maybe a age and confirmation on maker. It has 7inch jaws and about 150lbs, only mark is a J on the inside leg, its looks all hand forged, tool steel forged welded on the jaws. From reading different post I'm leaning towards a Peter wright. Attached is before and after and next to a 4 inch vise. That's not my set up just got the pictures.

Edited October 27, 2015 by mlinn77

[scotto]

 

 

looks great, congrats!

[mlinn77]

Thank you, its a bear to move around. I was very lucky and had to wait out a very long auction for it. 

[Duckbutter]

That's an amazing vise! I was wondering how you cleaned it so well and what you used to make it looks so good?

[mlinn77]

Used wd40 to unfreeze the jaws, the pivot bolt was locked up real bad that took some effort and brute force, when it was apart i used a cup wire wheel on a grinder to get it to get all the heavy rust off, I used a engine degreaser and smooth file with a light touch to get all the funk off the screw threads it was caked on bad, greased all the moving parts, used wd40 on the rest to protect it, not sure if that's what your supposed to use but I like it and gives it a nice gun metal finish that's what I put on the Anvil too. It's amazing to me that such a old tool that was abused and left outside for years and years works like it did new with a little care. 

[mlinn77]

On a side note I would of used diesel or kerosene on the funked up screw box and threads, I tried that on another one I picked up after the big one it worked well. 

[jumbojak]

You might want to find something a bit more substantial than WD-40 to protect your vise. It's a decent general purpose lubricant - if I could only have one spray it would certainly be WD-40 - but there are other options that will do almost any job to a more satisfactory standard. Paste wax seems to work fairly well for this sort of thing. I tried that on a vise after several members here recommended it. Not surer exactly how long it'll last, but it has already outlasted what WD-40 would have. 

Very nice looking vise by the way. Does it pass the dollar bill test?

[mlinn77]

Thanks I'll have to look into that paste I'm all for trying new stuff, I used grease on the moving and friction parts, I used wd on the show parts because its going to be in a inside shop. Yes there isn't any daylight when the jaws are shut they close tight and true and glide you could use 1 finger if the bar wasn't so xxxx heavy.

[jumbojak]

Anti-seize works well for the screws on vises too and lasts a long, long time. Just remember that a little dab will cover the world. Buddy of mine globbed that stuff on something and threw it in his toolbox about ten years ago. To this day anything that touches the bottom of that box gets covered in aluminum. Just something to think about if you ever need to regrease the screw.

[mlinn77]

I've used that stuff working on cars never thought about using it on big scale, it does get everywhere no matter how careful you are, It does work well though

 

[781]

At fluid and acetone are better to unstick stuck parts

[ThomasPowers]

I have a tendency to drop the screw and screwbox, (separately if possible), in a bucket of diesel for a week or more and then clean them with a wire brush and then degrease them and then re-lube them.  I have been cleaning a bunch of terribly cruddy cast iron skillets in a lye bath---no children around my place!  It has worked so well I may try it on the next fossilized grease screw/screwbox I deal with.  (cheaper than a 5 gallon pail of diesel!)

[jumbojak]

Cheaper yes, but you can burn yourself pretty badly with lye. Not only does it burn but it's one of those burns that will sneak up on you. I had that happen to me a few months ago cleaning a stainless pot. A tiny splash made its way past my golves and smoldered for a few minutes before I noticed. The discoloration still hasn't gone away, and that was with a weak solution. 

Also, make sure nothing made from aluminum comes into contact with a lye solution. Better safe than sorry when large quantities of hydrogen gas might be involved. I pity the fool who uses an aluminum vessel as a tub. Not only will you get gassed, you would probably get a good splash once the tub has been eaten through.

[mlinn77]

I agree with the diesel, I tried it on another vise I got after the one in this post it wasn't as bad but it worked right away, I'm not careful enough to mess with lye, I got a little splash of easy off oven cleaner on my arm 18 years ago still have a scar, it worked well though.

I didn't have a $1 but here is a paper test.

[jumbojak]

The things that melt skin usually do!

[ThomasPowers]

Yup lye is dangerous, like propane, gasoline, acids used to etch pattern welded blades, red hot steel, sulfur dioxide,---smithing is full of dangerous things!  Yet we manage to survive and flourish by taking appropriate precautions.  I probably wouldn't use lye if there were kids around this place and won't use antifreeze on hammer handles because there are animals around this place.  (seems funny that the dangerous stuff we are used to seems less dangerous than the dangerous stuff we are not used to---I've made lye soap before, am cleaning old cast iron right now and my wife has even used it in cooking---traditional pretzels are dipped in a lye solution---so we are perhaps a tad more used to it than some)

[jumbojak]

I hear you Thomas. The trick is to figure out what the proper precautions are for dealing with dangerous situations and make sure you don't get too comfortable in your dealings. Gasoline and propane are dangers where people normally have at least some idea of what could go wrong. Chemicals like lye and acidic solutions tend to go outside people's normal range of experience and can get them into trouble without them realizing it.

What I said above wasn't directed at you in particular Thomas. The intent was a general warning to future readers of at least a few things to watch out for if they used lye as a cleaner. When I mentioned to my mom that I was using lye to clean a pot she thought it sounded like a great way to clean her fryer. Her aluminum fryer. I am very thankful that she asked me to do it instead of trying it herself. Had she done so she might not be with us today. 

[Bud in PA]

At my age I tend to scoff suggestions from the EPA. I feel as long as you use common sense and have an idea about what you are doing. As I said to the lady in the deli who was putting on her plastic glove to make my sandwich, how did I survive all of these years eating sandwiches made in delis before the invention of plastic gloves.