Repairing old post vise.

[Brian D]

I picked up an old post vise several weeks ago at an auction. The jaws looked pretty straight, the screw and nut was in pretty good working order. It was in need of some repair, and it was obvious to me that it needed a new pivot pin or bolt, I needed to make a spring, and the supports for the pivot were bent and needed aligned after replacing the bolt. I thought that is all that was wrong with it.....I was wrong.

I made the necessary repairs to the pivot and the front leg supports, and thought it could use a good cleaning.

After taking a wire wheel to the legs and jaws to clean them up a bit, I found some hidden damage. It became obvious that someone in the past had gotten a little carried away with a torch and / or drill and damaged the jaws. There had been an attempt to repair the jaws with some poor welding, and someone also scabbed some brazing rod in there as well.

I decided to clean all of the debris and poor weld material out of the damaged area and this is what I ended up with.

I have decided that after all of the work I have put into it thus far, I am going to finish the repair of this vise. It may not be worth it, but now it is personal and I will finish the quest....

Here are some pics of the damage after I got the jaws cleaned up and attempted repair material cleared out.

[Jody]

i am sorry to hear bout the bad luck , but would love to see how you fix this... post up an up date when ya do. at least the old girl gets a face lift and a new life.

[Brian D]

The plan is to heat and torch weld and fill the voids a little at a time. The trick will be to keep everything straight and true in the meantime.

I'll take my time and post update pics of progress.

I just hope all of the effort is not in vain.

[arftist]

I think it is worth doing. Posts vices are pretty available now, but they won't be forever. Our industrial archeology is disapearing fast. I suggest a first pass with stainless steel, idealy 309, but 308-16 will do, followed by a cap of 7018. I am sure there are other methods, but this has worked well for me on posts vices.

[HWooldridge]

The bodies are almost always made of wrought iron. Some have steel jaw liners and others do not but in either case, stick welding with E6011 or MIG/TIG with common filler wire will work fine. Of course, cleaning off the braze material is imperative to get the weld metal to stick.

It's definitely worth spending a little time on - I have fixed several that had various problems and use them at various heights around the shop. You can never have too many vises (or vices...).

[ThomasPowers]

Two other methods would be to:
1 trim it down and have a stout vise with shorter jaws
2 make a good set of jaw caps from angle iron to cover it

HW back when I was in the blacksmiths happy hunting grounds (OH) I drew the line at having 10 of them on hand at any time. Didn't stop buying them when a good deal came by say US$25 or less; but I would then pass them on to others or upgrade my pile and pass one of those on. Now I wish I had piled them high and moved them out here!

[Brian D]

The jaw surface is actually in pretty good shape. It was made with a harder steel jaw insert welded to the inside of each jaw. The hard steel insert was much more resistant to damage than the jaw bodies.

[anvillain]

I also would use arc welding if at all possible. mild steel rod is all you need 6011,6010, my preference is 7018. when you get filled up close to the surface 6013 or 7014 would make smooth stringers before grinding. any one of these would do the job by itself. no need for stainless. If the screw and nut are workable it will certainly be worth the work.
Anvillain

[Brian D]

Well, it's been a while, but I have found a little time here and there to work on this old vise. Here are some update pics....



What a chore! It will sure be nice when this thing is done so I can use it. It should not be long now, almost ready for paint. I still need to fix the mounting bracket, make a new wedge and spring, and make a suitable stand.

[pkrankow]

DANG! That's some pretty welds you got there! From those pics the only way I can see where you repaired is from the old pics.
Phil

[orgtwister]

looks nice there in pic 3 did you cut teeth in the jaws it looks like it

[David Einhorn]

Very nice. You did a good job of welding.

[arftist]

The last post vice I rebuilt was a 200 pound monster with sevin inch wide jaws. The pin was worn and the holes were egged out. I solved that by welding the fixed and movable sections together (temporarily) and remaking the pivot hole in a milling machine with a center cutting end mill. I did it this way so there would be no inclination of a drill bit to drift off path. The hole was that malformed. Additonaly, by installing a much larger pivot pin than the original, the lifespan of the pin was increased greatly, due to more bearing area.
The other major problem with this sledgehammer-capable wrought iron vice was that the split in the movable section had ripped, due to it's heavey use in the past. Knowing that I too would subject a heavy tool to heavy use and wear, I had to devise a repair for this area that would be stronger than the original design (the goal of any good repair welder or millwright). Since the strength of the original wrought iron was insuffcient to the load, (it had split along the grain), a mild steel repair rod would not do.
Going old school on the old tool, I veed out the crack past the damaged area and opened it up nicely. I then buttered both sides on the crack as well as the bottom with stainless steel stick, being carefull for historical reasons to end the stainless passes just below the surface, and filled in the remainding area with 7018. This method may not be called for in all wrought iron repairs, however it is a textbook method and does leave the repaired area far stronger than the original material, if done correctly.

Edited October 2, 2009 by arftist

[welder19]

Good job on the weld repair, what method of welding did you end up using?

welder19

[Brian D]

Thanks for the nice compliments. It sure has been more work than I thought it would be. I need to get it done soon so I can have the satisfaction of using it...

looks nice there in pic 3 did you cut teeth in the jaws it looks like it

No teeth cut in the jaws yet, I wanted to try it smooth first and if I want teeth cut later, I can cut some in.

..... The pin was worn and the holes were egged out. I solved that by welding the fixed and movable sections together (temporarily) and remaking the pivot hole in a milling machine with a center cutting end mill. I did it this way so there would be no inclination of a drill bit to drift off path. The hole was that malformed. Additonaly, by installing a much larger pivot pin than the original, the lifespan of the pin was increased greatly, due to more bearing area....

The pivot pin in this vise was very worn, and the pivot bearing plates were twisted a bit. I may have to do a very similar fix to this vise (larger pivot pin and holes) if I am not satisfied with the stability.

Good job on the weld repair, what method of welding did you end up using?

welder19

I pre-heated the mass and O/A torch welded the voids. It was a lot of work, and it took a lot of stopping to re-heat the jaws, then back to welding. The welding tip on the torch did not provide enough heat to keep the mass heated sufficiently.

If I was to do it again, I would use the torch to get down into the deep crevices and holes, then while it is still hot, burn some wire in with the MIG welder.

[Brian D]

I think I am finally done with the repair. This has been a long drawn out project. I finished cleaning up the weld repair of the jaws, then built a new spring, fabricated a new stand to mount it to and I will make a quick detach shelf some time in the future.

Here are some pics of it done...