MLMartin Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 (edited) Last night my Friend & I spend some time repairing a vice I picket up for her over the summer, unlike so many ive seen before where the leg has been cut off with oxy act torch this one actuality looks like it broke at a old forge weld. I had already forged a new leg out of some Wrought Iron under a power hammer just to save time. so we started with a vice with about 6in of leg reaming and a new leg. First we split about 1 3/4in of the old leg then forged a chisel point on the new leg. Then we aligned them together in the fire and took the first welding heat right in the forge. ( sorry no pictures of the welding, there was only two of us, so we both had out hands full ) This was done by me bracing the vice in the forge while she held on to the new leg & hammered it into the slit of the old leg, after the first few blows with a hand hammer she used a light sledge, the vice body & me acted like the anvil for the weld to work against. After we had it stuck I removed the vice from the fire & we worked the forge weld down over the anvil, I worked the vice and swung a hand hammer while she swung a sledge. after working it down we forged it in top and bottom dies to help round the leg. lastly a quick hot filing to clean up. When we finished I gave the vice to her, its her first! Edited October 6, 2009 by Mlmartin15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 (edited) More Pictures Edited October 6, 2009 by Mlmartin15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 It looks like to made an old vise servicable again - nice job. - JK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Great work Mack + friend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiFerro Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Pi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Nice work! Good to see this young lady taking part in the work of this repair. She make your shop look a lot better too! Good for the both of you. Look forward to seeing some of her work come from this 'new' vise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragons lair Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Son if I were you I would propose, A pretty young lady that can and will smith and forge with ya is once in a lifetime thing. Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted October 6, 2009 Share Posted October 6, 2009 Yeah, and she's a REDHEAD to boot!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.Lewis Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 That sure was fun! Gotta love a guy who gets a girl a vice for her birthday Mack's "Friend" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sask Mark Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Very nicely done! That vice looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Browne Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Great repair job. Nice to see someone at the forge with safety specs on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avadon Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Looks really good, but if it was me I would have just ground or cut a fitting shape and then laid in a large fillet weld. Prolly easier But this way you've done it is impressive. Now do you have to re-temper that leg? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avadon Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Great repair job. Nice to see someone at the forge with safety specs on! Tell me about it!!! I've seen so many people forging without as much as single light pair of safety glasses. I guess these people have access to replacement eyes. :confused: I already had a doctor dig a random spark out of my eye for $600.00. I don't want to ever recreate that experience. There's a ton of videos on youtube of people not wearing safety glasses in their shop. It makes me nervous if someone even comes into my shop without them. I would never let someone work on anything without a pair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 re temper the leg??? the whole vice except the end of the jaws are wrought iron, wrought iron does not have enough carbon to really hold any type of temper. the jaws do have bits of tool steel welded into them and they are tempered, but the rest of the vice is not. i did not heat up the jaws any so the temper should be fine on them. we just let the leg cool nateral, no need for any tempering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Excellent job, keep up the good work. Dragon_Lair is right. She sounds like a very rare young lady. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evfreek Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Hi Mlmartin15. That really looks like a nice job. Very clean and classic. Thanks for showing the pictures. I don't have the confidence for a weld like that and I'd go straight for the Miller, but that really does look good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 I like what you have done, although my images are Xed out. We call that a cleft weld or a bird's mouth weld. I did one on a mild steel digging bar which we split. A 4" length of high carbon steel was driven into it. So far, it has held up over the years. A friend and I fixed a broken vise leg by lap welding, and it worked. We had the original leg to re-attach, so that helped. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 Yeah, whats up with these pics. I remember this thread, those were great pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 That's what can happen when images are linked rather than attached. They were being hosted on another site and now they appear to be gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Sorry about the pictures guys, Ill see if I can find them and re-post them to this thread if anyone is interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurlyGeorge Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Yeah. Post them please. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robodog Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Sorry about the pictures guys, Ill see if I can find them and re-post them to this thread if anyone is interested. Yeah, Please repost them - I'm very curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLMartin Posted December 18, 2010 Author Share Posted December 18, 2010 Photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurlyGeorge Posted December 18, 2010 Share Posted December 18, 2010 Thanks for the pics, Mack. I remember seeing this thread before, now. You did a good job on the leg. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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