I bought this vice five years ago, I don't think it was very old then, and have used it for 'normal' work. Today I put a piece of steel in it to file the end and noticed that the jaws were vertically mis-aligned. This seemed odd and a quick examination revealed why... anyone else had this happen?

Gouge/grind it out, re align and weld er up with 7018, no mig...... ;)

It looks like a Vaughans' one which has cracked on the weld joint. If you break it right off you will see the extent of the weld fillet preparation and will be able to reproduce or better it.

 

I visited Vaughans, in Dudley I think it was, in the late 1970's and was surprised to see that they did not forge the jaws out of one piece but just used identical drop forgings and welded them on to 40mm square legs.

 

I was most impressed with the short handled cranked hammer and stubby chisel the foreman Bob Siddaway used to cut the checkering on the jaw faces.

 

Great visit he gave me all sorts of old tools from their scrap bin which were invaluable to me as an impoverished beginner...which is why I have remembered his name after all this time!

 

Alan

Hmm...

 

Thanks for that, I had no idea that there even was a weld there until now and I think it a bad thing that there is. In fact, I think it is daft to have a weld at all and especially there since that's the place (just above the collar) subject to the most stress.

 

I've got no gas / electric welding kit, so it will have to go off elsewhere to be fixed; I'm sure it will be good for a while once done. But I need a vice now!

 

I'll trawl through the nearest ones on ebay and grab a replacement a.s.a.p.; if possible I'll get one that has a one-piece forged jaw/leg.

Wow, I'm really surprised that they are made that way too, but I am also surprised that there are not more failures like this seen about! (or maybe I just never noticed.) Unlucky. 

A decent weld in 40mm square will take a lot of abuse and should give a tool a modern lifespan (certainly past the one year guarantee).

 I hit leg vices with big sledge hammers and this is pretty much what they should take( until they do not)

 We are spoiled being surrounded by the tools of the past . tools that often give a century (or more) of service, however if the same tools were available to us new would we pay the price needed to make them?

If you look at the same point on the moveable leg you can see the ground off weld, and the ground off flash line on the jaw forgings, I noticed it on your first image which is why I suggested the maker. Other companies may also make them the same way of course.

 

It has obviously been serviceable up to this point so with an equally good if not better weld it should be fine for another few years! You could always ask Vaughans what the welding specification is on their vices, they might even offer to fix it....who knows? Worth a phone call/email.

 

If you are buying one on ebay ask the vendor to photograph the screw thread so you can see it is not worn out, that is the only difficult to repair part...unless you have no gas or electric welding kit!  For some reason they hardly ever quote the jaw width so ask for that too.

 

There have been a few on recently they have been going for 25 -75pounds.

 

Alan

 We are spoiled being surrounded by the tools of the past . tools that often give a century (or more) of service, however if the same tools were available to us new would we pay the price needed to make them?

All of my major kit is old and I certainly could not have afforded it new.

 

I have only one new out of 5 welding machines, and one of the 5 hammers I own was nearly new...my 50kg Reiter was ex 1980 Hereford Conference demonstrator. I have photographs of many of the crowned heads of the world forging on it!

 

One advantage to living in a post industrial age!

If you ever make it over here again we can fix it up for you, or if you need to borrow a welder I could flow one in your direction.

 if its a steel or malleable iron casting then It could well be the case that the welding rods to fix it would cost more than another vice off of ebay.

Kind of ironic but I just went to collect a leg vice and stand from ebay and it a welded up vice with the weld's above the screw we will see how it holds up.

Thanks for that Owen, I'll let you take a look as and when.

 

I've been doing a bit of asking around and have found a farrier / smith that this has happened to as well.

 

As I wrote, I'm going to try and get a fully forged one. If they were still mking them I'd do by best to afford one.