Hello, A while back I was given an old post vise by a friend. It was in bad shape from sitting outside burried in leaves for years. It took me quite a while to tear it all down and free it up. I'm looking to reassemble it now. When I took it apart there looked to be the remains of some old leather wrapped around the screw where it goes into the fixed jaw. On a friend of mines it looks like his has what appears to be lead sheeting wrapped around that section.
 
I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction as to what to use so I can reassemble this vise and put it to work. I've circled the area on his vise in red to help clarify what I'm referring to.
 
Also the vise lacks it's spring. Any suggestions as to what to use to fabricate a replacement?
 
 
Thanks, Doug.
 

 

There is no need for leather or lead in the joint around the female screw box. 

 

A new spring can be made from mild steel, you could even harden it a little. Mild steel will not get very hard so simply forging a new spring from mild then quenching in water should be fine.

Or you could forge a new spring from spring steel and leave it normalized. You do not need a heavy amount of force pushing open.

 

Many springs in vices are overly tight. You should be able to screw in the vice with one hand easily.

 

Also remember to use a nice light oil on the screw and on the washers and the pivot joint on the front leg. Thick grease will hold lots of scale, and grit and form a abrasive paste that will slowly damage the screw.

You can read up on vises and view the various parts on anvilfire.com, using the pull-down menu, FAQS, and VISES.

 

Sayings and Cornpone

"Whaddya mean, I can't be late. I'm the horseshoer!!"

     Lee Pavlica

Thanks guys. I appreciate the replies.

 

Doug.

I intially thought you meant it covered the screw, which would make sense to keep scale out of the mechanism and prevent wear. I imgaine that it could be a replacement box, which used to be readily available, and perhaps it had a loose fit. I could see shimming mine if they had that issue. I often wonder about the screws on these old vises, jaws worn smooth makes you ponder how many screws they have worn out thru there long lives.

In the first photo it looks like you're missing either the gib key or the wedge to hold the mounting bracket tight to the vise.

 

The spring can be 1/4" mild steel formed to shape.  All you need is a gentle nudge on the bottom of the jaw's leg; remember, the harder the spring pushes against the jaw, the harder it's going to push against you when you try to close the vise.

 

One fellow on here did a tutorial of sorts on making a spring.  Another fellow did a rebuild that had the bottom of the spring turned into a very pretty scroll after the point of contact.  I liked that idea and plan on using it whenever I need to do a rebuild.

 

A lot of old vises had the threads wrapped by the folks working in the shop because it offered some protection against idiots setting the workpiece on top of the screw and then banging on it.  Any covering, though, will become a trap for scale and grit.