My grandfather passed away Valentines day, the Saturday before he told me to go ahead and take the vise. I was able to haul it to its new home today. It openes and closes just fine. The screw seems in good shape, but when I get time I will take the whole thing apart, clean it up, and put it back together and back to use. 

 

 

The one thing I wont be cleaning is his fabric paint writing. He put that on everything he acquired. Wrote his name, and usually the year  

 

Any idea what the makers mark is here? 

Looks like an Iron City vise.

Sorry to hear about your grandfather.

Yep Iron City. I wouldn't do anything to it except a light brushing with BLO to preserve the patina and oil the screw then put it to work again.

Interesting split washer.

Third on Iron city. 

Screw looks great. Enjoy using it. 

If it moves smoothly there's no reason to take it apart and clean it, it won't work any better. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty, why would you not take it apart and clean the the threads? It's not a job that would take very long, and it seems to me that getting the nasty old grease that probably contains metal dust out would increase the life of the threads substantially.

I bet that split washer is an after market mod.  Could we get a picture of the screwbox?

One dosen't need to "take it apart" to clean the screw & screw box. Just back the screw out and use a brush with solvent like kerosene then oil it up.

I don’t know my post vise anatomy that well, but I’m assuming this is the screw box?

 

gotta love the stand/table/thing the old man kludged together. 

 

Yep, that's the screw box. Cleaning it and the screw is normal maintenance. I only consider taking it apart when the mount, spring and movable jaw/ leg are removed.  I see no need to do that with your vise. It looks to be in very good condition BTW.

I thought it was in decent shape. I will take a wire wheel to parts of it that have accumulated dirt on it, that can trap moisture and promote rust, plus clean up the screw... other than that, I will just get her back to work!

While I tend to strip a new postvise down and check all the bearing surfaces for rust, pitting and then clean and lube them and re-assemble.  This works for me as I realize I am prone to just using them for a long long time between maintenance windows and so knowing it's starting in good shape helps.