Hi,

I'm a total newbie just getting up and running. I picked up this (early?) 4" leg vise for a good price, but am just now noticing the issues. I still need to fab up a mount and spring.

The first seems to be that the stationary jaws are bent backwards, maybe an inch. Inside the stationary hole (sorry, don't know my terminology yet!) I have a crack. It isn't visible from the outside, only the inside.

On the movable jaw side, I see that the inner "sleeve" is in several pieces. I'm not sure if this is normal, or if it is supposed to be more solid. It's in there, not moving or anything, but doesn't look strong.

I can MIG weld, but I don't think that works for wrought iron. I imagine I could bend those jaws back into position.

Any suggestions (look for a new vise!?)?

Edit: Obviously most things are repairable, but my original question should be, is it worth the effort? 

 

Interesting. The screw looks to be in pretty good shape, which is the important thing. Do the jaws meet when the screw is tightened all the way?

Yes, screw looks good.  The jaws do meet, but the angles don't look right. I'll get a picture later.

To me the third photo looks like a very old repair. It looks like the original slit and drifted hole broke right at the top, and the jaw was fixed by forge welding two bars around the original jaw.

You could straighten the bent jaw by forging it very hot (Probably forge welding temperature if there are delaminations), but depending on how large that vise is it might be difficult to heat it up (depending on the capacity of your forge).

High heat and a good hydraulic press could straighten that.  The sleeving isn't much of an issue I'd run a stick welder around the outsides just to keep in in place.  I consider 80% of the value of a vise to be the condition of the screw and screw box.  Wrought iron can be arc welded I'd V out the crack and do a build up with a stick welder,  Note it will use more filler as the ferrous silicates go away.

Please remember that the jaws are not meant to be flat against each other when closed; they are mean to be parallel to each other when they are open to your common working width.

If the price was good enough; just having a good screw and screwbox you could move to a vise in better shape but missing them could be a good deal.  (last vise I bought missing a screw and screwbox I got for 20 UScents a pound.

I made a small repair in my wrought iron German vice with 7018 rods. It was the first time I arc welded wrought iron I was surprise with the good results.

Thanks for all the advice. Here is a pic of the jaws together (screw removed). You can see that they'd pretty much never be parallel with the angle of stationary jaws.

How about this:  Use it as is until you get a better one and then try repairing it, your skills will have improved too!

I had a vise where both static and dynamic legs were bent in to each other to the point that the jaws were not touching. It also had an obvious replacement screw and box. I figure the shop gorilla tried to tighten the vise with about a 5' cheater bar, bent both legs and blew up the screw/box. I documented the repair, it is in the vise folder somewhere, but I don't know how to link to it. Anyway, I got it rill rilly hot in my coal forge, laid each section bow- up on the anvil set a flatter on it and whacked it straight with a sledge. EZPZ. If you want to give it a shot, give me a yell.

Steve

***I found my post, from Oct 3, 2017. Sorry I can't link to it.

I have it bookmarked, here ya go.

 

6 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

  Wrought iron can be arc welded I'd V out the crack and do a build up with a stick welder,  Note it will use more filler as the ferrous silicates go away.

Should it not also be preheated and cooled off slowly? Or is that only with cast iron and other hard types of steel (like manganese)

Thanks Irondragon. You da man!

Steve

Pretty much all modern steels contain Manganese as it deals with sulfur contamination when smelting steel using coke.  Did you mean high Manganese steels that are enhanced work hardening and often used for RR components?

As for the wrought iron it should be extremely low in carbon and so welding preheat and post heat processes for high carbon steels don't apply. HOWEVER the jaws may have HC faces welded to them and if that area will be heated over the critical point you may want to normalize them.

3 hours ago, Stash said:

Anyway, I got it rill rilly hot in my coal forge, laid each section bow- up on the anvil set a flatter on it and whacked it straight with a sledge. EZPZ. If you want to give it a shot, give me a yell.

Thanks Steve, that's what I was imaging it would need. I'm not confident my soon-to be-set-up single burner propane forge is going to get hot enough. I may practice my stick welding skills and see if I can address the crack.

 

Thanks again everyone!

I meant high Manganese steels, I remember trying to do some welding on parts of a steel blasting machine. 

23 hours ago, Chelonian said:

To me the third photo looks like a very old repair. It looks like the original slit and drifted hole broke right at the top, and the jaw was fixed by forge welding two bars around the original jaw.
 

I now see what Chelonian is talking about. Yes, that seems to be a very old repair. I assumed it was made that way, but now I see what was done. Pretty cool. That jaw may stronger than original with the added mass. This thing has lived a hard life!

 

I'd build a trench forge in the dirt if you have a back yard to heat it up to work on it.  Also have someone(s) to HELP!