Restoration projects

[Fieryfox]

Hi all,

  I just picked up this vise that needs some work. It’s about 90 lbs and 41” tall with 5” jaws. I don’t see any maker’s mark on it but it has been painted at some point (or several times). Either the bolt is frozen or the spring is shot (or both). It looks to have been used as a lawn ornament for a couple of decades but otherwise looks fine. The screw is in good shape and it has all the parts. 
  What I wanted to ask is there any reason not to take a steel brush to it and break it apart to clean it. I plan on using it as it’s bigger than my current one. Thanks

Edited August 9, 2022 by Mod30
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[Stash]

Go ahead and take it apart and give it a good brushing and cleaning. Welcome, by the way. Where do you make a shadow? Put your general location below your name- you might be around the corner from one of us, and we're not too scary.

I've pulled apart and cleaned every vise I picked up. First thing is to pull and look at the screw and box threads- hopefully they are still square and not too worn. By the way, your screw and box don't look original, judging by all the shimming between the body and screw handle. No biggee as long as the screw is good. Then you will be able to see if the dynamic jaw is frozen. It probably is.. The last one I fixed was very frozen. I got the wedge out of the pivot pin out, but the pin was frozen in place. Gentle tapping and heat from a torch got that out, but it was still frozen. I ended up heating the whole pivot  area in the forge and it finally worked free.  Wire brush, clean, lube and re assemble and you're good to go.

For me, the work going into putting a tool like this back in service is as satisfying as actually using the tool. Hope this helps.

Steve

[Fieryfox]

Thanks Steve. I was wondering about the shims. This is the second vise I’ve gotten. The first I picked up from a guy who was clearing out his property and he’d had it sitting out there for years since he picked it up. I enjoy it too. I’ll post some more pics as I clean it up

[ThomasPowers]

Another reason for shims is when they have worn out a section of the screw and so have shifted it to a less worn section.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you.

That's a beautiful vise, it'll be a real work horse once she's tuned up properly. A 50/50 mix of ATF and Acetone makes as good a penetrating rust breaking soak as most commercial products for a small % of the cost. A soak is best but wrapping the frozen parts in rags and drizzling a little solution on it to keep it wetted works fine. Be sure to use a drip pan so you aren't leaking the stuff all over, it's not the healthiest dust control available. Might be a dynamite weed killer but I don't recommend it on the ground, driveway, etc.

Oh yeah, take a wire brush in an angle grinder to it but wear good PPE, old tyme paint USUALLY contained lead. Perhaps use a paint stripper so you can contain the gunk and dispose of it safely. You do live in Cal after all. 

Frosty The Lucky.