# Vise Repair & Restoratuion



## JPigg55 (Jan 31, 2016)

Found an old bench vise in an old tool shed on my property.
Tore it apart trying to clean it up, but found a piece of the casting was broken off.
Not sure if it's repairable if I can find the missing piece or not.
I did find, however, it incorporates a Gib.
The piece broken off broke right in the middle of the gib screw hole so even if I find the piece, I doubt I'll find the gib screw.
This is the first vise I've ever seen with a gib for adjustment. Any idea what it is ?
Looks to be a 4"-5" with fixed front jaw and intergral swivel base.


----------



## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 31, 2016)

that's a pretty fancy bench vise to have a dovetail and gib! That'll be awesome once you've fixed it and given it a lick of pain.


----------



## Mark in Indiana (Jan 31, 2016)

JPigg,
Is that an FPU? If so, you have a high quality vise. It's a shame that it's broken.
 I've made repairs to vises with missing chunks by filling them in with liquid steel putty & sanding it down. Sometimes I'll install some small studs and drill some holes in the broken area for the putty to anchor to.   However, I'm not sure it can be fixed in that area because of the stress that can be placed on the repair when you tighten the gib (hope I'm wrong).

On a side note, some guys claim that mixing iron filings with the putty helps.


----------



## Uglydog (Jan 31, 2016)

I wonder if depending on the quality of the casting, if she can be welded and then normalized so she doesn't have stress spots. 

Daryl
MN


----------



## Mark in Indiana (Jan 31, 2016)

A little bit about FPU:
1. *FPU* stands for *Fabryka Przyrazow Uchwytow*. I can't spell it without looking it up, and there's no way I could pronounce it.
2. Made in Poland by Bison Bial, a manufacture of high quality vises & machine accessories. www.bison-bial.com.
3. Age?: 60's or 70s. A lot of Eastern European vises don't have model numbers, styles or other clues to tell the age.

I have an 80mm FPU that will get restored and mounted on a roller cabinet. It has very precise movement, like a vintage Wilton Bullet.
I hope you can rescue yours.

Edit:
There is a moving jaw for sale on e-bay (I'm not affiliated with the seller). Might work for you.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FPU-Polish-...304865?hash=item5d612d1c61:g:nFYAAOSwQoFWP~A1


----------



## janvanruth (Jan 31, 2016)

clean up the surface and braze in a piece of cast iron and mill to suit the dovetail


----------



## JPigg55 (Feb 1, 2016)

Haven't found the missing piece yet and guessing probably won't.
Thanks mark for the eBay listing, I'll have to measure to see if it might fit.
I've never heard of FPU, any way to tell if mine is or not ?
Still a lot of grease and grime from laying half buried in that shed to clean up.
I've been there for almost 20 years, lord knows how long before that it was put there.


----------



## Mark in Indiana (Feb 1, 2016)

JPigg,

The first attached picture (from Google images) shows the casting mark for a FPU vise. Half the fun of restorations is to learn the history.

That'll be a fun restoration. The most challenging restoration I took on was a 100+ year old Reed vise that was rusted shut. I let it soak in my kerosene tank for a couple of months, soaked parts down with a 50/50 mixture of ATF/acetone, worked it apart with a sledge hammer & wood block, and some press time. Second & third pictures show the before & after.

Good luck with it.


----------



## brino (Feb 1, 2016)

Hi JPigg,

This part highlighted in red:



Looks like a previous fix.
Is it welded or brazed?

In case you missed it, there is lots of recent talk about cast-iron repair here:
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/welding-cast-iron.42577/

-brino


----------



## JPigg55 (Feb 1, 2016)

I haven't had time for a good cleaning yet, but yes it looks to have a previous repair and appears to be brazed.
I got enough grime off tonight to see that it indeed has the FPU casting mark.
I measured the jaws which were 5" wide and dovetails were 3.5" at widest part.
The eBay listing Mark posted for the top slide looks almost identical except listed as 4.5" and mine only has 1 bolt/screw in the rear.
I see the one on eBay has a stamped 402 for the model number, but can't see where it's located on the vise. Can't find one on mine, but it is dirty. Knowing where to look would help.
Planning on researching some tonight, but with only a little over a day left on the listing, might have to take a chance for the price.
Any links or other info anyone has would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## Mark in Indiana (Feb 1, 2016)

I pulled my FPU vise and found some information stamped on the bottom of the nut. The size and other letters. I'll have to research them.


----------



## JPigg55 (Feb 1, 2016)

Mark in Indiana said:


> I pulled my FPU vise and found some information stamped on the bottom of the nut.



Are you talking about the main acme screw nut or the swivel base wedge nut ?


----------



## Mark in Indiana (Feb 1, 2016)

Main acme vise nut.


----------



## JPigg55 (Feb 1, 2016)

Thanks Mark, hopefully have time tomorrow night to pull mine out and see if anything's there.


----------



## JPigg55 (Feb 2, 2016)

I pulled the Acme nut off mine and did find a stamp.
Very light and paint over it, but looks like B- 428. Tried the pencil rub method as well, photos attached.
Space between the dash and the 4, could be another number, hard to tell until completely cleaned.
Didn't find anything with Google search. Any info ?


----------



## JPigg55 (Feb 2, 2016)

Played around in photoshop.
Converted to greyscale and adjusted contrast and brightness to see if more visible.


----------



## Mark in Indiana (Feb 2, 2016)

Interesting.
Mine says:  *PJWK 80*
I can only guess that the 80 is the jaw size.


----------



## Ulma Doctor (Feb 2, 2016)

i just came across the thread.
i just gotta say i wish i lived closer to you JPigg55, i'd love to do some CI repairs for you on the old vise.
that's gotta be one of the cooler vises that i have seen, very high quality.
too bad it's seen a hard life...

i'd braze humpty dumpty back together again, if she were mine.


----------



## partsproduction (Mar 11, 2016)

Is that screw a true Acme? You know the Europeans have a thread they call trapezoidal, how far it varies from our Acme I don't know. But I have an FPU vise, and had it apart, my poor memory was of a 60 degree thread, but I'd be happier if it were Acme or trapezoidal. (PS I looked, it is a trapezoidal style thread)

I assume they know how to make a good vise in Poland, especially Bison. So I assume these are ductile iron castings, not what we normally think of as cast iron. Still, that dovetail flange did break, and it should not have as ductile iron. I wonder what brazing does to the metallurgy of ductile iron, I think it is up around 60K tensile strength.


----------



## 4GSR (Mar 13, 2016)

I recall checking out the threads on a few vises  many years ago.  What I found was not many followed any thread standard.  Some were square threads, some a variation of Acme or Trapezoidal thread, and even some vee threads.  Another dead give away is the thread pitch.  How many threads per inch?   Is it Imperial pitch or a Metric pitch?  I do agree that the country of origin has an effect on what thread form was used, too.


----------

