# Restoring a Kurt Vise / Vice



## GreatOldOne

I managed to get a used D688 on eBay, and I’m going to restore it. 




I’ve already remachined the tops of the jaws, to get rid of all the gouges and dings:










And now I’ve managed to completely strip it down. Here’s the state of all the  service items. Good job they’re all being replaced. Yuck.




The screw and nut look good, and the hardwear is currently relaxing in an evaporust spa tub along with the fixed jaw, to remove surface rust.








A couple of queries though before I start doing anything else. All of the cap head screws on it have head metric sized hex sockets. The large ones for the fixed jaw are 14mm - I ended up using this and a 17mm socket / breaker bar combo to remove them.




Is that normal for imperial / English sized fasteners?

And the serial number plate is held on with drive screws. Opinions on the best way to remove them? Or just mask over when I repaint the body as all that’s left on it is the punched numbers.


----------



## Redmech

That’ll be great. Going to get new paint?


----------



## GreatOldOne

Redmech said:


> That’ll be great. Going to get new paint?



Yep


----------



## GreatOldOne

So all the surfaces that I machined on the jaws have been polished / lapped / whatever. Lots of different grades of wet and dry, a surface plate and a lot of elbow grease. Who needs a surface grinder  (I do! No room though)


----------



## GreatOldOne

More progress - the vast majority of the old paint has been removed from the body and nut now. I’ve been using Nitromors Gel, which does the job, but does take several applications. After seeing how well citrustrip works on various YouTube videos, I wish you could get it over here.

This is the second application doing its stuff.







And here’s the final result.





I removed the serial number plate by grinding off the heads of the drive pins. There’s nothing on it bar the stamped number - all the other info has been worn off. Which is a shame. 




Next job - masking up and paint.


----------



## GreatOldOne

Degreased, masked & first coat of paint tonight:












The paint is just run of the mill Hammerite smooth blue, bought at the local DIY store (B&Q, for us UK peeps). It seems to my eye at least to be pretty much a dead on match to the original Kurt paint.

https://www.hammerite.co.uk/product/direct-to-rust-metal-paint-smooth-finish/

I’ll let that dry overnight, and give it another coat tomorrow after work.


----------



## dlane

Some paints need to fully cure/dry before second coat if after an hour from first coat, should be in the directions .


----------



## GreatOldOne

It’s 4 hours between coats according to the instructions on the tin.


----------



## GreatOldOne

Three coats of paint later, and with the tape removed, it’s looking pretty spiffy.







(I was “working from home.” Shhhh. )

What to do about the serial number tag though? Leave it as is, or attempt to get the Kurt logo etc back on it? I doubt anything I did to restore the tag would be very durable... so leave it as is?


----------



## Cadillac

I’d put it back so at least maybe you can read the impression of Kurt. Just so if you resell they don’t think it’s a knock off.
You said you have a surface plate. Put vise on there and see how your cutting did on the jaws.


----------



## dlane

McMaster has drive screws, last time I checked


----------



## GreatOldOne

dlane said:


> McMaster has drive screws, last time I checked


McMaster Carr don’t have a UK presence, unfortunately. I do have some drive pins coming with the rebuild kit, though.


----------



## GreatOldOne

Okay, so now I’m confused. 




The cap head screws on the D688 are parts 4 & 8, and there’s the dog point set / grub screw 14. These are given to be 5/8-11 X 3 & 1/2-13 X 1-1/4 respectively... but they are most definitely not imperial on mine. I measured the long bolts to be M16 x 2, and the jaw and set screw to be M12 x 1.75 

So - does Kurt change the fasteners for the rest of the world, has the previous owner swapped the hardware for more readily available metric ones, or is it a happy accident that the 1/2-13 is *exactly* the same as a standard M12 thread?

It does answer my question as to why my metric hex keys fit. But it also means that the replacement set screw I’ve got coming won’t fit... Ho hum. Nevermind - I can get something that works or reuse the one I’ve got.


----------



## GreatOldOne

So, I've got a cunning plan, my Lord... I've been busy using Pixelmator, and dredging up Kurt labels. And come up with this:




Without knowing the exact fonts they use, that's the closest I can get with the installed fonts on my Mac. But I'm pretty chuffed with the result, when compared with the real McCoy:




The second part of the plan is printing that out at actual size, like this:




On a laser printable, weather and oil resistant plastic, transparent label. Then sticking it on over the plate. I may also give it a coat or two of clear lacquer as well, just for some added protection, but the labels I've got are supposed to be good for workshop use.

More pics when I've got it printed out on the label. But first, work stuff is in the way (It's release day, and crypto functions don't appear on the test severs by themselves), plus I need to change the toner in my printer.


----------



## GreatOldOne

So, here are the results. Firstly, I did them on the transparent labels (non branded, found online)






It was OK, but it wasn’t 100% happy. So I tried again with some silver waterproof / oil proof labels (Avery, from amazon. Used for asset tags etc) - this turned out much, much better. I just had to cut out the serial number window:






They even catch the light. 

I’ll give it a coat of lacquer tommorow, but I’ve already attacked one of the spares with some oil and meths, and it shrugged it all off.


----------



## DHarris

Very creative Jason!  I hope the parts in the mail are correct for you!!

Dave


----------



## GreatOldOne

If you like watching paint dry, this video is for you. What removes toner from a “special” label? Here’s the answer to a question you never knew you needed to know.


----------



## Cadillac

Very nice job looks OEM. Side job making fake Kurt vise with tag no import fees. 
Were your jaw bolts metric?


----------



## GreatOldOne

Cadillac said:


> Were your jaw bolts metric?



Certainly looks that way.


----------



## GreatOldOne

It's complete! The parts arrived from @DHarris today, so I spent an hour or so reassembling it after work.






The fasteners on my vise are definitely metric; the setscrew I ordered doesn't fit. I've re-used the old one again (just cleaned it up a bit better). I also managed to get the part numbers wrong ('doh!) and got two 1/2"-13 socket heads, rather than the drive screws. They don't fit either M12 != 1/2"-13 

It's not a disaster though, as I did get everything else right, and the new Kurt decals look spiffy. All I need to do now is get it bolted on the mill and trammed in. 









Others may find these links useful. I did. 

https://www.kurtworkholding.com/downloads/guides/D-Series_Rework.pdf
https://www.kurtworkholding.com/documents/online_D688.pdf


----------



## machPete99

For future reference on the drive screws...
I have had good luck removing them with a sharp narrow hardened steel wood chisel.
You need to come at it from opposite sides to loosen them up.
Plan on resharpening the chisel as often these screws are hardened and will chip the edge.


----------

