Kurt D-50 vise grinding and restoration ?

matthewsx said:
I'm going out on a limb here and say that doesn't all look like shipping damage to me.

What measuring tools do you have? Do you have access to a surface plate and tenth's indicator with a stand?

You could do like joeman77 says and take it as your first project but I suspect it will be nothing but frustration. We have all bought things that seemed like a good deal at the time but ended up being a bad idea, it's just part of the learning experience. If I were in your place I would first contact the seller and file a complaint, don't know how you bought it but if by eBay they have a fairly decent system for dealing with problems. The end result will probably be a partial refund on your purchase but maybe you won't get anything. Often credit card companies will help out in these situations but I can't really say if this will be the case for you.

Either way I would order a new vise from a reputable vendor. Shars has some pretty good deals going on now and that will get you making chips instead of trying to fix something where you don't have the experience to make it right. Maybe after a few years you can pull this one out from under the bench and make it better than new but from what I see you're unlikely to achieve what you said you wanted "a decent high dollar vise".

I'm pretty sure a 4" vise will work for most projects you're likely to do and you can always upgrade later when you find you need it. Check this one out:

www.shars.com

4'' x 3.93" Lock Down Precision Milling Machine Vise

www.shars.com www.shars.com

I don't know what shipping will be to your location but I'm confident they will package it correctly. The sooner you start making chips the sooner you'll be past this unfortunate episode....

Cheers,

John
Click to expand...


Thank you John, you may very well be right. I'm still going to explore for someone with a surface grinder that has done vise work but I am looking at this vise from Shars due to the wider opening capacity :
https://www.shars.com/products/workholding/vise/4-440v-cnc-milling-machine-vise-0-0004-1

In the mean time I may just draw file and stone it to see If I can even get it even close to useable. I don't think I can damage it worse than where it is now :-)

Capt. Thomas
 
I think you've been had....that all looks like old damage from poor workshop practice.- not shipping.
I'm with the others here. Don't even think of grinding! Stone it flat and start using it. The loose key can be held still with locktite one ONE side only (base or jaw, NOT both). Stone everything and assemble. Don't fit the key or torque the fixed jaw down until you can clamp a parallel in the vice to align key and jaw on the face of the key which will always take the load.
If you want pretty, then polish all the bits that should be shiney and repaint the rest.
 
Well I left out a lot of the purchase details and all the fighting I have been through on this because it doesn't fix my vise or lack of issue. But since it has come up. Yes it's the vise I bid on and matches the serial # in their photos, no not from Ebay but a private auction company. It arrived in a totally shredded box and the fixed jaw was hanging out of a huge hole, the handle & swivel base was missing (out of said hole or the other big tear on the opposite side of the box). The photos were clear and close ups, it was not damaged like this before they shipped it, sure a spot here and a scratch their but it was a decent vise before they shipped it. By the way the patina has happened during the 4 months I have been fighting this (30 days with the auction house vs. USPS, 30 or so with me vs. the auction house, 30 more with the Visa dispute and a month of me just being too disgusted to mess with it). I was told not to touch it in the event this went to court. It was pretty clean when it arrived but rust happens over night here in Guam :-( The dings, actually the whole vise was VERY shiny on arrival.

I went back and forth with the auctioneer and the post office. The auctioneer blamed the USPS, USPS took photos of the box, opened it and photo'd their inadequate / improper packaging before I even left the counter. The Postmaster flat out told me on the spot they could file but that their insurance was void for the improper packing and putting that heavy item in a 20lb. rated box (stamped on the bottom for rated shipping weight) with a couple wraps of shrink and a hand full of news paper. The Auction house told me they would file and refund me when they got refunded which never happened because they were in fact denied. Of course I sent photos to them and was at first told by their shipping Mgr. that they had a new guy blah blah and he would "talk to the boss". The "boss" said it was USPS end of story / sorry. Then I filed with Visa and ended up with a full refund minus a missing handle and swivel base.

So, as Paul Harvey used to say "now you know...... the rest of the story"! Yea I have a free vise that's pretty beat up and figured I'd spend the refund to fix it and buy a handle. So as I mentioned above, I guess I'll ding back in, file and stone it best I can so I can have my "vice of shame" and buy that Tegara 440v from Shar's

Capt. Thomas
 
Thank you for the pics. A little nicked up but not scrap metal, yet. Will it look pretty again, sorry, but no. Will it work as a vise again? If given the proper attention…YES. Use finesse, I can’t say that enough! Any old file and any old stone are not your best choices. To do this fix correctly, could maybe be classified as an art. Maybe first try one small inconspicuous area/nick with what file(s) and stone(s) you have on hand?
 
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Roger that, I have matched sets of precision bench stones from roughing to platen grade and some of the best Grobet & Vallorbe aircraft / gunsmith files.

Capt. Thomas
 
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