Resurfacing Old Milling Vise?

[Bishop]

I have mig welded cast iron before to restore a drill press table. The trick is to take your time and don't let the cast iron heat up to quickly or get too hot. I preheated with a torch and then only did one or two small holes or part of a large one and then let it cool down again. When it was done and resurfaced on my shaper you had to squint to see the original holes. Still holding up after a few years.

Shawn

Edit: I think it's a fine looking vise and deserves to be treated right and live out the rest of its life in a hobby shop environment where it will be well cared for.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

As a suggestion, you could clean it the vise up real good and braze the holes flush with bronze filler rod.
resurface ( or hand scrape for flatness) or use files to finish to your liking.
i have repaired some seriously ugly vises that co workers have completely messed up.
the vise is worth repair, IMHO

 

[dulltool17]

I'm with the JB WELD/Devcon/Allmetal school of thought. I think you'd do more harm than good with weld/braze or anything that subjects the vise to considerable heat..you'd be amazed at the results you can get from some of these epoxy-based filler metal products (probably not the correct nomenclature, but it suits me)

Best of luck- still a good tool there..


Doug

 

[george wilson]

JB Weld is pretty hard stuff. Rather than warp the vise by welding or brazing,using JB,or a similar product,as suggested,might be the best repair.

 

[Bill C.]

Looks like a training school or War production vise. Some one never heard of parallels. I have used a few that had a few added holes in them. If the ways are not badly worn it can be used with new jaws.

 

[chips&more]

Devcon liquid steel or the putty stuff is what I use and it works great! I would glass bead the part, use the Devcon to fill the problem(s) and then draw file smooth. Depending on the color of the metal being filed/repaired will of course determine the contrast between base metal and filler. You will be able to see the repair but it’s not that bad at all. Cast iron repairs the best looking. Putting heat to it will probably do more damage than good. This process does not heat it up at all…Good Luck, Dave.

 

[Monk]

I went the JB Weld route on an inherited Taiwanese 6 inch vise I posted about last summer http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/vise-rehab.24211/page-2. It turned out really well, but I use my Magnum 5 inch vise most of the time because it allows me enough room to squeeze my 8 inch RT on to the table at the same time for some projects. Here are before and after shots:

 

[burgermeister]

I've welded cast iron before (woodworking plane) with a Mig welder. I heated the whole area first with a propane torch, and then went slowly with the welded. It wleded up pretty well, but I ended up with some hard spots that ate anything I tried except carbide, which didn't last long . Also, the plane warped rather badly - all in all, not a success story.

If you're not comfy with JB weld directly, you could always mill a 1/4" or 3/8" deep patch out of the affected areas, use JB weld to glue in a bit of steel from your scrap bin, and then resurface the whole thing on your mill.

I have a 4" vise that looks exactly like yours (but without the abused bed), and I really like it. It uses very little vertical space, which is handy on an a Clausing 8520, and it's accurate within <.001 in any way I've measured it.