Vise Rehab

[jester69]

I have a 6" yausa vice a guy at a machine shop gave me, it had holes all over it,even down on the nut the lead screw goes thru, so I had nothing to lose, I cleaned it and degreased it and heated it up on my fish cooker, then I brazed in the holes but I'm not to good at it. when I milled it down the brazed popped out of most of the holes, so I melted the braze out and used some NI99 rods after heating it up again covered it in sand and the next day washed off good, put it on the mill and milled ever thing down flat, painted it and it works great no warp that I can tell.
Rick

 

[george wilson]

You are lucky.

 

[Restorer]

Monk, I sympathize with your dilemma. When others walk into your shop they may think you made that mess.

You will be happier with another vise for machining. Use the drilled one in the weld shop.

If you NEED to fix it, I suggest dissemble the vise. Drill down a short distance and tap the hole (Bottoming Tap) for a screw larger OD than the divot.
Mix some epoxy, apply in the hole and around a soft bolt. Screw the bolt in and torque. Next day cutoff the bolt about 1/16 proud of the surface.
With the ball end of a ball peen hammer, peen around the edge of the bolt threads to swage the metal tight at the periphery.

Then machine the bolt down to the original surface removing very little original material.
Cast Iron is sufficiently porous that oil soaks in over time. It then becomes very difficult to weld. The oil vaporizes and makes the weld very porous and weak. The only success I have had is to soak the part in an industrial paint stripping bath for 8 hours. The bath was boiling water and Oakite 32, which may no longer available because it is toxic.
Welding and brazing each run the risk of warping the vise. If it warps it will be junk.

 

[iron man]

I have brazed up some in the past and remachined all surfaces if you arc on it with a TIG or stick you will have hard spots and you will have to grind. I kind of agree with a low temp solution such as solder or something similar if your going to use JB weld you might as well put bondo in there. Ray

 

[Scruffy]

clean very it very well. j b. weld mixed with small metal chips. then file smooth.
scruffy

 

[george wilson]

The vise could be repaired with a vise jack. Jack up the old vise,and put a new one under it!!!

 

[Monk]

Good one George.). I've been down with pneumonia off an on for the last month, so progress was pretty slow. I opted for the JB weld route (didn't have much to lose). I put two layers of the JB weld on and then used an end mill to get it down to about 5 thousands over,



Then I ran a face mill over it until I got it down to about a half a thousandth under (just started to score the surface). Then I put a stone to it



I put a parallel in the jaws and ran and indicator over it, and it was less than a thousandth off from end to end which is close enough for most of the things I'll be doing. I had soaked it in kerosene to loosen up all the crud, and cleaned it up and painted it to match the BP before I started the process. Unfortunately I knocked a little paint off in the process and will have to touch it up. Maybe a new set of jaws, too. I'd like to have a Kurt, but this will have to do me for a while

 

[drs23]

Good one George.). I've been down with pneumonia off an on for the last month, so progress was pretty slow. I opted for the JB weld route (didn't have much to lose). I put two layers of the JB weld on and then used an end mill to get it down to about 5 thousands over,

View attachment 81240View attachment 81241

Then I ran a face mill over it until I got it down to about a half a thousandth under (just started to score the surface). Then I put a stone to it

View attachment 81242

I put a parallel in the jaws and ran and indicator over it, and it was less than a thousandth off from end to end which is close enough for most of the things I'll be doing. I had soaked it in kerosene to loosen up all the crud, and cleaned it up and painted it to match the BP before I started the process. Unfortunately I knocked a little paint off in the process and will have to touch it up. Maybe a new set of jaws, too. I'd like to have a Kurt, but this will have to do me for a while

Good job! Very impressive and should serve you for years.