30 Days of Creativity - #27

Rebuilding  a Vise

Again, maybe it's a stretch but today I rebuilt a vice that I have owned for many years. It was originally purchased from Harbor Freight Tools. A lot of their stuff is not very good, but this is an excellent vise. It had fallen into a state of disrepair after being stored in a damp shed for a long time. It was rusted to the point where it could not be operated. What a waste to have such a handy tool doing nothing!

Figure 1. Refurbished heavy duty vise

So, I took it apart and sanded off the rust and cleaned the lead screw. Actually I had my daughters help do certain parts of it. They have at times expressed some interest in studying science or engineering so I figured any kind of mechanical training and experience can't hurt.

After reassembling it with the addition of copious amounts of lubricant, it seemed to work pretty well. Several cycles of its full range with the addition of more lubricant (I am fond of Slick 50) seemed to do the trick and I have used this tool to great advantage many times since (see Figure 1).

A few days later I needed to hold some material firmly but gently, so I fashioned some soft jaws out of pine scraps I had laying around. They aren't pretty but they get the job done.

It's good to have this vise back mounted on the workbench instead of sitting on a dusty, damp floor in an outdoor shed.

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