- Joined
- Nov 28, 2016
- Messages
- 2,368
I recently acquired an old Bridgeport vise... it was mounted on the old K&T horizontal mill that I bought a few weeks ago.
This old vise has led a pretty hard life... it was covered in dried oil/coolant mixed with very fine steel chips and dirt that literally had to be chipped off... it was about like concrete. I removed probably 10 pounds of this 'cement' using chisels, scribes, and various punches...
The top of the moveable jaw had been used as an anvil for years... it was pretty beat up. There were no jaws on it, just part of an old fixture of some sort mounted to the fixed jaw side. The moveable jaw was almost locked up... it would only move about ¼ inch.
I finally managed to get it all apart... only to find that the screw had been cut short... it was about 1 ½ inches too short.
I cleaned it up and made up a new screw for it, then painted it. I machined a set of aluminum soft jaws for it.
It operates smoothly now... I think it may possibly be useful again instead of being scrap metal...
-Bear
This old vise has led a pretty hard life... it was covered in dried oil/coolant mixed with very fine steel chips and dirt that literally had to be chipped off... it was about like concrete. I removed probably 10 pounds of this 'cement' using chisels, scribes, and various punches...
The top of the moveable jaw had been used as an anvil for years... it was pretty beat up. There were no jaws on it, just part of an old fixture of some sort mounted to the fixed jaw side. The moveable jaw was almost locked up... it would only move about ¼ inch.
I finally managed to get it all apart... only to find that the screw had been cut short... it was about 1 ½ inches too short.
I cleaned it up and made up a new screw for it, then painted it. I machined a set of aluminum soft jaws for it.
It operates smoothly now... I think it may possibly be useful again instead of being scrap metal...
-Bear
