Repairing destroyed vise

Slathered it on there good...
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So, how did you guys mill this off? I assume this is cast iron. I don't have much experience machining cast iron.
I took a pass over it with my face mill yesterday to try to clean up the top and I wasn't impressed. Facemill didn't cut nice, seems hard.

Can I fly cut this? What speed?
Or should I stick with an end mill?
 
In South Africa we have a product called Pratley Putty which is a two part epoxy putty - you kneed parts A and B together and it softens as you work it, but then cures rock hard and can be filed or machined. I have used it on my mill table to fill the worst scares, and it avoids the problems with liquid type epoxy running out of where you actually want them to be.

It's a bit of a South African legend it was used by NASA in 1960's on Ranger landing craft, so has the distinction of being the only South Africa product ever to go to the moon.

Hallo Mozampete,I didn't know you were from sunny SA,so am I.Yes I also used pratly steel a couple of times aspecially when I was still in the automotive trade working for a boss. We used to repair big V8 engine blocks that has had holes knocked out by the connecting rods. We used to drill a number of holes all around the hole,weaved wiring all across the hole to give the pratly something to apply on,and I have got to tell you,I think those are still runnig leak free. Good stuff and easy to work with.
 
Hallo Mozampete,I didn't know you were from sunny SA,so am I
My adopted home. I'm actually a Kiwi but I have lived in Mozambique and South Africa for the past 15 years - I only originally came over for a 16 month contract job but stayed.
 
Shawn, do you want to cut into the original cast iron surface or just bring the epoxy down level with it?
 
Shawn, I didn't mill any of the cast iron. I just milled the JB Weld down to within .001 - .002 of the cast surface with an endmill. Then filed the rest down til I hit the cast iron. I then stoned the surface to clean everything and make it flat again.
The epoxy should mill will no problem using HSS.
 
Im not sure yet how I want to treat the epoxyed surface, but the to of the vise id like to face off and make pretty. Taking that surface down doesn't effect anything
 
Remove the vise jaws. Screw in a plate the size of the bottom using counter sunk screws deep enough so you can Mill the plate flat and square. Subtract the plate thickness from your vise jaws at the bottom and remove material for clearance of the plate. You may lose some depth but at least it will be usable again for accurate machining with Parallels. You ll have to mill the bottom of the vise for clearance of the plate to enable opening and closing. It may be doable. May not. Depends on your vice and amount of material to work with.
 
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Shawn, be careful what you want. Pretty is not necessarily a great thing. Flat and level is more useful.
Make sure your moveable jaw can be tightened up against a thinner jaw bed. Also realize that you maybe changing the screw height. So then you will have to shim the jaw to keep the height. Your shims will need to be kept so they don't move... Kind of pandora's box. Just thinking ahead if you haven't.
 
Also remember that if you take anything off the surface. You may have problems with the movable jaw being loose or the screw wanting to bind up. Because you change how everything sits.
 
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