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BFBOB

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No new vises for me but I just picked up this extra battery charger my father had so I can build an electrolysis tank. But now I just realized it says fully automatic. I did a Google search and only found an old ad from 1977.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430093690.533583.jpg

First, try it and see. It may work fine; if not, just go in and snip out and/or bypass all components except the diode bridge, ammeter and transformer.

...unless it has a switching power supply. Never seen one, but I suppose it's possible. If so, it can't be modified practically. Weight is usually the tipoff. If it only weighs a couple of pounds, it's a switcher. The transformer alone in a 10A conventional charger weighs 5 pounds or better.
 
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Outlawmws

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No new vises for me but I just picked up this extra battery charger my father had so I can build an electrolysis tank. But now I just realized it says fully automatic. I did a Google search and only found an old ad from 1977.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430093690.533583.jpg


If that charger doesn't work by itself, add a car battery and hook the charger to it. I find the E-tank seems to work better with a battery anyway.
Jim

Mostly this: ^^^^ you can even use a battery out of a UPS to do the job...

Not sure how that charger will do for you as it doesn't appear to have a manual mode. It might not sense the electrolysis tank as a battery to turn on.

You really should look for one with a manual switch on it. I picked up this one over the weekend for $8 at a local garage sale. Weighs about 10 lbs.

Probably apples and oranges: see below

First, try it and see. It may work fine; if not, just go in and snip out and/or bypass all components except the diode bridge, ammeter and transformer.

...unless it has a switching power supply. Never seen one, but I suppose it's possible. If so, it can't be modified practically. Weight is usually the tipoff. If it only weighs a couple of pounds, it's a switcher. The transformer alone in a 10A conventional charger weighs 5 pounds or better.

Bob the label says "solid state" so no transformer. your mods won't be an option.
 
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bagged89s10

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Not sure how that charger will do for you as it doesn't appear to have a manual mode. It might not sense the electrolysis tank as a battery to turn on.

You really should look for one with a manual switch on it. I picked up this one over the weekend for $8 at a local garage sale. Weighs about 10 lbs.


Yeah I don't even know if the charger is working at all. I just hooked it up with a car battery for now. I think I saw a few battery chargers on CL. Will have to go buy one to make it easier next time. At least this one was free.

Here's my ghetto setup using some scrap 1x3, a 5 gallon bucket and some house wire. Oh yeah, I used a metal ring I saved from inside of a broken lamp shade.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430109470.968033.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430109459.761901.jpg

After 20 min
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430109532.827368.jpg

The battery charger doesn't read any Amps but the voltage at the battery is 11.7. It was at 10.8 when I started so I think it's working. Now I can't sleep because I want to see watching this dam tank.
 

Outlawmws

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Bagged; Lose the house wire. you will introduce "heavy metals" (Copper) into the solution. get some rebar tie wire from one of the big box stores. Its cheap and soft iron. That is all you want hitting the soup for E tanking steel and CI.
 

bagged89s10

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Bagged; Lose the house wire. you will introduce "heavy metals" (Copper) into the solution. get some rebar tie wire from one of the big box stores. Its cheap and soft iron. That is all you want hitting the soup for E tanking steel and CI.


Ok thanks for that info. I will get some tomorrow. What will the copper do?
 

dutchgray

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Colin39
That's a No7 and also quite a lot of money, does look decent apart from the double jaws.

CW
Nice Woden 00, you could flip it and make £20 pretty easily so its a good buy, how is the 633 now you have it.
 

bagged89s10

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Ok thanks for that info. I will get some tomorrow. What will the copper do?


Ok just changed out the copper for some steel, put some fresh solution in, and put the tank outside for the night. I should have a clean static side of my Parker No 2 tomorrow. This sure beats the mess of wire wheeling.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430117094.322117.jpg
 

Fretters

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Bagged: Just pop a voltmeter on the charger and check whether there's any output, whilst it's connected to nothing.


Bob the label says "solid state" so no transformer.

Solid state in something like that will probably merely refer to the fact that there's some silicon in it somewhere, most likely on the output line, hence the automatic. I'll eat my hat if that one has a SMPS in it, if it's as old and heavy as he says. :D
 
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Fretters

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What will the copper do?

If you only have copper on the negative connection, there's no problem, whether it's immersed or not. If you have any immersed in the solution on the positive side, it'll corrode away into the solution. It's merely a case of minimising possible issues with disposal of the waste solution.
 

bagged89s10

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If you only have copper on the negative connection, there's no problem, whether it's immersed or not. If you have any immersed in the solution on the positive side, it'll corrode away into the solution. It's merely a case of minimising possible issues with disposal of the waste solution.


Ok I didn't have any copper submerged in water on the positive side. I made sure all the connections were above the water.
 

wrenchguy

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This is an Athol 612-1/2.
Not as good at doing this refab as some of you fellas ( you guys are unbelievable!:eyecrazy:) but, it sure is a fun pastime.

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nice, real nice.
 

CwazyWabbit

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...

CW
Nice Woden 00, you could flip it and make £20 pretty easily so its a good buy, how is the 633 now you have it.

I reckon I'll give it a bit of a clean up and put it on eBay with a BIN of £20 and see what happens. As much as an experiment as anything else.

The 633 looks better than I expected it to tbh, it's has a hard life but doesn't appear to be scrap yard fodder to me.

It is very American, in fact everything about it seems to be a copy of an American combination vise. I'll take some better pictures later and put them up here.
 

bagged89s10

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Bagged: Just pop a voltmeter on the charger and check whether there's any output, whilst it's connected to nothing.


Solid state in something like that will probably merely refer to the fact that there's some silicon in it somewhere, most likely on the output line, hence the automatic. I'll eat my hat if that one has a SMPS in it, if it's as old and heavy as he says. :D


It wasn't reading anything last night with it disconnected from a battery. I don't think it did at least. I checked the voltage this morning before heading out to work and the battery dropped to 11.4volts. I disconnected everything and checked if the charger's reverse polarity light worked, and it does. Tested the voltage with the battery disconnected and now it read 6volts.

Either way the vise is continuing to cook until this afternoon.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430140907.232523.jpg
 

BFBOB

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Mostly this: ^^^^
Bob the label says "solid state" so no transformer. your mods won't be an option.

Not necessarily. In the olden days, chargers used selenium rectifiers (and before that, I suppose tubes, though I've never seen one). This one could be from the era when the switch was being made to silicon and manufacturers were proud of using the latest technology. Yeah, strictly speaking, selenium is solid state too, that is, not a vacuum tube, but the term didn't come into use until the advent of silicon and germanium diodes, transistors, and the like. That's why I advised checking the weight of the unit. One of the primary benefits of switching supplies is that the transformers are tiny and light.
 

vette66bob

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Crazy Wabbit, I have recently acquired a "record Staple Vice" I have not been able to find information about there use, origent value etc. I do know they are very heavy and hard to handle.
 
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FMC1959

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Here's a listing from a guy that spends way too much time on ebay without actually understanding what he's looking at.

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/tls/4995599753.html

Crazy price aside, never seen that model before, sure looks to have quite the large sized base. The seller states 6" wide, I am guessing at the base? If it is the jaws, that has to be among the largest shop/utility vise out there. Anyone no much about this model?
 

vintage nut

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Not necessarily. In the olden days, chargers used selenium rectifiers (and before that, I suppose tubes, though I've never seen one). This one could be from the era when the switch was being made to silicon and manufacturers were proud of using the latest technology. Yeah, strictly speaking, selenium is solid state too, that is, not a vacuum tube, but the term didn't come into use until the advent of silicon and germanium diodes, transistors, and the like. That's why I advised checking the weight of the unit. One of the primary benefits of switching supplies is that the transformers are tiny and light.
Tungar bulb chargers were the old ones. Used them at a farming museum I have done a fair bit of work for. Really nice old units!

you can never have too many tools
 

CwazyWabbit

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Crazy Wabbit, I have recently acquired a "record Staple Vice" I have not been able to find information about there use, origent value etc. I do know they are very heavy and hard to handle.
Oh well, you've got the 1935 price and weight now :) I don't think I've seen any in the post war Record catalogues. They would have been used for blacksmith type work.
 

JZiggy

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Anyone ever taken the handle off of a Paramo? Do you think the ball ends are shrink-fit on or what?
 

CwazyWabbit

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Dutch:

Couple of close ups of the 633 and it's various problems, nothing too drastic so far.

At the very least the jaws will get removed and turned over.
2015-04-27 18.15.41.jpg

2015-04-27 18.15.51.jpg

Broken bolt will need removing.
2015-04-27 18.16.04.jpg

Broken swivel lock also has a broken nut, I'm probably going to braze the cast nut back together and re tap it as they aren't available any more since Record changed their swivel design.
2015-04-27 18.18.47.jpg

That'll be where some of the backlash has come from....
2015-04-27 18.21.00.jpg

.... and a little more from a bent pin that holds the dovetailed main nut.
2015-04-27 18.22.29.jpg

Main screw looks unworn. Although I forgot to get a picture of how worn the the handle hole is ....
2015-04-27 18.21.06.jpg
 
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bagged89s10

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I'm going to go look at a Reed 104r. Anything I need to look out for on them that is unique to a reed?
 

FMC1959

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I'm going to go look at a Reed 104r. Anything I need to look out for on them that is unique to a reed?

Reed's along with Athol's may have been the most bulletproof built vises ever. I can't think of any special weakness to look out for other than cracks & welds you would commonly check on any vise.

One note, make sure the jaws are OK, that till they got to the more recent models (like 104N & 104S), the 104R you are looking at should have cast in jaws that cannot be replaced.
 

CwazyWabbit

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Fretters: My thoughts to, I can't see any one thing bad enough to warrant the scrap yard. But maybe it was just the collection of faults or a business, who knows.

I had the Record Tool Catalogue No.14 (issued 1935) turn up today, it's had an interesting journey. Inside the book is an old slip of paper (tool shopping list) with the name and address of someone in Lancashire, not that surprising until I point out that I imported this catalogue from Canada.
 

dutchgray

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CW
It looks very much like its seen heavy use, breaking or wearing parts until someone couldn't be bothered with it anymore and weighed it it, rather than fixing it.
 

CwazyWabbit

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Yep, but it's starting it's resurrection slowly, it will live once more :) There is surprisingly very little wear to the sliding surfaces.

Although a weld on the side of the slide has stopped any further dismantling this evening, I don't think the neighbours would appreciate a grinder at this time of night.

2015-04-27 22.35.01.jpg

But I have managed to remove the pipe jaw bolts and the one remaining pipe jaw, which although fitted to the dynamic jaw I'm reasonably certain is one of the ones for the static jaw.

2015-04-27 22.34.36.jpg
 

Fraggles

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CwazyWabbit

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Fraggles: LOL, I saw that ebay advert earlier and thought I'd seen that 36 before :)

The new 36 you've bought looks to have been well looked after, those jaws look very good!

I have a slightly different parker to the one in the eBay auction (still awaiting a spruce up), although mine seems to be missing the lower part of the swivel.
 

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Fretters

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Report it to Eprey; They will close his auction.

Seems to be a week for awkward sellers. I'm in the process of dealing with a reticent one at the moment. I'm thinking his auction style listing didn't go quite as well as he hoped/planned, so he ain't chuffed and is being somewhat evasive, but just on principle now I'm digging my heels in. I wouldn't mind if they were just outright honest and said they were hoping for more, but ignoring messages for days and then trying to wriggle out of the sale without giving one any chance/choice is something I class as piss poor form. I've never done any tricks like that no matter how dismal a price something of mine may have achieved by the end of the listing, so I expect no less from others. Not too much to ask, is it?

Gripe mode ended now. :D
 

bubinga

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no it is not too much to ask.

Seems to be a week for awkward sellers. I'm in the process of dealing with a reticent one at the moment. I'm thinking his auction style listing didn't go quite as well as he hoped/planned, so he ain't chuffed and is being somewhat evasive, but just on principle now I'm digging my heels in. I wouldn't mind if they were just outright honest and said they were hoping for more, but ignoring messages for days and then trying to wriggle out of the sale without giving one any chance/choice is something I class as piss poor form. I've never done any tricks like that no matter how dismal a price something of mine may have achieved by the end of the listing, so I expect no less from others. Not too much to ask, is it?

Gripe mode ended now. :D
 
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