Union Vice #4 DA Refurb

[astroracer]

I found this vice Friday at a big indoor antique mall near Flint. $35 bucks to much?

The clamp jaw was rusted pretty solid and the whole thing was pretty crusty but I saw potential...

It took a couple of hours today to get the slide loosened up and removed. You can see where it was sitting.

I used a bunch of steel cutoffs and a wedge to get it apart.

With everything stripped off it was time to start refinishing. The bottom of the slide was nasty...

 

[astroracer]

The process I used to clean this up was to soak the parts in Simple Green for 15 or 20 minutes then scrub the parts with ScotchBrite and a toothbrush to degrease them.
After degreasing I hit most everything with a flap wheel on the 4" grinder to knock off all of the big rust.
Then I soaked everything in Metal Ready to remove the left over rust and get the parts ready for Black Oxide.

Starting the Black Oxide dip.

This went pretty quick once I got the thing apart... Everything is Black Oxided and sealed.

I wire brushed and Metal Readied the handle to get it ready for paint. I sprayed it flat black to sort of match the rest of the body. That will be the only thing I have to finish tomorrow. I will spray a couple of heavy coats of matte clear on it to seal it up.
It's still wet in the pic.

I'll post up pics after asm tomorrow.
Mark

 

[drivesitfar]

Astro: in case you weren't aware of it Union bought Parker vise company. that is one cool looking vise. how do you like the action and is it fairly easy to use?

you can also post up the before and after pictures over on the vise repair 101 thread that needs some good drill press and mill vises if you have time. here's the link.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252830

WELL DONE SIR and great find.

 

[mattblast]

Nice job. How well does the oxide hold up? Any special prep required for it?

Where did you get the wedge to separate the jaws? Looks like a useful tool that I don't have.

What are the plans for the missing jaw?

 

[Shiftless]

Nice job. How well does the oxide hold up? Any special prep required for it?

Where did you get the wedge to separate the jaws? Looks like a useful tool that I don't have.

What are the plans for the missing jaw?

I would also like to learn more about that screw in steel wedge tool. Many of us have struggled with stuck vise jaws in the past.

 

[astroracer]

Astro: in case you weren't aware of it Union bought Parker vise company. that is one cool looking vise. how do you like the action and is it fairly easy to use?

you can also post up the before and after pictures over on the vise repair 101 thread that needs some good drill press and mill vises if you have time. here's the link.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252830

WELL DONE SIR and great find.

Thanks for the kudo's. The vise was a no show doing a search on line so I haven't found any info on it. I did find a bit of info on Union Mfg. but nothing useful.
The vise is kind of clunky to use with the threaded collar being the only way to make big moves but it seemed to work very well even with the slide rusted up. We'll see what I have once it's back together.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

Nice job. How well does the oxide hold up? Any special prep required for it?

Where did you get the wedge to separate the jaws? Looks like a useful tool that I don't have.

What are the plans for the missing jaw?

Thanks Matt,
The black oxide is a kit I got from Caswell. It is holding up just fine on a few other pieces I have coated with it. The instructions say to have everything squeaky clean before dipping and they are right. I have found the process I am using know works very well and I get good color on most everything I coat. The clear sealer is key to make the coating less permeable.
the pics I posted last night were with fresh sealer. I'll get new pics today while I am assembling it. You will see the look is almost perfect to hot black oxide without the hassle.
I have had that wedge for many years... I have no clue where it came from. probably in a box from an auction. i used to do those those a lot.
There are no missing pieces to deal with, everyhting is there. The big problem with the vice was the rusted slide.
Mark

 

[astroracer]

The rehabbed vise is altogether and it looks and works great!
Wouldn't even recognize it from it's former sadness...
When I brought it home Friday afternoon...

And now just two days later. All cleaned up and fully useable!

It went back together easily and the slide NOW works as it is supposed too. It does take some effort, which is good, as that means it is still pretty tight. This is a very fine addition to my collection.

Thanks for looking.
Mark

 

[pendragon1998]

That's a great job. It's good to see old iron being brought back to life.

 

[Provincial]

That is a production vise for a small milling machine or drill press. It is meant to hold a part for one (or more) operations on that machine. It is adjusted to the part with the threaded collar, then the cam quickly tightens and releases the part. Then on to the next unfinished part in the blink of an eye.

It will be pretty slow to adjust for one-off projects, but it is way cool.

Nice job on the refurbish!

 

[Provincial]

I was interested in the adjustable parallel jack used to remove the dynamic jaw. I did a Google search in Images and after many dead ends met success with "machine levelling wedge jacks." They still are not identical to the one used by astroracer, but pretty close.

"wedge jacks" gets a larger variety of options, but many shoes and other unrelated stuff.