Chas Parker vise restoration advice needed

[Vne]

I'm currently working on a 6" Parker with a swivel base. The locking mechanism for this thing works, basically, just like a brake drum. My question is, which of these parts should I paint? All of them? None of them? Given the manner in which it works I wasn't sure if paint would last long on it anyway. Figured it'd just rub right off. But I want to know that the internals are well protected. Should I just thickly coat all of them with grease? What do you guys do?

 

[thehorse13]

I never paint the moving parts. Instead, I just put a nice film of bearing grease on them once the surfaces are cleaned up properly.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

Vne,
Welcome to the group.

After removing all of the rust, I'd paint the areas that don't contact each other. Then apply some furniture paste wax on the areas that will contact each other (inner surface of the base & the outer surface of the brake shoes). Then apply a thin coat of antiseize to the pin & threads.

I'm a huge Parker fan. Please show the rest of your vise and restoration.

 

[Lee Celtic]

I've never seen the inside of a swivel vice before.. thanks for sharing..

But looking at it I'm struggling to see how it works. I get the brake drum idea but .. can I ask are the brake parts in the wrong way up.? looks like the wedge would pull up against the base of the vice and spread the brakes but the wedge looks the wrong way up.. or does it wind down to spread them..? Sorry for the questions but I've never had a swivel vice.

 

[cgrutt]

I just restored a large Wilton bullet with similar base. Taped off high spots that contacted with bottom of of vise and primed it. With tape still on, I then bolted it to the vise, flipped it over and primed bottom of vise (my base was pretty open on bottom, not sure if this would work with yours). Then unbolted it and masked off the area that contacted bottom of vise using the primer as sort of a template. Top coated the bottom of base and bottom of vise. After that was dry, I bolted the two pieces back together again, flipped it over, removed the nuts, taped threads and top coated everything else. I left the tape on contacting surfaces in between base and bottom of vise during this step. After everything was dry, took it apart and removed tape.

I also worked on a Wilton utility vise yesterday. This one is so light, I just painted everything. Will probably sand off high spots on base and use dremel to remove paint on contacting area on bottom of vise but not sure yet. Again, it is a very light vise and paint on swivel probably won't make much of a difference with this one.

I'd definitely try to mask off the contact areas on your Chas Parker though. I've got a fairly large Chas Parker (believe it's 6" as well) that I'm going to work on next. Post up some pics when you're done! Good luck.

 

[drivesitfar]

Lee: i'm sure one of the guys that owns a Parker swivel (sorry i don't) will stop in to say this better or maybe even correct me. usually there are grooves in the part that is under the swivel pin and Parker's looks like it pushes down to spread the piece in the middle to the static part to make it hold.

here's a link to more vise repairs and maybe a few more fixes you might need to do. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252830

as Mark and Horse and others will say you don't want to paint the parts that rub together. i clean up my vises and put some grease on the main screw and inside the vise nut for sure. then i either put a little on parts that rub together or just use BLO (boiled linseed oil) on them and the rest of the vise to give it a little lubrication and rust prevention.

also don't be shy and post up more pictures of your Parker or vises and tools in general when you are posting which might help us help you better. and of course we all like the pictures.

 

[Lee Celtic]

Yeh Thats what I was thinking.. if it pushes down then it's all good.. Just had a quick look through the first 10 pages of the vice thread.. lots of different styles of swivel.. I'm off to a car boot sale on Sunday looking for another vice.. couldn't decide to put mine on the left or right of my bench so changed tack and I'm going for one on each end of the bench.

 

[Vne]

Yeh Thats what I was thinking.. if it pushes down then it's all good.. Just had a quick look through the first 10 pages of the vice thread.. lots of different styles of swivel.. I'm off to a car boot sale on Sunday looking for another vice.. couldn't decide to put mine on the left or right of my bench so changed tack and I'm going for one on each end of the bench.

Sorry, didn't mean to confuse anyone. Those internals are flipped upside down. After cleaning them I just stacked them in the base so as to not lose them. The spreader wedge is pulled up by the locking bolt to force open the brake brackets. Yes, I just made up all those terms. But you get the picture.

 

[Vne]

Here it is oriented correctly with the lock bolt screwed partially in and my new wrench attached. I'm pretty stoked about this wrench as the original was long since lost. It's a Billings 1-1/16 6 point.

 

[Lee Celtic]

So I'm not losing it.. yay..

It is nice when you get the right tool for the job.. or the era..

 

[Carla]

Hello, Vne,

Actually, you can easily 'reason out' the areas to be painted, and those to be left bare (with the thinnest possible coating of a 'rust-resisting' oil such as 'Break-Free' or equivalent.)

That swivel base works by friction, analogous to an 'expanding-wedge' or, if you will, a 'model A Ford' class of mechanical brake system, used by many car makers 90-100-ish years ago.

All the parts should be painted, except for the inner surface of the base, against which the 'brake shoes' bear, the area of the 'shoes' which bears against the inner surface of the base, and the surfaces of the shoes against which the wedge bears, as well as the surfaces of the wedge which act to expand the shoes, and the bore for the 'king-bolt', or 'king-screw' which holds the base to the fixed jaw, yet allows it to swivel freely.

On assembly, the surfaces of the wedge which act to expand the shoes should have a coating of a thick graphite-and-oil mix, or a good commercial anti-seize compound, as should the tapped hole in the wedge for the draw-bolt.

The Parker 'friction-clamping' swivel-base scheme might seem a bit 'weak' to a first glance, compared to the positive 'toothed wedge-bolt' of a Reed, yet it works quite well in practice.

cheers

Carla

 

[Vne]

Thanks for the info, everyone. Much appreciated. As I try to stick somewhat with the tools at hand I have to ask. After painting the non-friction surfaces what would you guys think of spraying the friction surfaces with WD-40 "Specialist" Long Term Corrosion Inhibitor and the wedge and it's hole with a liberal application of bearing grease?

Would this suffice or is it a sorry replacement?

 

[Carla]

A grease would be 'better than nothing' for the wedge surfaces, but would quickly be squeezed out. If you were to get an inexpensive small container of the ultra-fine graphite sold for lock lubrication, and mix in as much graphite as the grease will hold, you would have a suitable lubricant for surfaces under relatively high pressure.

I've no experience with the 'corrosion inhibitor' you picture, so 'I don't know', but, it would seem plausible, using an extremely thin layer of the stuff on the friction surfaces.

cheers

Carla

 

[G-ManBart]

A light coat of primer won't hurt internal parts that make contact....use the vise a few times and it will be removed, and the rest of the areas will be protected. A heavy coat might cause issues, but there's really no need for a heavy coat anyway.

 

[Craptain]

I generally work on the principle of lube any machined surfaces and paint the rest. This is based on the premise that machined surfaces bear on another machined surface so they need (in some cases very little) lube. Exception is certain surfaces like anvil surface and jaw sides/top. These can be waxed as they don't need lube. All rough cast surfaces can be painted. Obviously use a little common sense with these guidelines.

 

[McBrownie]

A 976 is at least 60 years old. If it hasn't rusted away by now, well...

 

[Vne]

More great info. Mixing graphite into grease? You clearly know a heck of a lot more about this then I do, Carla. Is there a particular graphite grease or antisieze product you could recommend by name?