MissileBear
Well-known member
You mean this one, I'll sick my pet snakes on you. Jaws are 1-3/4 but this guy needs work, has a crack below the anvil.
I just about jumped out of my chair when I expanded that snake picture. Bleh. DO NOT LIKE.
...Looks like a late Friday job. If the vise was set up correctly and the center of the threads in the nut were picked up on center and the drill was carefully drilled through both sides and then reamed. (breaking through one side and hitting a rough cast on the opposite side will make the drill wander if not done slowly) Done right the pin holes would be in line. A real screwy design I agree...I would suggest reaming the holes to 9/32 and purchasing over size drill rod to replace if the holes are buggered up. Good luck.
I was able to carefully drive the pins out cleanly without damage to the castings- I've gotten pretty good drilling out/driving out rusted bolts and pins (living in Western NY most of my adult life). Anything near a road gets extremely oxidated from the salt laid down in winter. If I were keeping this vise for myself, I'd redrill & tap the holes for a set screw. I bet each hole is off by 15* in two directions. Looks like it was drilled from each side, and very quickly, rather than straight through.
The method you used to take the pins out is the hardest way to go about it.
This method usually takes about five minutes. Only one time has it failed me, and that was on a 600S that sat rusty for decades. I had to drill out those pins.
The end cap assemblies are sometimes very snug. If you bolt the vise to a bench, you should have no problem driving it out from the front with a long drift. If the vise isn't bolted down, it can be difficult.
Somebody tried explaining "you just stick an allen wrench down the nut and hit it with a hammer to drive out the pins". After watching that video, I completely understand what he was trying to explain....thanks for the vid!
I did bolt the base down after a few unsuccessful attempts - I was hitting the wood block with the 2 lb mini-tunk so hard it split the block and moved the table a few inches. The table is made of doug fir - the holes began to round out from the bolts holding it down. It's still soaking in the garage...I figure I'd give it a few days of "time out" and let it think about what it did.
It's *really* on there.
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