I have finally made some progress on my American Scale 3". I tend to be a glutton for punishment when it comes to resurrecting things that many would pass on and my first old vise resto or resto/mod in this case is no different. I was basically given this vise so I had nothing to lose in case it didn't work out but I had to at least try. It helps to have the mindset of "don't let perfection get in the way of an improvement" when working with these old broken things.
The before pics show how sad the jaw perches were and the crack on the dynamic slide. I made the best of a bad deal by milling off the jaw perches all together and created a step for the new jaws to rest on. Unfortunately there wasn't a square edge anywhere on the static jaw or the body so I had to rely on the dial indicator and the set-ups took longer than I anticipated. I am hoping the three screws I added to the slide will at least keep the crack from spreading. I also had to drill and tap through both jaws as I wasn't left with many threads even after bottom tapping the holes.
The slightest gap at the bottom of the jaws went away just by applying hand pressure. I was happy with that.
Like I said, there isn't a square edge on this vise. Below you can see how much taper is on the bottom of the static.
The last thing I had to refrain from fixing was the lack of concentricity between the base ring and the static jaw base. Initially I started thinking of how I would go about fixing it. I considered sweeping the hole and shifting over then boring a larger hole then install a bushing but I remembered it has been that way for many years, why bother fixing it now.
My next step is paint. Any suggestions? I know the star used to be red originally and I am thinking the body was perhaps black but not sure.
The only thing I have been able to quasi-pin-down is that it was mfg'd sometime between 1925-42. But!! I have my 98 in pieces right now so it was easy to weigh:
. I never took the term Masshole as a compliment.