I picked this up a couple of years ago for I think $40. It was listed for more but there was a small crack in the anvil which the seller hadn't noticed, so he dropped the price and I said 'sure.'
(I made a short video of the restoration here if you're interested.)
To repair the crack I took a dremel with a cutoff wheel, cut a small channel along the crack and filled it with a MIG welder, ground the welds down and used a skim coat of fiberglass body filler.
The jaws were chewed up and so I replaced them with a set from Zoro for $25 after a 20% off coupon.
The handle was nicked and chipped and bent. In prior restorations I've smoothed out the nicks with body filler and repainted, but that's time consuming and difficult to paint afterward, since you can only do half the handle at a time with the main screw in between.
Instead, I took a suggestion and went to ecmanufacturing.weebly.com and asked the proprietor to make a custom length of 4140 1/2" rod with threads on either end. He did it for $39 including shipping, and the results were top-notch. I then got some threaded brass knobs from McMaster Carr and put them on either end and voila, instant new handle.
As for paint, I used Rustoleum Verde Green, and the slide, main screw and slide was done in Summit Racing single stage metallic silver. The entire vise was then clearcoated.
Hope you enjoy the before and afters!
(I made a short video of the restoration here if you're interested.)
To repair the crack I took a dremel with a cutoff wheel, cut a small channel along the crack and filled it with a MIG welder, ground the welds down and used a skim coat of fiberglass body filler.
The jaws were chewed up and so I replaced them with a set from Zoro for $25 after a 20% off coupon.
The handle was nicked and chipped and bent. In prior restorations I've smoothed out the nicks with body filler and repainted, but that's time consuming and difficult to paint afterward, since you can only do half the handle at a time with the main screw in between.
Instead, I took a suggestion and went to ecmanufacturing.weebly.com and asked the proprietor to make a custom length of 4140 1/2" rod with threads on either end. He did it for $39 including shipping, and the results were top-notch. I then got some threaded brass knobs from McMaster Carr and put them on either end and voila, instant new handle.
As for paint, I used Rustoleum Verde Green, and the slide, main screw and slide was done in Summit Racing single stage metallic silver. The entire vise was then clearcoated.
Hope you enjoy the before and afters!
