11b30b4’s Reed 204 ½ R rebuild

Well, this weekend was productive. I went to 5 Estate sales this weekend. I chose all of them because they all had vises. One sale had a Columbian 3” jaw (probably a 603 1/3) and they wanted $110.00 for it. Another sale had a Columbian D33 ½ and they only wanted $20.00 but I was looking for different vises. Yet another sale had a Craftsman 5160 that they wanted $210.00 for. I snagged a Columbian 203 ½ M2 for $0.00 from another sale.

This brings us to this Reed vise that I got from my last Estate Sale of the weekend for $70.00. I probably could have gotten it for $50.00 but I hate nickel and diming people. I am happy with spending the $70.00.

View media item 110932
View media item 110934
View media item 110933
This Reed is a 204 ½ R with swivel base and seems to be completely intact. There are no cracks or welds and overall, it looks to be in very good shape. The original owner worked a lot with horseshoes and I am surprised its not more beat up than it is. The only real issue I see is a slightly bend handle and that is way less bent than many other vises I have seen. I tried to tap the handle straight, but my efforts have not really impacted the handle at all. I expect, I will need to heat it up then work straight.

View media item 110939
I disassembled the vise and placed all the parts in a simple green bath.

View media item 110935
View media item 110938
View media item 110937
View media item 110936
Tomorrow, I will rinse everything and place all the parts in a citric acid bath for 24 hours.

Thanks for the interest.

I pulled all the parts out of the citric acid bath last night and rinsed them off. I am not planning on doing anything else on this vise until I finish the Columbian 203. Although, I have been tossing around the idea of how I will straighten the handle.

I have watched a lot of youtube and if I had a 1-ton press, I could probably bend it back into shape. However, I would still need to deal with how to go about cleaning it up and minimizing all the hammer strikes. The bend is not extreme, and I could just run with it as is but that’s not my style.

I am considering hitting one of the ball ends with the angle grinder to expose the handle and knock the rod out of the ball. Then either straighten it out and clean it up in the lathe or replace the rod all together. Any suggestions on what type of steel to use? I could preserve the ball ends then add them to a new rod or the reworked existing rod then weld the ends and clean it all up to look factory.

Anyway more to come.

After the citric acid bath, I wire wheeled the all the parts and took everything down to raw metal.

Next, I began to tackle the handle issue.
I did try to expose the end of the handle inside each end-ball and unfortunately end-balls were attached to the handle in a different manner than I thought.

Each end ball is drilled out about ¾ the way through and the handle rod is inserted inside the end ball. I di not know if it was a friction lock of what method was used but there was no evidence of welds and there was a gap of 3/8” between the top of the rod and the top of the bored out end-ball.

Regardless, the end-balls were not coming off the handle so replacing the handle seemed the best option. I searched the forum and found several threads on how to fix, replace, and fabricate a vise handle. My biggest concern was what type of steel to use and in Ray _j’s thread “Making a vise handle out of steel rod” KMScott recommend using Cold Formed Steel 1144 from McMaster Carr. This is a stress relived rod that is easy to machine. I needed a 12 ¾” length and MC only offers it in 1’, 3’, and 6’ lengths.

Anyway, a 3’ section of 5/8” 1144 cost me $11.74 and the shipping and taxes was $9.62, so just over 21 bucks and I have enough rod to make two of these handles. I should mention that I have a metal lathe and milling machine. I also have a cheap stick welder, the one thing I do not have is a serious torch, the best torch I have is a small map/propane hand-held brazing torch.

As I previously mentioned, I tried to expose the ends of the handle rod that went through the end-balls; however, the rod did not go all the way through the end-balls so, using the cut off wheel on the angle grinder, I cut off the end-balls from the rod (insert joke here).

Next, I cut the 144 steel to the proper length and turned the two ends down to 7/16”. Next, I cleaned up the rod with sandpaper 80-1000 grit (wet sanding 400-1000) and polished it. In this pic you can see how bad the spindle looks compared to the new handle.

View media item 111180
Next, I needed to drill out the end-balls and to do this I needed to find the center of the end-balls and chuck them in the lathe. I eyeballed this and got fairly close. Once I had the center, I drilled the end balls out stepping up bits until the hole was 7/16”.

View media item 111178
Next, I cleaned up each end-ball with sandpaper and polish. To make this an easier process, I attached the end-ball to a wooden dowl and placed it in the lathe.

View media item 111179
Next, I cleaned up the spindle using a wire wheel on the threaded end and then placing it in the lathe and sanding and polishing the handle end. Here you can see the spindle, handle, and end-balls.

View media item 111181
Next, I placed the spindle nut, split spindle locking collar, base plate screw and the swivel lock bolt in an automotive oil bath for 24 hours.

Next, I cleaned up the slide rails inside the vise body. I used sandpaper 150-600 grit (400 and 600 wet sanded).

View media item 111177
Next, I broke out my cheap stick welder and welded one of the end-balls to the handle rod.

View media item 111182
Remembering to run the handle through the spindle (that would have sucked!), I welded the other end-ball to the opposite end of the handle. Next, I wire wheeled the welds then cleaned them up with the belt sander. Once I had them sort of round again, I took the assembly to the lathe. Running the lathe at a lower speed I used a file then sandpaper 80-1000 (wet sanding 400-1000), then polished the end-balls.



I realized that, it probably would have been easier to clean up the first end-ball weld before placing the handle inside the spindle but I was so focused on remembering to place the handle inside the spindle that I ended up doing it the way I did.

Next, I used a black enamel paint pen and traced the lettering on the vise. Next, I removed the parts from the oil bath and cleaned them up.

View media item 111183
I had been tossing around ideas for how to finish this vise off and decided on a raw finish rather than paint. This will be one of main vises to use in my shop and I wanted to protect it. I consider LSO, clear lacquer, motor oil, Gibbs, Fluid Film, 3-in-One oil, PB blaster, even some of the clear firearms coatings I am experienced with (KG and Cerakote); however, I decided on Protexall Products metal cleaning lubricant mostly because it does not attract dust or dirt and is does not contain wax or silicones.

I applied the Protexall on all the parts then I used super lube on the bottom of the slide rail, vise body slide rails, spindle, base screw, between the swivel base and the vise body, and the split spindle locking collar.

Next, I assembled the vise and took these pics before mounting it to my bench.

View media item 111185
View media item 111184
And that completes this rebuild, thanks for the interest.

Looking further into the history of this vise, I located the date code 357.

View media item 111203
View media item 111204

Very nice job overall and especially on the handle!

aslack99, thank you for your comments.