Dear friends at GJ,
I picked up this Chas Parker 975 last summer. I normally don’t buy vises unless I can see them but I made an exception because I have a soft spot for Chas Parkers. The good – all the parts are there. The bad – I think this vise was the winner in an “ugly vise contest”. It has 6 layers of paint. Both handles are bent. I did a vise restoration thread on a 974 ½ with more detail but in this thread I will just cover stuff unique to this vise. If you need more detail on a parker see that thread.
I had to buy a 1 1/2 socket to get the swivel apart.
I got a little worried when I saw these extra parts.
I am feeling better the main screw is in great shape.
The main nut is also in great shape.
The pin was there but was sheared off at the nut.
The main handle is bent. I will fix that later.
The swivel handle is bent. It is a Parker #3 all my other smaller parkers have a #2 swivel handle.
This gives me the chance to us my new toy...I mean..I mean ... my totally useful new tool.
A few tries and it is straight again. Of course you could do this with a vise and hammer but this is more fun.
Perfect like new again.
Now unto the paint issue. My son has the battery charger so no e-tank, the angle grinder was taking forever, the sandblaster was taking forever so I decided to try stripper.
That stripper smells horrible!!!
After a half hour Katie started to sneeze and look at me with those sad puppy dog eyes that said "muuust haaaave air!!!"
So despite the fact it was 17F outside we opened the door and got some freash air. Katie never fails me, when she says we need fresh air, we need fesh air!!!
After the stripper all the parts were scrubbed in the parts cleaner so I don't have my new paint falling off from residual stripper.
Here are all the parts nice and clean.
You will not believe this but Chas Parker used bondo...YES BONDO. This was under 6 layers of paint so it had to be original!! I am scarred for life. I will need vise therapy for months.....If Chas Parker used bondo, then it makes me think that Superman wasn't real ?? Every thing I believed in is compromised.
Well unto the jaws. I put them in my daily vise, a parker with no bondo...and used a wire wheel aligned with the serrattions to clean up the jaws.
This is an example of when it is nice to have a swivel vise on your bench. It helps to get the angle to set up best to wire wheel the jaw with the wire going into the serrations.
After a little work the jaws look good.
I always draw file the burrs off the dynamic jaw so they don't get stuck in the static jaws. See the shiny spot by the pencil point. Thes burrs can cause problems.
Next I grind off any high spot on the bottom of the swivel. If this vise is mounted on a steel bench these high spots can cause problems and in worst cases can cause an ear to break off. See centerpunch pointing at high spot
The jaws are as tight as a .......drum. Sorry I love that scrooge movie with the line "tight as a drum". So I decided not to remove and just clean them up with a flap wheel.
Not too bad, the big divets are still there but overal better than before.
Next step is painting. Stay tuned.
I picked up this Chas Parker 975 last summer. I normally don’t buy vises unless I can see them but I made an exception because I have a soft spot for Chas Parkers. The good – all the parts are there. The bad – I think this vise was the winner in an “ugly vise contest”. It has 6 layers of paint. Both handles are bent. I did a vise restoration thread on a 974 ½ with more detail but in this thread I will just cover stuff unique to this vise. If you need more detail on a parker see that thread.
I had to buy a 1 1/2 socket to get the swivel apart.
I got a little worried when I saw these extra parts.
I am feeling better the main screw is in great shape.
The main nut is also in great shape.
The pin was there but was sheared off at the nut.
The main handle is bent. I will fix that later.
The swivel handle is bent. It is a Parker #3 all my other smaller parkers have a #2 swivel handle.
This gives me the chance to us my new toy...I mean..I mean ... my totally useful new tool.
A few tries and it is straight again. Of course you could do this with a vise and hammer but this is more fun.
Perfect like new again.
Now unto the paint issue. My son has the battery charger so no e-tank, the angle grinder was taking forever, the sandblaster was taking forever so I decided to try stripper.
That stripper smells horrible!!!
After a half hour Katie started to sneeze and look at me with those sad puppy dog eyes that said "muuust haaaave air!!!"
So despite the fact it was 17F outside we opened the door and got some freash air. Katie never fails me, when she says we need fresh air, we need fesh air!!!
After the stripper all the parts were scrubbed in the parts cleaner so I don't have my new paint falling off from residual stripper.
Here are all the parts nice and clean.
You will not believe this but Chas Parker used bondo...YES BONDO. This was under 6 layers of paint so it had to be original!! I am scarred for life. I will need vise therapy for months.....If Chas Parker used bondo, then it makes me think that Superman wasn't real ?? Every thing I believed in is compromised.
Well unto the jaws. I put them in my daily vise, a parker with no bondo...and used a wire wheel aligned with the serrattions to clean up the jaws.
This is an example of when it is nice to have a swivel vise on your bench. It helps to get the angle to set up best to wire wheel the jaw with the wire going into the serrations.
After a little work the jaws look good.
I always draw file the burrs off the dynamic jaw so they don't get stuck in the static jaws. See the shiny spot by the pencil point. Thes burrs can cause problems.
Next I grind off any high spot on the bottom of the swivel. If this vise is mounted on a steel bench these high spots can cause problems and in worst cases can cause an ear to break off. See centerpunch pointing at high spot
The jaws are as tight as a .......drum. Sorry I love that scrooge movie with the line "tight as a drum". So I decided not to remove and just clean them up with a flap wheel.
Not too bad, the big divets are still there but overal better than before.
Next step is painting. Stay tuned.
