drivesitfar
Well-known member
I'm starting this thread to help me because i'm going to restore quite a few vises and I've only paid to have that done or done some basic repairs so far in my 60 years. as with all tools different manufacturers all do things a bit different and some makers even do different things on their own models.
hopefully this thread will help others too and feel free to post your fix or problem on here so some member can help or enjoy the benefit of finding the answer. of course there are many answers on the over 1000 page vises of garage journal, but I've read that a couple times over the years and couldn't tell you where to find the answers.
ALL: IF YOU ARE POSTING A PICTURE OF A BEFORE RESTORATION OR ASKING A QUESTION ABOUT HOW TO REPAIR YOUR VISE PLEASE TAKE UP THE NEXT POST SO WHEN YOU HAVE THE FIX OR RESTORATION COMPLETED THEY WILL BE NEXT TO EACH OTHER. TAKE A LOOK AT JEREMY'S CRAFTSMAN ON POST #48 & #49 FOR A GOOD EXAMPLE. THANKS
i'm going to reserve the first several pages of this thread so I can keep up sort of an index and if you think I should have moved something to it please PM or make a post saying so and what needs to go where. so say you post a process to take a vise apart then i'll put the vise name and model # and the post # in the index. sound good so far? good comments along with all the tutorials and information is always welcome too.
the catagories I can think of off hand are as follows:
Vises and how to take apart and put back together
Cleaning processes
Paints or exterior protections
Lubricants to use or not use
Parts and where to get them
emergency repairs or fixes
MISC...
Please if you find anything you discovered you want to share please do and as always with pictures and several if you are able. we can always do a vise repair 201 for the advanced guys that want to fix broken vises with welding and other types of repairs, but this thread is mainly to keep the good ones still working.
ALL: if any of the members wants to take on a maker or two because they practically know everything about the models, years made and information about almost every vise such as jaw size width, weight, and those kind of things then please make a post and i'll reference that next to the maker's name. Just one thing make a post before you are putting in all the work it takes to do this letting us know so and then do your editing which might take a while. i'd put up the names of the guys that i'd PM if i had a question on a certain vise, but i'll let them post their information if they wish to and have time. thank you
don't be offended if yours is replaced by one that has more information because we are just trying to get a better Vise Repair 101 thread. don't let that keep you from posting what you know if you do know something or a lot.
some are questioning why i started this thread so here's my very long 2 cents. I have several vises and more times than not i'll start taking a vise apart to do just basic cleaning, greasing and maybe a paint job if needed so i can use it. Usually I have to stop in the middle more times than not and ask a member a question or spend hours reading trying to find an answer. that said i have read the vise thread maybe 2 times through over the years and probably wont a 3rd, but i won't rule that out. there is even a video on YouTube somebody made of the vises of Garage Journal and if somebody wants to post it there are many many great vise pictures in it (posted links on Post #45). so there is information all over GJ's vise thread for many things and plenty of pictures, but it's getting to be 1000 pages now. the other day i spent hours trying to find just a little thread on Garage Journal that i knew was there that was about a vise I bought. i didn't find it and knew it was here and stopped looking after an hour or so. then a day or so later i spent another 4 hours searching again and finally found it (after 15 minutes i was going to find it again no matter what so it was late and didn't realize i'd spent that much time looking). i know the search engine is a good thing but it doesn't always find what you are looking for even if you know it's there.
my first vise was a home show purchased Zyliss aluminum vise which i still own because it can clamp to board if you need it to. i'd owned it for basic homeowner type stuff the 25 years i had it as my only vise on my bench and even built a few golf clubs with it besides basic homeowner stuff. I thought it was no longer strong enough for me if i was going to have to fix some of mine and my family's tools, so i researched vises for a long time before finally buying a Wilton Bullet off of Craigs maybe 7 years ago.
at the time i thought that Wilton was the best and it's still a great vise. During the research i heard and saw pictures of these big and old US and European vises and i was interested and ended up buying a few over the years. of course once i joined Garage Journal and learned a lot more and was able to ask questions and see all the awesome vises that members owned it was like a drug i couldn't get enough of. ever had a vice for a nice old vise or bought several of one item that you liked and wanted to own more that were slightly different? that said i know i probably don't own as many as some of the members and even the non members that have been buying and collecting these awesome tools for years but i own a few more than most because i was looking for them when i might have just walked by in the past and not seen them.
now i'm a fairly handy guy (plumbed and wired a couple homes, remodeled a kitchen and couple bathrooms, built a deck, new yard with sprinkler system and poured and laid several thousand square feet of cement among other things), but i always deferred my car and basic engine tool repairs to the experts over the years instead of taking the time to learn. so i want to start restoring vises instead of paying a few pros to do so which I've done several times with success and I would just watch them do a basic cleaning fix or drop off and pick up a shiny as new vise for a full restoration. I've started taking apart maybe 10 or 15 vises and almost all are different and was only able so far to put a few back together and sell to a deserving member that needed it. so now i own more vises than most of the members partly because i won't sell a vise that is in pieces when i know i can put it back together on my own.
now because of wanting to restore a vise correctly i have bought a few tools. can a GJ member have too many tools?? Tools that I had before joining GJ were a couple carry boxes and a 3 drawer kennedy box on my bench that i barely opened. now i might own 3 rolling old tool boxes and most with top boxes and enough tools to fill them once i pull them out of the garage sale buckets just since i joined Garage journal. instead of just using the tool on hand that might work i now own most of the correct tools for the job. i never in my dreams thought i'd need more than a half inch ratchet, but these big vises have big nuts so now i have 3/4 and inch ratchets with plenty of big sockets to fit them. A big truck mechanic could probably come to my home now and have the tools he needs for his repair. i also own more grinders than most and i'm planning on getting a different wheel on each one so i can not only clean up and shine up a vise but other tools and projects in the future.
there is always a question that i wish i had a quick answer to and not have to stop in the middle of my project and for that reason i hope this thread will be helpful as well as informative. once you are able to take a vise apart and put it back together you are well on your way to doing other projects because a lot of it is basically the same. only difference sometimes is having the right tools. of course there are many many projects that i'll still pay someone to do like my hot tar roof repair or setting the foundation for a home. or working on a mill or lathe because i don't have the space or the knowledge to use one yet. before i owned a huge vise i wouldn't have thought about welding, or buying a lathe or some of the other metal working skills that i'm now researching and will do some day if I live long enough.
that's enough for today and just thought some would like to know why another HOW TO thread was started. hopefully i'll live long enough or have enough time to see this through and any help from the talented and knowledgeable members here at GJ is as always appreciated and most definitely needed. i'll edit and place the new information as i get time and please PM me if you think something was missed. thanks again guys for all your help now and in the past.
hopefully this thread will help others too and feel free to post your fix or problem on here so some member can help or enjoy the benefit of finding the answer. of course there are many answers on the over 1000 page vises of garage journal, but I've read that a couple times over the years and couldn't tell you where to find the answers.
ALL: IF YOU ARE POSTING A PICTURE OF A BEFORE RESTORATION OR ASKING A QUESTION ABOUT HOW TO REPAIR YOUR VISE PLEASE TAKE UP THE NEXT POST SO WHEN YOU HAVE THE FIX OR RESTORATION COMPLETED THEY WILL BE NEXT TO EACH OTHER. TAKE A LOOK AT JEREMY'S CRAFTSMAN ON POST #48 & #49 FOR A GOOD EXAMPLE. THANKS
i'm going to reserve the first several pages of this thread so I can keep up sort of an index and if you think I should have moved something to it please PM or make a post saying so and what needs to go where. so say you post a process to take a vise apart then i'll put the vise name and model # and the post # in the index. sound good so far? good comments along with all the tutorials and information is always welcome too.
the catagories I can think of off hand are as follows:
Vises and how to take apart and put back together
Cleaning processes
Paints or exterior protections
Lubricants to use or not use
Parts and where to get them
emergency repairs or fixes
MISC...
Please if you find anything you discovered you want to share please do and as always with pictures and several if you are able. we can always do a vise repair 201 for the advanced guys that want to fix broken vises with welding and other types of repairs, but this thread is mainly to keep the good ones still working.
ALL: if any of the members wants to take on a maker or two because they practically know everything about the models, years made and information about almost every vise such as jaw size width, weight, and those kind of things then please make a post and i'll reference that next to the maker's name. Just one thing make a post before you are putting in all the work it takes to do this letting us know so and then do your editing which might take a while. i'd put up the names of the guys that i'd PM if i had a question on a certain vise, but i'll let them post their information if they wish to and have time. thank you
don't be offended if yours is replaced by one that has more information because we are just trying to get a better Vise Repair 101 thread. don't let that keep you from posting what you know if you do know something or a lot.
some are questioning why i started this thread so here's my very long 2 cents. I have several vises and more times than not i'll start taking a vise apart to do just basic cleaning, greasing and maybe a paint job if needed so i can use it. Usually I have to stop in the middle more times than not and ask a member a question or spend hours reading trying to find an answer. that said i have read the vise thread maybe 2 times through over the years and probably wont a 3rd, but i won't rule that out. there is even a video on YouTube somebody made of the vises of Garage Journal and if somebody wants to post it there are many many great vise pictures in it (posted links on Post #45). so there is information all over GJ's vise thread for many things and plenty of pictures, but it's getting to be 1000 pages now. the other day i spent hours trying to find just a little thread on Garage Journal that i knew was there that was about a vise I bought. i didn't find it and knew it was here and stopped looking after an hour or so. then a day or so later i spent another 4 hours searching again and finally found it (after 15 minutes i was going to find it again no matter what so it was late and didn't realize i'd spent that much time looking). i know the search engine is a good thing but it doesn't always find what you are looking for even if you know it's there.
my first vise was a home show purchased Zyliss aluminum vise which i still own because it can clamp to board if you need it to. i'd owned it for basic homeowner type stuff the 25 years i had it as my only vise on my bench and even built a few golf clubs with it besides basic homeowner stuff. I thought it was no longer strong enough for me if i was going to have to fix some of mine and my family's tools, so i researched vises for a long time before finally buying a Wilton Bullet off of Craigs maybe 7 years ago.
at the time i thought that Wilton was the best and it's still a great vise. During the research i heard and saw pictures of these big and old US and European vises and i was interested and ended up buying a few over the years. of course once i joined Garage Journal and learned a lot more and was able to ask questions and see all the awesome vises that members owned it was like a drug i couldn't get enough of. ever had a vice for a nice old vise or bought several of one item that you liked and wanted to own more that were slightly different? that said i know i probably don't own as many as some of the members and even the non members that have been buying and collecting these awesome tools for years but i own a few more than most because i was looking for them when i might have just walked by in the past and not seen them.
now i'm a fairly handy guy (plumbed and wired a couple homes, remodeled a kitchen and couple bathrooms, built a deck, new yard with sprinkler system and poured and laid several thousand square feet of cement among other things), but i always deferred my car and basic engine tool repairs to the experts over the years instead of taking the time to learn. so i want to start restoring vises instead of paying a few pros to do so which I've done several times with success and I would just watch them do a basic cleaning fix or drop off and pick up a shiny as new vise for a full restoration. I've started taking apart maybe 10 or 15 vises and almost all are different and was only able so far to put a few back together and sell to a deserving member that needed it. so now i own more vises than most of the members partly because i won't sell a vise that is in pieces when i know i can put it back together on my own.
now because of wanting to restore a vise correctly i have bought a few tools. can a GJ member have too many tools?? Tools that I had before joining GJ were a couple carry boxes and a 3 drawer kennedy box on my bench that i barely opened. now i might own 3 rolling old tool boxes and most with top boxes and enough tools to fill them once i pull them out of the garage sale buckets just since i joined Garage journal. instead of just using the tool on hand that might work i now own most of the correct tools for the job. i never in my dreams thought i'd need more than a half inch ratchet, but these big vises have big nuts so now i have 3/4 and inch ratchets with plenty of big sockets to fit them. A big truck mechanic could probably come to my home now and have the tools he needs for his repair. i also own more grinders than most and i'm planning on getting a different wheel on each one so i can not only clean up and shine up a vise but other tools and projects in the future.
there is always a question that i wish i had a quick answer to and not have to stop in the middle of my project and for that reason i hope this thread will be helpful as well as informative. once you are able to take a vise apart and put it back together you are well on your way to doing other projects because a lot of it is basically the same. only difference sometimes is having the right tools. of course there are many many projects that i'll still pay someone to do like my hot tar roof repair or setting the foundation for a home. or working on a mill or lathe because i don't have the space or the knowledge to use one yet. before i owned a huge vise i wouldn't have thought about welding, or buying a lathe or some of the other metal working skills that i'm now researching and will do some day if I live long enough.
that's enough for today and just thought some would like to know why another HOW TO thread was started. hopefully i'll live long enough or have enough time to see this through and any help from the talented and knowledgeable members here at GJ is as always appreciated and most definitely needed. i'll edit and place the new information as i get time and please PM me if you think something was missed. thanks again guys for all your help now and in the past.
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