Another Old Vise Restoration Thread

[sometoyotaguy]

I picked up an old vise from Craigslist the other day, and it seems like this site has a pretty good knowledge base for restoring these old things.

Since this will be a work vise, it doesn't need to be a perfect resto, but I would like to repaint, and lubricate it. If it's possible, I'd like to clean up the jaws a bit as well.

Does anyone have any info on this particular vise? From what I can tell it's an American Scale Red Seal No. 54. It weighs about 75lbs or so.

Anyway, on to the pics.

 

[Outlawmws]

For cast Iron Cleanup (rust and paint removal) I prefer electrolysis. (bucket, a piece of re-bar or three, a battery charger, and washing soda or spa chem PH+ is about all you need..)

I don't care for the finish the blasting media's leave especially on machined or threaded parts.

Once clean mask off the machined parts and paint. I'd start there and see how it looks, The jaws have some damage but not that bad...

 

[autopts]

Nice vise....Should last another 100 years.

 

[bl00]

This thread has some American Scale info. Post up the specs or PM them to me and I'll add them to the list of sizes in post 19 on that thread. I don't have much on the fixed base versions, yet, so yours will be a good addition.

 

[sometoyotaguy]

This thread has some American Scale info. Post up the specs or PM them to me and I'll add them to the list of sizes in post 19 on that thread. I don't have much on the fixed base versions, yet, so yours will be a good addition.

What specs are you looking for? Length of opening and jaw size? I'll post up what I can.

edit: I'll get:
Jaw size
Opening size
Overall Length
Height
Weight- I don't have a scale, but I'm guessing right around 75-80lbs
I'll leave my pictures up if you want to link to them.

Anything else?

 

[larryq]

That should clean up nicely. As Outlawmws said, electrolysis is the way to go for getting the paint off and rust out. I've used the setup he described and it worked great-- and all I had to do was let it sit in a bath for a couple of days.

 

[sometoyotaguy]

So I got a few measurements. It's a No 54
It has 4.5" jaws
The opening goes out to 9 3/4"
Height is 9"
I forgot to measure the OAL, but I can get it another time if you need it.

It doesn't sound very big, but it's pretty large and hefty.

 

[sometoyotaguy]

Update:

A friend helped me sandblast it.

After a little paint. I still have to put a second coat on the lettering.

Are standard grade 5 bolts ok to lock this thing down to the bench? I don't think I'll be wailing on it.

 

[Outlawmws]

Grade 5 is fine.

 

[G_P]

Yes grade 5 will work. I have even used allthread to hold down vises before. If your bolting it to a wooden bench top the top will most likely let go before you break off the mounting bolts!

 

[sometoyotaguy]

Well, I think it's done for now. It's all painted and back together. At some point I'll want to put new jaws on it since they don't sit square, but overall it came out nice.