Cardinal Speed Vise Redo

[dr_clyde]

Last spring a fellow member here ended up with a collection of miscellaneous stuff, and he posted pictures of his haul. My metal nerd eyes spied a Cardinal Speed Vise in amongst his hoard of interesting stuff. I inquired as to it's availability, we settled on a fair price and I ended up with it. It was rough, but well within the realm of save-ability.

For those not in the know, the Cardinal is (IMO) one of the best drill press vises made. It has a quick acting buttress thread on the lead screw allowing for expedient and easy travel between minimum and maximum capacities. The unfortunate truth about good quality tools is they tend to be expensive. The Cardinal is no exception. A new one of these buggers will set you back over $500! So, the hunt is always on for used ones. They make several sizes, but I think the 6" (which this is) is best suited to general job shop drilling.

Here's some before and after pictures.

As you can see, it has led a hard life. Some bozo was using it to hold something while soldering or pouring a lead casting, because there was a bunch of lead on the back jaw. Fortunately it just melts off.

Cardinal vises are cool in that you can replace the bottom plate if needed, its just cold rolled. I just flipped it over, hiding all the drill divots. If I ever need to, I can just buy some more steel.

After blasting, I noticed some dweeb had welded on a washer to the back clamp hardware slot.

That had to go. WTF is wrong with some people? A bit of grinding and it looked good enough for paint.

All told I cleaned it up, bead blasted it, repaired any dinks and marks of shame by brazing, and gave it a paint job. I also machined a set of CRS parallel jaws, as the hardened factory jaws were missing.

Right at home on the 20" Walker Turner.

Thanks for looking.

 

[exmaxima1]

For those not in the know, the Cardinal is (IMO) one of the best drill press vises made. It has a quick acting buttress thread on the lead screw allowing for expedient and easy travel between minimum and maximum capacities. The unfortunate truth about good quality tools is they tend to be expensive. The Cardinal is no exception. A new one of these buggers will set you back over $500! So, the hunt is always on for used ones. They make several sizes, but I think the 6" (which this is) is best suited to general job shop drilling.

Great job on your SpeedVise! I have the same model (and by coincidence, painted same blue as yours) and feel it's just about perfect. I didn't realize that the bottom plate was a stock size---that's great news as I have a smaller version under the bench that could be put back into action.

 

[ChevyEFI]

Nice work; looks great!
Did you find the thread serviceable or did it need some repair?

 

[SweetD]

Beautiful job on the vise, looks right at home on the DP!

Thanks for sharing, I had never heard of the Cardinal Speed Vise...



Dave

 

[dr_clyde]

Nice work; looks great!
Did you find the thread serviceable or did it need some repair?

The threads seemed to be fine, just dirty and a little rusty. I just buffed it and it works great.

 

[Packard V8]

I recently picked up a Cardinal SpeedVise bench vise. I know they still make the machinist's vise you have, but can't find any info if they still make the bench vise.

jack vines

 

[SeniorCitizen]

I had the opportunity to use a speed vise in the 1950's. Handy as the pocket on my shirt.

 

[jmarkwolf]

I have two Cardinal Speed Vises. A 4 inch I inherited from my dad, and a 6 inch I bought at a pawn shop for $30.

The 6 incher I'm cleaning up now.

Cardinals are the best drill press vises ever made!

 

[larry_g]

After blasting, I noticed some dweeb had welded on a washer to the back clamp hardware slot.

That had to go. WTF is wrong with some people?

Ya suppose that some one down the line is going to use the same verbiage about the guy who used CRS for jaws?

WTF is wrong is people who can't see that a store bought tool can be just the start of a tool that is cut, milled, welded on, and modified to suit the job at hand. That simple modification was probably done to make some job faster, easier, or more reliable. Just because you don't understand doesn't make the other guy an idiot.

When I worked in a prototype shop we chopped up hundreds of catalog tools and fixtures to make them suitable to what we need them to do. When done a lot went to the scrap bin.

That said, I'd be proud to have that in my shop.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[dr_clyde]

Ya suppose that some one down the line is going to use the same verbiage about the guy who used CRS for jaws?

WTF is wrong is people who can't see that a store bought tool can be just the start of a tool that is cut, milled, welded on, and modified to suit the job at hand. That simple modification was probably done to make some job faster, easier, or more reliable. Just because you don't understand doesn't make the other guy an idiot.

When I worked in a prototype shop we chopped up hundreds of catalog tools and fixtures to make them suitable to what we need them to do. When done a lot went to the scrap bin.

That said, I'd be proud to have that in my shop.

lg
no neat sig line

Modifying tools is perfectly acceptable, done all the time. Time is money after all. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I still stand by my statement though. I hate it when people modify good tools poorly. If I modify a tool, its a last resort, and I do what I can to make it reversible. I probably would have cut a new base plate as a sub-plate or something to avoid welding a washer to a casting. Just a personal preference.

And yes, CRS for the jaws was a compromise. But an easily changed one. I don't like hard steel jaws, they are very unforgiving and can damage your part or tool if you aren't careful. If they get too dinged up, easy to change them out. I do like the factory jaws with the built in vee block better, but hey. These work.