Charles Parker 272 Refresh

[Catalyze]

Greetings again!
Here are some photos of a Charles Parker 272 vise and how I ended up going just a "touch" overboard on freshening it up. The "touch" being 9 hours of wet sanding, buffing, and polishing every piece of hardware that I could think of doing. During that time, I went through 6' 180 grit sanding cloth, 2 sheets of 240 grit dry paper, 2 sheets of wet/dry 400 grit paper, a fair bit of red/white rouge on the buffer wheels, 3 zombie movies (spoiler alert: everyone dies every time except the dog), and a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper. Charlie will probably never clamp anything very nasty again, but I have my Chinese Dura Shark Vice (their spelling) with the cracked jaw for that. So here are the photos......and in a fine bit of stupidity, I deleted the before photos thinking they were the photos of my wife's Christmas party 2 years ago. Sigh.
A lot of you know what this photo is about.....UPS hates us....Fed Ex too.
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Charlie was in very good condition as far as being heavily used. I basically just wire wheeled him in one assembled piece to remove flaking paint and then took him apart to see where rust etc. was hiding. Here is the base coming apart.
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I took it to my fleet garage contractor since I couldn't budge the bolt and feared total destruction. He used a 3/8" impact in very short bursts to take out the bolt....and it came out hard all the way. It pulled out the top thread from the base and the bolt had that rough feel on the threads.
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I punched the nut pin out since it was sort of staring at me.
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The lead screw nut came out without any drama and was in really nice condition. No rust.....scary.
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More photos to follow....none of zombies though.....
Craig

 

[Catalyze]

At this point in time was where Garage Journal forum came to the rescue. I posted up a question about how to remove a swivel rear jaw from a Parker vise and David came to the rescue! Without any references to vast amounts of alcohol and hammers, he posted photos of his Wilton swivel jaw removed and said "Ju can do eet!" I tapped it out with a brass mallet (I refuse to use the tool maker's name...this is a S@#%-O* free thread) after removing the cross pin with a pin punch. No drama.....life was good.
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Looking down the hole.
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If you look at the front of the hole, you can see where the cross pin passes through to lock the jaw down.
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The jaw would swivel.....sort of....kind of.....okay, not really. At this point, I made my decision to make Charlie function as intended almost 90 years ago. I purchased 2 pin punches from Sears since I had read where some folks had broken one removing the jaw face pins. I had pretty good luck and didn't break one but it wasn't because I had a clue. I just punched them out from the bottom towards the top and they came out in short pieces.
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These are the numbers on the jaws and the same numbers are on the jaw faces too.
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Here is the swivel base removed with its parts. The expanding center ring had the number 88 stamped on the bottom. I really like the way the vise companies come up with different ways to accomplish the same task of locking the base down. They all seem to work.
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I looked on the backside of the lead screw "clip" for a number that I had seen on various threads about Charlie's relatives. No number.
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In case anyone wants to know what or how that screw in the middle of the lead screw handle works......here are those tiny parts that keep the handle from sliding. All this machining just added up to the cost of these vises but it is amazing the thought that went in to them.
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Pretty photos to follow. That means no zombies....not even the dog who managed to not look like zombie chow.
Craig

 

[Catalyze]

And finally.....the Pretty Photos. I have seen photos of the phrase "Semi Steel" cast into the side of some Parker vises. Here is a steel bar that is cast into the length of the dynamic jaw. No clue if that is what the reference is concerning or not.
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The required taped and primered photo. It's just tradition! Foil works a treat for masking the dynamic jaw.
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In the meantime, this is the point where I sanded and polished everything that I could think would polish. I did the cross pin, lead screw handle, jaw faces tops and edges, swivel lock down bolt and handle, swivel base locating pin top. and the swivel jaw lock pin. I lucked into a zombie movie marathon 2 Wednesdays in a row! After 6 hours of zombie movies and sanding.....dogs will survive....or they are behind it all.....I am not sure. I also spent a few hours dying, sanding, fitting, dying, sanding, repeat to infinity... the swivel jaw faces until all of a sudden it just dropped into place and swivels perfecty smoothly. Amazing.
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Required soda can shot. Post it or get banned......I'm sure that's the way it works.
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Jaws open and rear jaw swiveled. Dr. Pepper not opened yet....but soon.
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The number side with polished jaw faces. I still have not made the pins for it yet. I even polished the cross pin end......hey....the zombie movie wasn't over yet and the folks on the boat were still alive....and so was the dog.
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And finally ( I bet some folks are clapping....LOL) here is a close up of the swivel lock area. The handle for it is threaded on both ends with screw in ends. I had to research a bit to find "proof" that this was stock and not the wrench and nut found on other Parkers.
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Here is a catalog page from 1912 that shows my type of vise in the lower right hand corner. That vise is a woodworker's vise, but it has the same hold down handle as the one that I have. It is a model 277 Parker. I also noticed that my vise has no "C Parker Co, Meridan Ct" cast on it. Maybe Connecticut wasn't a state yet...LOL. Anyway, again thanks to all who wrote previous posts about working on vises. Every one helped somehow so don't quit.....and of course the Vises of Garage Journal thread hit 100 pages! It's a must read every day.
Craig
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[ZRX61]

You'd save yourself a lot of polishing work if you got one of those fiber deburring wheels for a bench grinder... Takes but a few seconds. Have a look at the ends of the jaws here:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=1094

 

[Catalyze]

Duly noted!!
Would you post a link to what you use? I really love that
Athol vise that you did. Those things have to be the most
over built vises made. The under slide support is huge on them.
Craig

 

[gilbo]

now craig , this is much better, awesome pics great job on the parker

 

[ZRX61]

I think it's somehting like this:
http://www.rexcut.com/abrasive-products/t1-deburring-and-finishing-wheels/megabrite-convolute-wheels

I'm not 100% sure as the one I have is at least 6 years old. I'll have a close look & see if there is still a label on it.

 

[scoutkid]

EXCELLENT job! This is my new favorite TOVROGJ (Thread on vise restoration on Garage Journal). Thanks for the writeup!

 

[toolz]

Very, very nice restoration. Please tell us about the PAINT .

 

[ZRX61]

Here's the wheel I use, no label on it tho.

 

[Catalyze]

ZRX - Thanks! I will try and get one of those wheels.....and never watch zombie movies again.....dang dogs never get eaten
Scoutkid - Thank you very much! Many humans (mostly idiots and slow runners) died so that I could put this vise back together.
Toolz - it is just Rustoleum Hammered Black from Lowes, it is almost a gray black and covers a multitude of sins

 

[ZRX61]

Found em:
Medium:
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=TP505-6161

At least I think thats what I have.

 

[Walterchang]

Cool vise, I just picked a model 277 today. I got to inspect it a little better it is pretty filthy.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Nice job! I want a vintage vise too. Just can't find a good deal close enough.

Phil

 

[Catalyze]

Walterchang - Heighth of coolness! If I remember that is a 4 1/2" Victor series Parker....wood worker vise with big jaw faces and swivel base and rear jaw....remember to post photos of it on the Vices of Garage Journal thread or we come over and plant a Harbor Freight Shark Vise and take your Parker

Phil - Never give up!! Indiana has tons of manufacturing places so that means big American vises....think what it's like living in Eastern New Mexico where we only make cow manure....and that doesn't take a vise

Craig

 

[Packard V8]

Charlie will probably never clamp anything very nasty again, but I have my Chinese Dura Shark Vice (their spelling) with the cracked jaw for that.

Yes, that's a pretty Parker, indeed.

Goldwater said, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."

He could also have said, "I would remind you that extremism in the restoration of a vise does not have a rational defense."

Either you get polishing a Parker and using a broken Chicom vise or you don't.

jack vines

 

[Avispex]

I have a similar style Parker vise with a swivel jaw. Mine is #278. I think the jaws are close to 4" wide. It took a lot of work and finally my bearing pullers to get the pin out that keeps the rear jaw from swiveling. Once I got that out, however, the rear jaw would not budge. I could not get it to swivel. I kept dousing it with Kroil and eventually clamped the base to a metal platform and attached a very large c-clamp to the sides of the rear jaw. This gave me enough leverage to work it side to side, but the motion is extremely stiff. If I clamp something oddly shaped in the vise on one side of the jaw and then close the jaw, that will pivot it. I would go further with my restoration attempt, especially after reading this thread, except that I think the pin that holds the pivoting jaw in the base is hopelessly mushroomed on the left side. You can't really even see where the pin goes through. My question is, how loose are these pivoting rear jaws supposed to be? Should you be able to turn them by hand, or are they supposed to be so stiff that only the pressure of the jaw against a lopsided object would create the rotation?

Whose wife doesn't love having this stuff on the table for photos?


Thanks,

Andy

 

[reivertom]

Sorry for reviving such an old thread, but I need help with one of these Parker 272 vises. I was able to get one for a decent price but I didn't get to see it in person first. It is in pretty good shape and has only seen honest use and show no signs of torture like many I see. The problem is that the swivel jaw probably has never been swiveled since it was nearly new and won't budge. Of course the static pin in the rear won't come out either. Do any of you vise "gurus" have an idea how to start loosening this beast? I have it soaked with Kroil, but the seams are so tight and rusted not much could get in there without immersing it totally. Do you think heat is the solution? Help! Thanks...

PS....It also has some cool copper jaw pads .

 

[Packard V8]

Electrolysis would be my first suggestion.

jack vines

 

[beltdrive]

I have the exact same problem. I bought a 272 for 60.00 at a flea market in beautiful shape....but the pins are unmoving. Otherwise everything is wonderful condition...swivel base and clean smooth jaws...screw works great. Any suggestions other than electrolysis which I do not have access to?

 

[CNGsaves]

Soak the stuck vise parts in bucket of diesel fuel for a week or two.

 

[454ragtop]

Can usually remove the sliding jaw, then make up a "jack" using a bolt, a long coupling nut, and a stud, all the same thread. Thread the bolt and stud in either end of the coupling nut, insert in the sliding jaw cavity with the stud against the bottom of the tapered pin, and "jack" it out by turning the coupler nut off the bolt.
HTH, Jim

 

[beltdrive]

So I gave my 272 to a friend and he worked with it and eventually heated it up to get the pin out and the swivel moving. Nice vise. The only issue is 1/3 of the collar is broken off (the part that holds the screw from backing out....it still works but , well, ya know...I want a good one on it!)....if anyone has a collar that is two inches across the flat part....

 

[reivertom]

So I gave my 272 to a friend and he worked with it and eventually heated it up to get the pin out and the swivel moving. Nice vise. The only issue is 1/3 of the collar is broken off (the part that holds the screw from backing out....it still works but , well, ya know...I want a good one on it!)....if anyone has a collar that is two inches across the flat part....

I saw somebody on this forum that was selling repros of the collar in bronze. They are an exact match made from an original. Look around and you'll find it.

 

[drivesitfar]

BD: i think KMScott makes Parker collars to sell so PM him or check out his web site. sorry i don't have that web site memorized, but it's all over the main vise thread or ask there if you can't find it.

the member that made a brass collar for his personal Parker at his own machine shop in Canada hasn't made any to sell to others yet.

good luck