Fisher chain vise repair... advice needed

[Ststephen7]

Hey,

I've been doing some work for a guy who is losing his storage space. He has been selling off a lot of stuff, and he asked me to do some repair work on this Fisher chain vise.

As you will (hopefully) see in the pictures, the jaws have some damage. It looks to me like someone has already had a go at welding them. I don't have the vise with me yet, so for the moment I only have the pictures I've posted. I will be able to have access soon if we need it in order to determine how to proceed.

What he wants is a quality repair to the jaws, including cutting/grinding away any **** and poor quality prior repairs. Then welding to rebuild the jaws as part of a basic overall restoration of the vise.

So... how should I proceed? I could braze it... If I should use a stick which one is best for this purpose?

The last couple of pictures are of a couple of other large vises and a huge anvil he's got sitting around.

Thank you in advance,
Steve

 

[Ststephen7]

Since posting this question I thought... maybe I could tighten down on a thin parallel, and then mark lines on either side... maybe .5" back from either edge of the parallel on both sides of the top of the vise. Then cut back to those lines, and install premade jaws with screws (like any other vise)?

Any thoughts?

 

[zkling]

Do you have access to a milling machine?

 

[Ststephen7]

Do you have access to a milling machine?

I don't have one, however I do know a couple of local guys I could ask (pay) to help out. What were you thinking?

 

[woody 73]

Maybe have a welder use a rod to fill in the missing chunks of iron and then file it out ? (or have a machine shop use the milling machine to clean it up?).

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

The biggest problem with that vise is definitely the missing iron. Years ago I pulled a post vise out of a scrap pile that had similar damage. I almost left it there because the damage was so severe. The jaws were completely missing along with significant chunks of vise similar to that Fisher double screw. I decided to try welding it and had several rods to choose from. I don't remember what rod I settled on for the root pass, could have been a Harris or Eutectic rod, but with a little trial and error I got it to stick well enough I could finish building the jaws up with 7018. That allowed the repair to take on the patina of the rest of the vise.

All I had for new jaws was a couple old files so I cut them to length and clamped them tight with a piece of 3/8 steel between them. Most of the build up was done with the files clamped in place and they ended up welded in as the jaws were built up. Anyway that was at least 20 years ago and I've use the vise ever since. The file jaws are still sharp and bite well. Here are a couple pics of how it turned out. Had it been a Fisher chain vise I probably would have put in a little more time. Ed.

 

[Ststephen7]

The biggest problem with that vise is definitely the missing iron. Years ago I pulled a post vise out of a scrap pile that had similar damage. I almost left it there because the damage was so severe. The jaws were completely missing along with significant chunks of vise similar to that Fisher double screw. I decided to try welding it and had several rods to choose from. I don't remember what rod I settled on for the root pass, could have been a Harris or Eutectic rod, but with a little trial and error I got it to stick well enough I could finish building the jaws up with 7018. That allowed the repair to take on the patina of the rest of the vise.

All I had for new jaws was a couple old files so I cut them to length and clamped them tight with a piece of 3/8 steel between them. Most of the build up was done with the files clamped in place and they ended up welded in as the jaws were built up. Anyway that was at least 20 years ago and I've use the vise ever since. The file jaws are still sharp and bite well. Here are a couple pics of how it turned out. Had it been a Fisher chain vise I probably would have put in a little more time. Ed.

Wow! Nice work! That came out great. If I end up doing the work and it comes out anywhere near that good I'll be very happy.