Help with Morgan 45 Bench Vise

[Flatlander45]

Hello!

This is my first post here on Garage Journal. Earlier this summer I restored a Morgan Chicago 45 bench vise that I sourced locally. It has since become my pride and joy. While disassembling the vise and prepping it for a dip in an electrolysis tank, I noticed a piece of the slide (slide channel? Not sure the exact name of this part) has chipped off. Convinced I had ruined this piece of American history before even getting started on restoring it drove me to the forums. This was the first time I had seriously attempted restoring anything — I’m early on in my handyman/hobby craftsman journey. Despite the info I found online describing the difficulties of successfully welding cast pieces such as this, I took the Morgan in to a local welder/fabricator. No luck. Eventually I decided to use some JB Weld to reattach the piece. I let it sit, clamped, for 3 days. I then continued the restoration and was very pleased with the results. Now, after a couple months of casual use on some projects, I noticed the JB Weld had loosened. The piece hasn’t broken away/fallen off due to the weight of the slide keeping it in place. My main question/concern is whether or not this will fail at some point and render the vise inoperable/unusable, or if it is largely superficial? Should I disassemble the vise and try the JB Weld again, or should I just leave well-enough alone and keep using the vise? Attached are pictures of the chipped piece in question. Any help you guys/gals/otherwise are able to provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time!

 

[TailGunner3000]

It is likely the piece will fail again at that spot. Whether it renders the vise unusable really depends on how far the crack extends along the dovetail joint.

 

[wkndwarrior29]

I wouldn't worry about it until it breaks off and becomes an issue. It's likely that it may not affect the operation of the vise. A sloppy option would be to fill around the part with metal filler but then you'll never be able to fully disassemble it again. Good luck, don't over think it - it's not an extremely rare or valuable tool.

 

[tool_scrounge]

I have been told that damage usually occurs when someone opens the vise way too much and clamps hard on something. You could silver solder or braze it, but you would first need to remove all the JB weld. Alternatively, using socket head cap screws you could bolt the nut to the main casting by drilling and tapping thru the bottom of the vise. My neighbor did this on a 6" American Scale vise recently.

 

[exmaxima1]

Which version of JB Weld did you use (fast set or original)? The original slow setting version is stronger. I fixed the jaw on a vise using it and a few hardened pins. No issues after years of use. Maybe you can somehow drill some holes, possibly at an angle, so you could add pins.