My ‘new’ bittersweet purchase

[Duke74]

So I found a Starrett Athol vise for sale about a 10 minute drive from me. The lady sent me pictures and told me to make her an offer. I offered $25 and she readily accepted. My wife was going into town so she dropped the sellers house and picked up the vise for me. She gets it home and I eagerly can’t wait to see it. IT’S CRACKED! I didnt see it in the pictures before I bought it. So now I have to find someone who can weld it. The value of the vise is gone, with the crack or with it welded. Anyways....happy to have the vise but bummed about the crack....no pun intended.

 

[Ton ton]

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[Fordguy1964]

It is hard to believe that the jaw faces can be that nice and yet the vise itself is cracked! That vise saw some hard use/abuse in its short useful life.

 

[matt_i]

That's kind of impressive. Either a casting defect or someone really put a sledge on it with the moving jaw wide open. That "ledge" there is beefier on a Starrett vise than any other brand I've used (the analogous part on a Reed is wimpy and thin BTW). I would repair that cosmetically by vee-ing out the crack slightly and use flux coated bronze brazing rod (plus oxyacetylene) to repair it and metal-finish it with a file. Several generations of use would then be possible if one doesn't go crazy with it.

 

[seber]

Brazing is the right way to fix it but I would add a tapped counterbored hole and install a machine screw. It will be stronger than the original casting.

 

[Maui]

I found one of those back in 2015.

Athol Starrett 923 Bench Vise

I just picked up this Athol Starrett 923 bench vise. The guy who posted the ad on Craigslist was selling a workbench that had this vise and a small grinder mounted to it. There were no photos. When I called he said he was moving in two days and needed to get rid of a bunch of stuff. When I saw...

www.garagejournal.com

Very nice vise, and your vise is worth repairing in my opinion.

 

[Duke74]

Thanks for all the input. I will fix it up. Trying to match the existing original paint, after the fix, will be an obstacle unless I take ALL the paint off and repaint the whole thing a different colour. I hate messing with the original though.

 

[Packard V8]

Agree, someone wailed on it with a sledge early on and then it was taken out of service. Definitely worth a repair and can be a user forever after.

jack vines

 

[dwasifar]

You should absolutely fix it. It's not often you come across one of these anti-gravity vises.

 

[830singleshot]

If I had the opportunity to buy that for$25 KNOWING it was cracked, I would have been on that deal like a duck on a June bug.
That has to be a casting defect. Even the handle looks dead nuts straight. Spend the money on the right welder and enjoy that bad boy for the rest of your life.

 

[XxToolAholicxX]

It should still do what is was designed to do I don’t think it should effect it’s function..

 

[Moose-LandTran]

You should absolutely fix it. It's not often you come across one of these anti-gravity vises.

It's just meant for the Australian market.

 

[BlueBomber]

Thanks for all the input. I will fix it up. Trying to match the existing original paint, after the fix, will be an obstacle unless I take ALL the paint off and repaint the whole thing a different colour. I hate messing with the original though.

Well, you no longer have an "original" due to the crack. You might consider just using it as is until it actually breaks. If/when it does, you'll only get it welded, which is what you're already planning to do.

 

[bugnut]

Might it be worth a call to Starrett and ask about warranty? just asking....

 

[matt_i]

I think the Starrett vise is NLA for quite awhile, ~20 years at minimum. I don't think you are going to get much out of warranty.

As Seber mentioned above, a socket head screw can definitely help out in "fitting the casting back together perfectly" but its worth some study, vises often have hollow spots where you are expecting solid material. Definitely want 1 diameter of thread engaged, a 3/8-16 would work well if you have the room.

I would think it will work just great as-is-no-further-action-is-taken with the exception of when you open the moving jaw very widely.

 

[Duke74]

Yeah, I also don’t think it will affect function really. I am a vise collector so maybe it’s worth it to just leave it alone, and keep it with as much original paint intact. Maybe the crack won’t be so noticeable on a shelf.

 

[Al Borland]

Good chance that got dropped. Landed on the jaws upside down.

 

[didit]

I have repaired similar damage by V-ing the crack, pre- heating with oxy/acetylene and stick welding with a nickle rod. The one on my bench has held up to continuous use 40 years after the repair but I wasn't looking for a collector/invisible repair.