Need a Little Help Removing Old Vise Jaws
- Thread starter sometoyotaguy
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Fretters
Well-known member
Why the reticence to drill? You'd still need to drill to use an extractor, (though those things are usually a complete waste of time and toolbox space). Even using a hand powered drill, it'll take you a maximum of a few minutes per screw to have those heads off, and that's with stepping up through drill sizes.
I'd have to concur, as a generality.
There is a pretty good chance that the vise jaws are 'burred over' or deformed over, the counter-sunk holes for the jaw screws, and won't allow the screws to turn.
Drilling out the screw heads is the realistic way to remove the screws, since it may be assumed that the screws are past any practical salvage, having been stripped and battered.
As has been mentioned, one must take care to centre-spot, and then drill, in the centre of the screw, nearly as may be, until enough of the screw head has been removed to allow the jaw to come free.
Whether one would then use 'Petersen Vise Grips' or 'Mole grips' to remove the remains of the screws would depend, primarily, on one's location.......one also may find cute little miniature Stillson wrenches, which are primarily a wall decoration, but will work well for a job such as this.
This requires new screws, of course, but, as we've seen from a comment above, these can be 'adequately' and cheaply improvised if one doesn't do turning.
Edited......it should be obvious that one must 'clean up' the damaged counter-sunk holes to remove any deformation which would keep the replacement screws from fitting correctly......simply use a little 'mounted point' grinding wheel, or a Carboloy rotary-burr in a light pattern die grinder (or Dremel grinder), removing burrs and scars as may be needed.
cheers
Carla
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Only because I tend to have bad luck with these things and wouldn't want to mess up these jaws that would be very difficult and expensive to replace. But I will give it a go and I appreciate the encouragement!
garfunkle24
Well-known member
It looks very much to me, as others have mentioned, that the jaws have been deformed into the path of the screw heads. Try running the screws back in and cleaning up those holes. That's probably why they started turning out at first.
Well I figured it out. I was able to drill out the heads and remove the jaw (ended up having to pry it off with a small screwdriver) after great difficulty as the screws on this jaw were apparently made of gold pressed latinum. The screws turned out easily after that. Upon closer inspection I realized that this jaw was not the same size as the static jaw, and the screw holes were different. The screws were also different and not the correct sized/angle head for the jaw. Someone at some point made a bad decision that resulted in my having a hard time of it. So in the end I'll probably just replace the jaws anyway - if I can find them. Many thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.
drivesitfar
Well-known member
83: congrats on the success at least for getting the old jaws off. since KMScott makes jaws and just restored a Red Seal vise maybe he can help you out if you PM him and ask him about some. also have the measurements handy so he might be able to see if his vise is the same or what it would take to whip up a pair. good luck
by the way don't forget to take lots of pictures so you can post over on the vise repair 101 thread to the posts you started.
Clara, Fretters and PC: awesome information passed along with great detail and some pictures too. i'd love to see some of this transferred over to the 101 thread like Fretters did showing his drilling off of the screw heads so we can find this again. nice work guys and Clara.
by the way don't forget to take lots of pictures so you can post over on the vise repair 101 thread to the posts you started.
Clara, Fretters and PC: awesome information passed along with great detail and some pictures too. i'd love to see some of this transferred over to the 101 thread like Fretters did showing his drilling off of the screw heads so we can find this again. nice work guys and Clara.
Hello Garage Journal- this is my first post. I had trouble removing the screws from the jaws of an old Record 23 the other day. I did most of the things noted earlier in this thread, including breaking a very old impact bit by over-tightening the vice jaws on to the bit inserted in a socket wrench. I then remembered a trick from my school days. I used a 1 1/2 lb hammer and a centre punch to gently rotate the screws- firmly tapping the point of the punch against the end of the screw slot at an angle so as to unscrew the offending fastenings. Worked very well. ...now I just have to find a replacement pair of 4 1/4 inch inserts!
