Picked up a nice Parker 273 this weekend. Used it yesterday and the jaws loosened up. I researched how these jaws are attached and it appears they were pinned from underneath. On my vise the previous owner must have tapped the pin holes and installed set screws which do not stay tight when the jaws are opened and closed under normal use. One question I have though is how did the pins hold if they did not extend through the jaw as there are no holes through the replaceable part of the jaw. Any help if appreciated. I also included a pic of the vise.
Need help Parker vise with loose jaws
- Thread starter hegner2
- Start date
drivesitfar
Well-known member
can you post a few more pictures because the one you have doesn't really show the issue or enlarge big enough for our old eyes to help you. i'm not a fan of the Parker's jaw design if you have an issue so i tend to buy other vises. if they are working right and haven't been abused they are some of the best vises on the planet.
usually the pins go from under up through the jaw and are flush with the top of the vise. do you see any holes on the top or can you take a few good close up pictures? when you say one of the prior owners tapped and put screws in the holes can you unscrew them all the way and show the screws?
if you can take the screws out can the jaws be removed and can you show pictures of them from both sides. the more information you can provide the better help you will receive. from the picture you posted it looks like you bought a fully restored vise. can you still contact the past owner to maybe see if he might be able to help.
by the way welcome to GJ and glad to have another member.
usually the pins go from under up through the jaw and are flush with the top of the vise. do you see any holes on the top or can you take a few good close up pictures? when you say one of the prior owners tapped and put screws in the holes can you unscrew them all the way and show the screws?
if you can take the screws out can the jaws be removed and can you show pictures of them from both sides. the more information you can provide the better help you will receive. from the picture you posted it looks like you bought a fully restored vise. can you still contact the past owner to maybe see if he might be able to help.
by the way welcome to GJ and glad to have another member.
I will try to get more pictures added later today. Still need to figure out how to enlarge them though. Yes the holes do go all the way through the iron part of the jaw but there are no holes in the removable part of the jaw. So what I don't understand is how the pin or set screw for that matter would hold the jaw on at all? Hoping someone could shed some light on that. Or post a link or pictures of one that has not been altered. I first have to figure out how the design was intended to work before i fugure out the best way to fix it.
drivesitfar
Well-known member
yes there should be holes all the way through the jaws. sorry i don't have a better picture handy, but you might be able to see in this one that there are holes for the pins to come all the way through.
do you have or can you set up a free www.photobucket.com account? once you have an account you can save pictures there and then make a link to add to the post in the wording and get the big pictures you see once in a while.
bigger the better or more would certainly help.
good luck
do you have or can you set up a free www.photobucket.com account? once you have an account you can save pictures there and then make a link to add to the post in the wording and get the big pictures you see once in a while.
bigger the better or more would certainly help.
good luck
Attachments
Thanks for the picture. I do see the holes through the removable jaw. The ones on mine have no holes. Possibly they are replacements. What do the pins look like that hold them on? Tapered,straight, what diameter? Also can you buy them or do they have to be made? This will help me get a better idea on what I need to find to fix it.
Packard V8
Well-known member
Nope, no way those are the original jaws, but they're a pretty good attempt at duplicating.
jack vines
jack vines
drivesitfar
Well-known member
I agree with Jack that they don't look like original Parker jaws, but a good attempt to make a nice replacement set. are both sides loose or just the one side? how long are the screws that it appears to be in the 4 holes and how deep do they go into the jaws? are they stripped or just not deep enough?
Marcos45/70
Active member
Wouldn't hardened roll pins work if they were just a little larger?
Fretters
Well-known member
Looking at that, I'd work with the way the previous owner set it up and just improve it slightly. I'd make some longer grub type screws but with an unthreaded, plain portion on the end opposite the slot, which then protrudes above the top of the jaw once inserted, then just drill the two holes in the insert so the plain portion will go through when you screw the grub screws in.
Last edited:
KMScott
Well-known member
This is how I have installed Parker jaws, You do need to drill at a angle and having a machine shop access will help to make it easier. I have 1/4 semi hard pins that I knurl the ends and drill and ream the hole at the correct angle so the pin can be drove out from the top or bottom. Your jaws should be hard, if so then the drilling and reaming will be more difficult but still possible. Good luck and let us know how you did.
Attachments
drivesitfar
Well-known member
here are a pair of Parker jaws Mr. Scott made for one of his friends for an 8 inch Parker last month so he does have a little talent.
thanks Kevin for showing more pictures and a description of the fix for Hegner's new Parker's jaws. i'm sure i'll need these tips later for one of my Parker vises.
Fretters fix sounds like it should work too.
good luck
thanks Kevin for showing more pictures and a description of the fix for Hegner's new Parker's jaws. i'm sure i'll need these tips later for one of my Parker vises.
Fretters fix sounds like it should work too.
good luck
Attachments
KMScott
Well-known member
Yes, Having a light knurl on the pins will keep the pins tight in the jaw and vise. That is how it was done at the factory.
I am intrigued by the idea of using longer grub bolts. Do you think it would also work if the jaw insert was threaded and the grub bolt would thread into the jaw and continue through and thread into the removable jaw and tighten the two together? I think the biggest problem with the current setup is the set screws are actually forcing the two surfaces apart instead of pulling them together. So after clamping the vise together a few times it forces the jaw off the set screws. If anyone has anything to add to this or sees a flaw in my thinking let me know. I plan to tackle this over the weekend and want to decide on the most feasible way to do this.
Just to add I thought about abandoning the vertical pins and drilling and countersinking the face of the removable jaws and tapping the vice jaws and using horizontal bolts anyone try this?
Just to add I thought about abandoning the vertical pins and drilling and countersinking the face of the removable jaws and tapping the vice jaws and using horizontal bolts anyone try this?
drivesitfar
Well-known member
i didn't want your thread to get lost so bumping it up so maybe somebody else will see it that has a Parker and any ideas or comments for you.
i know Kevin makes his jaws pretty tough so you might not be able to tap or drill the hole very easily, but since you already have a thread started i like the idea of tapping into the jaw a little farther and either screwing the screw in farther or getting a longer screw before you drill all the way through.
good luck and post any progress or any more questions if you have any.
i know Kevin makes his jaws pretty tough so you might not be able to tap or drill the hole very easily, but since you already have a thread started i like the idea of tapping into the jaw a little farther and either screwing the screw in farther or getting a longer screw before you drill all the way through.
good luck and post any progress or any more questions if you have any.
KMScott
Well-known member
I was asked by a member here to see if I could fix his broken jaws from his 4-1/2 Parker vise. As you can see in the pictures the break was kind of odd. I do not know how it was broken but I thought I would try to weld it. If it was tool steel then getting the correct rod is crucial or the tool steel will crack during cool down. Not having any idea what they used way back then I tried a old trick by doing a spark test. I took each type of tool steel and watched the color and type of spark you get from a bench grinder. The jaw did not match any steel that I had except 4140. I then took a file and hit a corner of the jaw and sure enough the Chas Parker jaw was soft. I was really surprised. I always assumed Parkers used at least O-1 tool steel since it is readily available back then. So if if a file will cut the parker jaws then you can mount the jaws any way that you see fit. Screwing the jaws in from the front would be a good choice. These I fixed have 4 tapped holes in the jaw face and that does not make sense to me either unless the owner added a soft face or something like that. Any way I saved the owner of these jaws some bucks and did a successful weld job.
Attachments
drivesitfar
Well-known member
KM: thanks for your wisdom again, but didn't we think that Heg's jaws are not original? if they are not original should he maybe do a file or grinder test to see what his jaws are??
ganymede
Well-known member
The Parker I'm using now had a huge gap in the jaws. The top lined up well but the bottoms didn't touch at all and the gap was almost 3/16ths !
Funny thing about it all was that the knurling was still visible so it couldn't have been from wear.
It had lousy gripping power in that condition and I couldn't afford new jaws at the time so I just took my biggest most rigid ******* file and kept filing and checking until I closed the gap beyond the point I can measure with a ruler.
I'd like to do it finer but I'd need another vise to hold each half in.
KMScott
Well-known member
I think they are original, these jaws are tough to make. When was the first swivel jaw Parker's made. Did they have tooling made up to drill through holes way back then? Just do not know. The jaws look like they fit good, and could be original. Yes a file will tell you if they are soft enough to drill in a home shop with a drill press or hand drill.
Here is an update of my progress on the vice. Drilled and tapped the inserts straight through to the jaw. The dynamic jaw turned out pretty much perfect. The static jaw is a little off center, but will be OK. Both are super tight now. Just have to come up with the best idea for the bolts. Should I just Loctite the bolts in, cut the heads of file smooth and call it good? Or should I have custom bolts made. Tell me what you think.
Last edited:
drivesitfar
Well-known member
Heg,
if you don't want to mess with the bolts you currently have in the jaws that seem to be holding them in place you might want to buy a pair of Wilton Copper 6 inch jaws for $30 off of Ebay or make some out of some copper pipe if you are handy.
that way the jaws will be protected and the bolt's heads will be covered. or somebody else might have a more appealing method of replacing the bolts or improving their look if you wish too.
glad to hear you have it working now. here is a picture of my Wilton copper jaws on my big Rock Island 577 so you can see what they look like.
Edit: i'm wondering if you can find bolts that don't have heads and are tightened with an Allen wrench so they can sit flush with the top of your jaws?
good luck
if you don't want to mess with the bolts you currently have in the jaws that seem to be holding them in place you might want to buy a pair of Wilton Copper 6 inch jaws for $30 off of Ebay or make some out of some copper pipe if you are handy.
that way the jaws will be protected and the bolt's heads will be covered. or somebody else might have a more appealing method of replacing the bolts or improving their look if you wish too.
glad to hear you have it working now. here is a picture of my Wilton copper jaws on my big Rock Island 577 so you can see what they look like.
Edit: i'm wondering if you can find bolts that don't have heads and are tightened with an Allen wrench so they can sit flush with the top of your jaws?
good luck
Attachments
Last edited: