Forgot the camera today unfortunately BUT the vise will definitely be taken back apart for a good "restoration".
Forgive me if I don't know all of the proper terms for parts of a vise. Up until now, I just used em, never really been all that interested in them other than knowing when they sucked or were good to work with
It's seen some mods over the years. The body around the pin for the handle broke out at some point and someone brazed on ~1/2 plate on top for the arm pin to sit in. This aparently led to very weak clamping in the first 2 inches as the pin was now ~1/2" higher than designed. We tore it apart thinking that the serations were worn but upon cleaning them out they looked almost brand new... just filled with gunk. There's 4 pieces internally, an actuation cam that is pushed by the lever arm, a 1.75 rounded cast flat stock piece that transfers the load to the clamp that has serations that match the ones on the traveling jaw. There's also a piece of spring steel bolted in that pushes the clamp back to allow the traveling jaw to slide.
Unfortunately, the main mount for the swivel assembly was lengthened at some point and is a little crooked. Once you tighten it down, it pulls the vise a little crooked. The adjuster "wing nut" had been cranked on at some point and broken off. The repair is strong but poorly aligned.
We determined that the flat piece in the middle had worn down some over the years and rather than build that up, previous owners took to adding material to the cam... poorly I might add. One repair added material to the wear point for the lever. Another added 3 globby welds to the inside of the cam where the flat piece sits in a groove. All of that was cleaned up and material added to the flat piece.
Put it all back together and now we have clamping action the full range of the jaw travel!
Dunno if it's going to get any use, but it'll definitely be getting some attention in the future!
