sparklemotion
Member
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2017
- Messages
- 19
I paid an embarrassing amount of money for this Wilton 3.5" (width) vise (online auction, pictures weren't fully representative, beer-fueled bidding war in the last two minutes).
I am pretty sure that the numbers on the fixed jaw say 121068, so it should look something like this or this. Obviously, it does not, though I did buy it thinking it would be fun to do some restoration on.
Based on the look of that dynamic jaw though, I'm highly tempted to make it go sit in a corner for a couple years before I finally decide to scrap it. But... I'm wondering if this could be the start of an unreasonable, yet highly educational project. I think I might like to try casting a new dynamic jaw.
See, Mr. Motion made himself a beer keg foundry last year, and has a pretty good process for casting aluminum. And I'll admit that I've had my eye open for a decent project to try it out for myself. Aluminum doesn't seem like the right material for this though (density, strength, etc). And neither of us wants to encourage the other to try casting iron at home.
But *I* do a lot of work in copper, so I've got access to a few pounds of copper scrap (and know where to get more). And there are plenty of recipes for Aluminum Bronze out there on net, and this is a tiny vise that I'd probably only ever use to hold tiny non-ferrous pieces for filing and the like, so...
My question is: is it completely crazy to try to cast this part from aluminum bronze? It's obviously not worth it for the time or the money, but it would give me an excuse to learn some molding and casting techniques, so I'm willing to go for it, unless the result will be completely useless.
I am pretty sure that the numbers on the fixed jaw say 121068, so it should look something like this or this. Obviously, it does not, though I did buy it thinking it would be fun to do some restoration on.
Based on the look of that dynamic jaw though, I'm highly tempted to make it go sit in a corner for a couple years before I finally decide to scrap it. But... I'm wondering if this could be the start of an unreasonable, yet highly educational project. I think I might like to try casting a new dynamic jaw.
See, Mr. Motion made himself a beer keg foundry last year, and has a pretty good process for casting aluminum. And I'll admit that I've had my eye open for a decent project to try it out for myself. Aluminum doesn't seem like the right material for this though (density, strength, etc). And neither of us wants to encourage the other to try casting iron at home.
But *I* do a lot of work in copper, so I've got access to a few pounds of copper scrap (and know where to get more). And there are plenty of recipes for Aluminum Bronze out there on net, and this is a tiny vise that I'd probably only ever use to hold tiny non-ferrous pieces for filing and the like, so...
My question is: is it completely crazy to try to cast this part from aluminum bronze? It's obviously not worth it for the time or the money, but it would give me an excuse to learn some molding and casting techniques, so I'm willing to go for it, unless the result will be completely useless.
