Wards Vise & Jaws

[mitch01]

Hi, I acquired this Ward's vise in the 80s at a yard sale. I'v seen a few posts about similar.
Trying to find new steel serrated jaws (see attached drawing with dimensions. Holes are centered vertically). Anyone have any idea where I can get some, or does anyone on forum make them?

Also metal seems to be compressed around screws. Hand impact driver and torch did nothing, Is it best to just drill out heads?

thanks

Mitch

 

[Shiftless]

That’s an unusual old vise. Is your goal just to have a useable vise for your workshop or do you want to upgrade it for sentimental reasons? The reason I ask is that unless you have a machinist friend who owes you a favor, the going price for custom steel jaws will no doubt be many times what you paid for the vise and probably more than what you would pay for another decent condition used vise from Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

You might be able to make a set yourself out of aluminum.

I think you are down to drilling to get those screws out. If you have a welder, you might first try to carefully weld a nut onto the screw head and then turn the nut with a socket.

 

[jreb10]

If you are patient, this style of Wards vise does show up on eBay on occasion. There are two of them in the "sold" category right now but none listed for sale at this moment. Probably cheaper to buy a vise and swap jaws if you are attached to your present vise.

 

[mitch01]

That’s an unusual old vise. Is your goal just to have a useable vise for your workshop or do you want to upgrade it for sentimental reasons? The reason I ask is that unless you have a machinist friend who owes you a favor, the going price for custom steel jaws will no doubt be many times what you paid for the vise and probably more than what you would pay for another decent condition used vise from Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

You might be able to make a set yourself out of aluminum.

I think you are down to drilling to get those screws out. If you have a welder, you might first try to carefully weld a nut onto the screw head and then turn the nut with a socket.

Goal is usable vise but I like it and want nice appearing jaws with grip.

 

[mitch01]

If you are patient, this style of Wards vise does show up on eBay on occasion. There are two of them in the "sold" category right now but none listed for sale at this moment. Probably cheaper to buy a vise and swap jaws if you are attached to your present vise.

That's an idea but I don't want to wreck another vise.

I see there's a gentleman who makes jaws for antique vises online but they are quite expensive relative to my goal. Maybe I could buy mild steel bar stock and cut/drill myself?
Don't know how to make diagonals on face of jaws though. Somebody mentioned cold chisel.. Do you have any ideas?

 

[exmaxima1]

Try to locate some copper jaw covers. They grip better than aluminum and won't mar your work.

 

[Shiftless]

Try to locate some copper jaw covers. They grip better than aluminum and won't mar your work.

Making a set of jaws out of solid copper would be easier for a non machinist kind of guy like many of us (me included) here on GJ

You could cut grooves with a hack saw or a cutting disc on a Dremel motor to make a cross cross textured surface on the jaw faces. And drilling the 2 holes would be much easier as well working with copper.

 

[mitch01]

I remeasured the jaws and got a different thickness. On closer inspection (see new photo of jaw front and underside), casting is thicker on right than on left (looking from beneath no sign the surface was changed on left), and jaw is thinner on right and thicker on left. Is this sloppy manufacturing or can you explain what I'm showing? The moveable side of the vise is constant from left to right as is its jaw. Strange..

 

[Shiftless]

casting is thicker on right than on left (looking from beneath no sign the surface was changed on left), and jaw is thinner on right and thicker on left. Is this sloppy manufacturing or can you explain what I'm showing? The moveable side of the vise is constant from left to right as is its jaw. Strange..

I suspect that a previous user did some heavy and not very precise repairs on that old vise. To straighten all of that out will take the services of a machinist.

At this point, you could just keep using that vise as is, or follow the suggestion of exmaxima1 and cover those uneven jaws with some copper jaw covers and keep going forward. Several members here have fabricated some DIY copper jaw covers from scraps of copper pipe.

 

[mitch01]

Thanks, your explanation sounds pretty good.

I also had a theory that the casting was bad from the factory and the makers compensated by using a jaw that was slanted along the bottom.

Its too bad I found this.

 

[Shiftless]

I also had a theory that the casting was bad from the factory and the makers compensated by using a jaw that was slanted along the bottom.

What ever company made that vise for Wards way back when, did not have various out of square jaws to screw onto the vise bodies. If a casting came out that wrong, I bet it would have been tossed out or thrown back into the vat of molten iron. I doubt that they employed guys to modify jaw inserts to compensate for errors in the castings.

If this situation bothers you too much, advertise It for sale as-is for maybe 20 bucks and find another vintage vise and move on with whatever you do out in your shop. Your old Wards vise was designed to be a combination anvil and vise. Many users of that model report that being cast iron, it is not a good anvil and because of its general build quality, it is not a very good vise.

You can do much better with another model old vise.

 

[mitch01]

What ever company made that vise for Wards way back when, did not have various out of square jaws to screw onto the vise bodies. If a casting came out that wrong, I bet it would have been tossed out or thrown back into the vat of molten iron. I doubt that they employed guys to modify jaw inserts to compensate for errors in the castings.

If this situation bothers you too much, advertise It for sale as-is for maybe 20 bucks and find another vintage vise and move on with whatever you do out in your shop. Your old Wards vise was designed to be a combination anvil and vise. Many users of that model report that being cast iron, it is not a good anvil and because of its general build quality, it is not a very good vise.

You can do much better with another model old vise.

Guess I've gotten attached to this old guy.
Or maybe I can find one with a bad moveable part and good stationary part.

 

[mitch01]

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