Any Vise Collectors Here? (9 Viewers)
- Thread starter FARMAN33
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yup, been using Alum angle soft jaws for years and not had to replace them yet. I do cut them a bit long and then cut and fold ears to "hold" the steel jaws so the soft jaws don't move around as much cuz that can be annoying.
@ceylonfj40nut could you do a simple "decking" of the mating surfaces on the "cheap" vise just to get it working better? It's not going to solve the lack of hold, but might make it easier to use for you or someone else if you decide to part with it.
Those swivel Reeds are really cool.
Those swivel Reeds are really cool.
I am going to have a look at this. Good suggestion. I might relegate it to the welding vice.
RUSH55
SILVER Star
That’s one of my favorite movies!!! Got to watch it now. Again!
RUSH55
SILVER Star
Pulled the Desmond/Simplex apart today to clean and lube.
The screw was not meant to be removed from the dynamic jaw, and the nut is part of the main body casting. The dynamic jaw is also two piece with the jaw being cast and the slide being a mild steel, like a cut section of 3/16” or 1/4” square or rectangle tubing.
Cleaned off most of the foreign paint splatter with acetone, cleaned the rest with mineral spirits and lubed it up.
Here it is next to my new Irwin of the same size.
The screw was not meant to be removed from the dynamic jaw, and the nut is part of the main body casting. The dynamic jaw is also two piece with the jaw being cast and the slide being a mild steel, like a cut section of 3/16” or 1/4” square or rectangle tubing.
Cleaned off most of the foreign paint splatter with acetone, cleaned the rest with mineral spirits and lubed it up.
Here it is next to my new Irwin of the same size.
Goldbug
SILVER Star
@FARMAN33 thanks for the knowledge drop. Didn’t even realize it was a swivel vice until you pointed it out. I think I’ll just soak that area with PBlaster for a while. I hit the rest of it with that and it moves really nicely now.
It’s a no 405 looks like. Got it cleaned a little and mounted.
- Thread starter
- #190
@RUSH55 That Desmond is a handsome little vise. Crazy how much beefier it is than the Irwin (a good modern vise).
@Goldbug The first challenge will be getting the top pin out. You remove the dynamic and main nut, then create a "jack screw" that pushes the pin out the top (it is tapered). Then begins the slow process of moving it (incrementally) from side to side till you get full rotation. Slow Slow Slow!
@Goldbug The first challenge will be getting the top pin out. You remove the dynamic and main nut, then create a "jack screw" that pushes the pin out the top (it is tapered). Then begins the slow process of moving it (incrementally) from side to side till you get full rotation. Slow Slow Slow!
Goldbug
SILVER Star
Hmm, thinking maybe I’ll just leave it be!
Will go look for utube videos on disassembly.
The descent down the vise wormhole commences…
RUSH55
SILVER Star
I’d love to collect me one of these Fireball Hardtails
- Thread starter
- #194
@RUSH55 Jason at Fireball makes quality stuff! I have mixed feelings about his vise. Love the design and the workmanship appears top notch. I think they are priced at about $1500 which is not TOO crazy. Quality 6" are now around 1K and almost any 8" gets close to 2K. I guess I am just not a fan of "new" when older options perform just as well. I recently did buy a NEW vise however. BUT there is absolutely NO older version like it and is quite spectacular! I will post it soon.
RUSH55
SILVER Star
I hear you @FARMAN33 , definitely love older vises as well. For the hell of it, I got on my McMaster/Carr app to see what they have for vises. A 6” jaw width with a 10” opening is $2,000 (looks like a Wilton). There’s three 8” vises all with a 12” opening, with the price topping out at $4,400.(!)
I don't know much about Fireball tool ,just ran across a couple of his videos on Youtube. Iirc he is based out of Spokane? If that's the case then what really makes the whole thing work for him with these products is that Spokane has a big iron foundry. It's pretty hard to get iron poured in this country anymore.
I like the machined and bolted approach like Orange vise uses as opposed to casting a new vise. With some thought I think you could design a great HD bench vise from premium materials and sell it for a pricepoint around $1500.
Make the body out of A514 plate or have it forged from 4340. After machining you could have it gas nitrided and it would come out looking like it was satin nickel plated, be corrosion proof and harder than a file.
If you could avoid the casting process altogether you could cut most of the primary expense out of making a new vise in the USA- The labor.
I like the machined and bolted approach like Orange vise uses as opposed to casting a new vise. With some thought I think you could design a great HD bench vise from premium materials and sell it for a pricepoint around $1500.
Make the body out of A514 plate or have it forged from 4340. After machining you could have it gas nitrided and it would come out looking like it was satin nickel plated, be corrosion proof and harder than a file.
If you could avoid the casting process altogether you could cut most of the primary expense out of making a new vise in the USA- The labor.
- Thread starter
- #198
@PIP Me too. LOVE the Orange vise and Viking Viking Vise | Premium Bench Top Vise - https://www.viking-vise.com/ for a smaller precision vise. It's just hard to beat the older stuff for shear mass.
Thanks for the knowledge drop on the foundries. Did not know there was one up there.
Thanks for the knowledge drop on the foundries. Did not know there was one up there.
It really is hard to think about those prices for low tech small tools and not shake one's head. I mean if they were made from a block and whittled by hand, sure, but a casting and then minor machining....? Sure, sure, if it's a run of 5 that may be expensive, but still, really...?
Casting is super labor intensive. Labor is very expensive. Foundries charge by the minute. Like $6 a minute to ram and pour your patterns. My company has 4 products that are sand cast in aluminum before machining. I lucked into a really good pattern maker that I became good friends with, but foundries are tough to deal with. There are several real good ones in the midwest, but that means I have to ship expensive/fragile patterns and cores across the country. Plus ship the raw castings back. If they mess something up I won't know until the truck shows up. These big companies only want huge jobs, thousands of parts at a time.
Working with NW based foundries has been a PITA as well. Quality has been hit and miss. Just getting them to do the work has been the hardest part. I'll find a foundry that does good work on time once then the next time they suck. Speaking with the foundry owners about the issues they say it's because nobody wants to work in a foundry anymore. I can understand that. I don't want to do it. It's physical, dirty work in a dimly lit cave of a building. In a decade of dealing with foundries it's never gotten better, only worse.
I'm working to transition all of our cast products into stamped and fully machined alternatives because I don't think it's getting better. I can machine a part from solid aluminum pretty fast on modern, powerful CNC's. The material cost is high, but I don't have to screw around with the foundry BS and having things cast isn't exactly cheap even when it goes well. The barrier to stamping parts is buying and setting up huge presses. That's where I'm at is tooling up a pair of large stamping presses for a product and if that goes OK I will do it for another product and another. Stamping has a steep learning curve and some serious barriers to entry, like buying and moving 25 ton machines.