Collectors loves them some rust, b'golly! Fortunately, this was a fully-useable, 'grande-dame' of a de-'vice' (chuckle), a veritable MOUNTAIN of metal, and looking now, perhaps even a bit better than when she first left the factory, how many orbits ago? On another note, I'd be amazed if you could find an 'old' Chinese vise that's actually worth the sandpaper - you'd probably be better off re-smelting any such object and pouring a new one! (.unless it's REALLY 'old', as in, '.before the so-called 'communist revolution'.', but then it might be an 'actual antique'.) You mentioned a possible '.coat of filler between the rough casting and the paint.'. Had this been an actual antique, that amazingly-beautiful restoration job might've slashed-away somewhere between half and three-quarters of its 'collectors' value'. Happy about that.Ībsolutely gorgeous job! Of course, you're probably already aware of this, but others might not be, so I thought it might bear (possibly-pedantic) repeating: One does have to be somewhat careful to distinguish 'good, old, useable' tools from 'valuable, antique, collectable' ones. The Dawn however was good quality Australian cast iron with no filler. In most cases the finish you end up with will equal the effort you put into the work. If that is the case you're better using sandpaper to remove the paint and then fill any gouges or nicks with body filler before proceeding. If you are working with a Chinese vice (or most any heavy cast tool made in China) you may find a coat of filler between the rough casting and the paint, it hides a multitude of sins and most times it is best left there. I will say at this point that I have many 'vices' but one I have had for many years, is vices. I did most of this with an angle grinder fitted with a wire brush. Anything goes at this stage, use wire brush, sandpaper, file. Make sure you have all the parts necessary to rebuild and then get into it.ĭismantle, clean and prepare the vice (or other tool that you're repairing). More Vise Stuff, Shop value, setup, accessory tooling, use guidelines, maintenance.The first step is to assess that the job is worth doing, in this case the vice was still working. Today, with most bench vise manufacturing moving overseas where they use poor quality castings and cheapened manufacturing methods there has been a resurgence in interest into old well made American and European Vises.īench vises that you could not give away a decade ago are now selling for nearly new prices. The hand held grinder has largely replaced filing but the vise is still used to hold the work being ground. In a shop with one anvil you may see three or more vises. In the blacksmith shop one often thinks of the anvil as being the most important tool.īut the blacksmith spends as much or more time at the vise, sawing, filing, grinding, welding and chisling. In the lathe a derivation of the vise was developed for holding round work, 3 and 4 jaw chucks. In modern machine shops where very little is done by hand most machines have dedicated specialized work holding vises. Vises are used by watchmakers, jewelers, sculptors, furniture makers, machinists, blacksmiths and many others. The screw vice is one of the most used tools in any kind of workshop.

It was not until the 1860's that vise nuts (boxes) had machined threads. The value of a vise being so great that they would not wait for the manufacturing technology to catch up. The expanded use of the screw vise follows advances in screw cutting lathes and was probably one of the primary driving forces for the need for screw cutting machinery.įor over three centuries turned metal screws were used with fabricated nuts made from coils of small bar brazed into a tube. The first screw vises were made entirely of wood and the screws were cut primarily by hand or on primitive lathes from hand drawn layouts. The screw vise is probably the world's most important invention yet it goes so far back in time that it cannot be attributed to any inventor, not DaVinci, not Aristotle (both advocates of screws).

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