[TheForge] Re: Vise squad

[Mike Spencer]

Bob> There really isn't any reason it has to be a ball. 

Ron> Because a ball looks good and it's ergonomic.

Because it's less likely to pinch your finger and give you a nasty
blood blister when you drop the handle too hastily?

I'm fixing up a 7-1/2" just now.  The handle was bent all woggly and
the "balls" were scrap whatevers welded on and subsequently spalled
and chipped.

I used a piece of the largest size of  m/s round that would fit through
the eye in the screw, long enough to reach the hinge pin in the front
jaw.  Made a seamless collar by punching a hole in a ca. 1-1/4" length
of 1-1/4" round, arc welded it onto the end, welding copiously on both
sides.  Then heated it up and forged it into a ball.  Not perfect but
looks pretty good.  I won't weld the other collar on until I'm sure
just how I'm going to mount the vise: Easy to change as is, lots of
wasted work to change it if it's already in the screw.

Interesting note: The screw on this vise is just perfect except at the
very end where there is evidence that someone repeatedly locked up the
very largest thing it would hold and did it *very* hard.  Visible (but
not disastrous) mashing over of the threads at in the last 2-1/2" of
the screw.

At a recent MBA [1] meet, a couple of folks were bragging about having
put a roller or ball thrust bearing between the screw flange and the
jaw.  Said it allowed them to grip things very tightly indeed.  But
they admitted that it also tended to allow the the grip to pop loose
unexpectedly. I've found that keeping 3/16" aluminum [2] jaw liners in
place all the time means I hardly ever have to fight to get the
workpiece to stay where I want it.  I would just *hate* to have a vise
that popped loose unexpectedly.  The liners knock out real quick if I
want the sharp edge of the jaw for a bend.

- Mike



[1] Maritime Blacksmith's Association

[2] That structural aluminum -- truck-body or boat-hull stuff, not
    pure Al, which would be destroyed real soon.  I only have to
    replace these liners every couple of years.

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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