[TheForge] Re: Vise squad

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

I use some brass liners similarly and both metals have the disadvantage 
of sucking the heat out of the work aggressively. Aluminum is nice and 
sticky...wonder what we could use that would spare the work surface, not 
  cool it too quickly and still survive repeated use?
Been using wet wood some and also green oak for quick and dirty 
sacrifice stakes. I'm getting choosier about the kind of wood i use now 
that i've had enough snootfulls of the smoke.
Went to the CBA spring conference...it was a pretty good one all in all.
....Pete F

Mike Spencer wrote:
> 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.
>