[TheForge] Re: bolt thread repair tool

[Mike Spencer]

> Out of curiosity..Has anyone rebuilt a post vise screw that way and
> really subjected it to prolonged heavy use/abuse?  Wonder how long
> it'd stand up?

Circa 1974, Dimitri Gerakaris proudly showed me a vise he'd done that
way.   When I saw him again a couple of years later he reported that
it hadn't stood up well to regular use.

I've made a screw for a wood vise by wrapping two lengths of 1/8"
keystock [1] at the same time around a piece of round stock and then
unscrewing one, brazing the other one in place.

First thing I learned was that I had to forge or file the keystock  to
a trapezoidal cross section to compensate for the distortion when
hot-wrapping around a ca. 1-1/2" mandrel.

And then my brazing left much to be desired -- lots of time with a
warding file to clean up the excess brass. As a follow-on to that,
though, once you get a screw/nut combo to work *at all*, you can carry
on to a final fit by putting coarse lapping compound on the threads
and cranking it in and out with as long a wrench handle as needed.

After all that work, I've hardly used it at all so I dunno how durable
it is.  And I never tried to do a female thread like that.  I just
assumed that I'd never get excess brass out of the threads.  The trick
of sleeving the *very clean* tube with sheet brass, fluxing and
brazing with the male screw *in place* and protected by lots of
burned-on paint sounds worth a try.

So *many* cool things to try, lyfe so shorte and all like that.

- Mike

[1] They sent me 1/8" once when I ordered 3/16".  I just kept it
    around.  Still have some somewhere.

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