Welders, help! Vise repair advice.

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I picked up an old Charles Parker vise as part of a lot of tools. I believe it's a model 995 from about 1920. It weighs more than 100 lbs and has 5" jaws.

One of the jaws is broken. I'd really like to salvage it rather than sell it for parts or scrap it.

Expert welders and machinists, is this repairable?

 
Do you have the broken off piece?

The appearance of the grain structure at the break tells you that this is cast material.

Yes; it is repairable.
 
Originally Posted By: Ihatetochangeoil
Do you have the broken off piece?

I do. It's still pinned to the jaw.
 
If it is cast steel, you can use standard welding techniques; clean the material (with a grinder), bevel the edges almost fully, preheat to ~200F, use low hydrogen electrodes, it will have to be remachined or very carefully ground when finished.

You can find out if it is cast steel or cast iron by attempting to weld with low hydrogen (steel) electrodes on the open blank end of the piece and see what happens. If E7018 electrodes will lay a nice bead, it is cast steel.

Cast iron is a little harder to work with, but by no means impossible.
 
That's not the most uncommon vise out there, check out the garage journal's vise parts swap thread. I think you could find a new dynamic jaw for that if you had time to wait. I collect vises and I would never buy one that is broken or welded unless for parts.
 
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I agree looks cast it will need tight welded with cast rods or it can be stick welded. Either way it will be brittle there unless possibly stress relieved by shot peening. The vise will also need pre heated due to it's size to get full penatration. Sand blast the area to be repaired and soak it down in acetone. Literally if you could soak the damged portion in it that would be great at pulling all the old grease and oil out of it. Someone can weld it the better prep you do the better the odds the well will work.
 
Originally Posted By: Fastcompany
I agree looks cast it will need tight welded with cast rods or it can be stick welded. Either way it will be brittle there unless possibly stress relieved by shot peening. The vise will also need pre heated due to it's size to get full penatration. Sand blast the area to be repaired and soak it down in acetone. Literally if you could soak the damged portion in it that would be great at pulling all the old grease and oil out of it. Someone can weld it the better prep you do the better the odds the well will work.


This is a bunch of hogwash. Stress relief is done in industrial ovens; not shot peening. AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code has a preheat chart depending upon material and thickness. HEAT will remove old grease and oil out of the pieces. Warm it until it smokes, let it cool, repeat if necessary. Oil will cook off at less than 500F, the steel won't begin to stress relieve until about 1100F. Sandblasting will embed Silicon into the material and is not necessary. Some State Highway bridges are welded with 7018; it is NOT brittle unless not properly preheated. The PURPOSE of preheat is not to "get full penetration," it is to broaden and soften the grain structure and make the final product more ductile (less brittle). Depth of penetration is how deep you grind a bevel in order to lay a bead of weld.

AWS has no prequalified welding procedures for full penetration welding without using either backgrinding, backgouging, or a backing bar. The way you obtain a full penetration weld is to deeply grind a 30 degree bevel on both pieces (60 degree) included angle, then weld up the bevel, then turn the piece over and grind or arc gouge into the BACK side until the line of fusion disappears and you are into the first layer of weld material. THEN you weld up the second side, cleaning all slag and wire brushing between passes to assure there is no foreign material other than weld material in the joint.

Per Code, allowable stress on a full penetration weld is the same stress as the base material. That is why industry usually performs X ray or Ultrasonic (volumetric) inspection on full pen welds.

Cast Iron is a different animal: http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/sup...ron-detail.aspx

Regardless of material involved, this vise is repairable almost to the point of a machinist not being able to tell it was repaired. When a quality weld job is completed, then repaint the vise. The only evidence of a repair will be the grinding marks on the welded area, which could then be sandblasted away and painted.

AWS Certified Welder and Certified Welding Inspector.
 
Welding a broken piece on a cast iron vise is not wise. I have welded a lot of cast iron, but welding a broken vise is some what dangerous. Scrape it. I doubt this is cast steel. I can tell by the color of the spark that comes off a grinding wheel. A dull red indicates cast iron of some sort. A bright spark could mean it's steel.
and would be very weld able with some pre-heat and proper chamfering.
 
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That part is in COMPRESSION, not tension.

It is broken because of abuse, not proper use!

I would preheat it like crazy and braze it with brass.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
That part is in COMPRESSION, not tension.

It is broken because of abuse, not proper use!

I would preheat it like crazy and braze it with brass.


Be nice to the old gal. She's been wailed on for a century.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
That part is in COMPRESSION, not tension.

It is broken because of abuse, not proper use!

I would preheat it like crazy and braze it with brass.



With a vise, brazing won't hold longer than a snow ball in a fire barrel. Scrap it.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: Linctex
That part is in COMPRESSION, not tension.


With a vise, brazing won't hold longer than a snow ball in a fire barrel. Scrap it.


I think you missed that part...........

It's pretty durn obvious that damage is due to abuse ONLY.
 
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Everyone on here who thinks it's scrap has never spent any time around a good machinist or true mechanical man.

I feel sorry for you.

You have missed much.
 
i would be tempted to thoroughly degrease it and use jbweld.
or since i have some on hand spec 20-20.
since it looks like it fits together well i bet it will be fine.coat it well,fit the piece,and lightly clamp it with a block of wood till it cures.
just wipe off whatever oozes out after it is clamped.
just dont use it for an anvil.
takes extreme abuse to bust it like that.
 
Scrap it, braze it, J-B weld it!?!?

Why don't the users who don't know what you're talking about at least admit it and stay out of the discussion?

I have welded cast steel, cast iron, stainless steel, hastelloy, inconel, titanium, aluminum, lethal service ammonia vessels, 9 Cr/1 Mo, high pressure steam lines and metals you guys can't spell. Nothing has ever broken.

This is one of the issues with this forum. There is no shortage of unqualified advice.
 
Not to disrespect this forum, but it is after all an oil forum and there are better places to get practical vise repair advice. I suggest trying the Practical Machinist, OWWM or the various welding forums.

I'm not a professional welder but I've successfully welded or brazed plenty of cast iron parts and I have two vises in the works that I haven't got to yet.

Good luck with it and I hope you let us know how it turns out.
 
Originally Posted By: Ihatetochangeoil
Why don't the users who don't know what you're talking about at least admit it and stay out of the discussion?


Because BITOG would come to an immediate and grinding halt.
 
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