Tong choices or big pliers maybe?

Well, broke a vise. Apparently over-tightening it then trying to chisel in a groove with "not hot enough" steel, creates some stresses that a little cast iron vise is not meant to take :) And Mapp/pro doesn't get this metal hot enough..

Unfortunately depending on someone else to do my tank exchanges so still waiting on having access of Oxy/Acet but I put an order on Amazon for a fire brick, so worst case I can use the propane or mapp with a simple one-brick forge setup. And after work, I will have to go see if I can spend another hundred bucks on a big vise. :(

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Absinthe said:
Well, broke a vise. Apparently over-tightening it then trying to chisel in a groove with "not hot enough" steel, creates some stresses that a little cast iron vise is not meant to take :) And Mapp/pro doesn't get this metal hot enough..

Unfortunately depending on someone else to do my tank exchanges so still waiting on having access of Oxy/Acet but I put an order on Amazon for a fire brick, so worst case I can use the propane or mapp with a simple one-brick forge setup. And after work, I will have to go see if I can spend another hundred bucks on a big vise. :(

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Been there, done that. I broke a similar size vise 2 or 3 weeks ago. Looks like you have a pretty fun welding project lined up now. :)
 
52 Ford said:
Been there, done that. I broke a similar size vise 2 or 3 weeks ago. Looks like you have a pretty fun welding project lined up now. :)
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I doubt it is worth welding. Though perhaps. I have not really done a lot of cast iron welding. Silver solder to the rescue!!
 
Absinthe said:
I doubt it is worth welding. Though perhaps. I have not really done a lot of cast iron welding. Silver solder to the rescue!!
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Cast iron isn't too difficult to weld. Even if the vise isn't worth fixing, it's a good opportunity to practice welding cast. I have no experience with Hobart Nomacast (Normacast?), but they sell it at Tractor Supply and it's a fair bit cheaper than Ni99 or Ni55 rods. This would be a good application for them. You might get some weird undercutting on the edges of your beads. By "weird", I mean it isn't like normal undercut. Think of it like welding something porous. I believe it's causes by the graphite nodules in the cast iron burning off or being dissolved into the molten metal.

Anyway, If you're getting a lot of this undercutting, don't worry about it till the last welds (the cap). I believe when I fixed that vise I was burning 1/8" 6011 at about 95A DCEP, then I capped it with 1/8" 6013 at roughly 75A DCEP.

And of course, grind and paint when done. :)
 
52 Ford said:
Cast iron isn't too difficult to weld. Even if the vise isn't worth fixing, it's a good opportunity to practice welding cast. I have no experience with Hobart Nomacast (Normacast?), but they sell it at Tractor Supply and it's a fair bit cheaper than Ni99 or Ni55 rods. This would be a good application for them. You might get some weird undercutting on the edges of your beads. By "weird", I mean it isn't like normal undercut. Think of it like welding something porous. I believe it's causes by the graphite nodules in the cast iron burning off or being dissolved into the molten metal.

Anyway, If you're getting a lot of this undercutting, don't worry about it till the last welds (the cap). I believe when I fixed that vise I was burning 1/8" 6011 at about 95A DCEP, then I capped it with 1/8" 6013 at roughly 75A DCEP.

And of course, grind and paint when done. :)
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I may give it a shot. But I think I will stop at Lowe's to ight and pick up a proper 6" one anyway. My son promised to have tanks for me tonight, and I have a brick on the way by tomorrow just in case. So one way or the other I will have some tongs soon. Love to get one of those induction things I saw in the videos but don't even know what it is called.
 
Absinthe said:
I may give it a shot. But I think I will stop at Lowe's to ight and pick up a proper 6" one anyway. My son promised to have tanks for me tonight, and I have a brick on the way by tomorrow just in case. So one way or the other I will have some tongs soon. Love to get one of those induction things I saw in the videos but don't even know what it is called.
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It's an induction furnace or induction metal heater. If you look up something like "induction bolt heater" on Amazon you'll see a lot of 120VAC handheld models that are marketed for automotive work. The idea being you can wrap the induction coil around stuck fasteners to heat them instead of using an open flame. If you're wanted to make one, I've seen schematics online. Maybe talk to someone with experience with board level stuff (@KenH - didn't you do electronics 'stuff' for a living?)

For what it's worth, Harbor Freight has some new bench vises under the "Doyle" name. They look pretty nice! I saw one in a guy's shop on YouTube and figured it was something like a Yost or a Wilton until I saw the name. Given, just cause it looks nice, doesn't mean they used good cast iron... BUT it looks like the moving jaw on the 6" Doyle weighs more than that old (Craftsman?) that you broke.

In a pinch, you can make a forge-shaped-thing out of regular 3 hole bricks. Now, I've heard that that's a terrible idea and they'll explode... BUT I've been using the same 4 or 5 bricks on top of my forge for years. Sheetrock works, too. I've gotten both sheetrock and those red bricks glowing orange.

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I did design control systems for chemical plants as my profession. My delve into electronics is mostly via ham radio. I've a license ham since early '70s I think it was.

I looked over some of those induction heaters on Amazon - for $15 to $40 you can purchase a "toy" kit. For a few hundred you can purchase a complete 120vac unit that might heat up a bolt. Note the reviews have only 1 to 3 folks and most are low star rating.
 
52 Ford said:
It's an induction furnace or induction metal heater. If you look up something like "induction bolt heater" on Amazon you'll see a lot of 120VAC handheld models that are marketed for automotive work. The idea being you can wrap the induction coil around stuck fasteners to heat them instead of using an open flame. If you're wanted to make one, I've seen schematics online. Maybe talk to someone with experience with board level stuff (@KenH - didn't you do electronics 'stuff' for a living?)

For what it's worth, Harbor Freight has some new bench vises under the "Doyle" name. They look pretty nice! I saw one in a guy's shop on YouTube and figured it was something like a Yost or a Wilton until I saw the name. Given, just cause it looks nice, doesn't mean they used good cast iron... BUT it looks like the moving jaw on the 6" Doyle weighs more than that old (Craftsman?) that you broke.

In a pinch, you can make a forge-shaped-thing out of regular 3 hole bricks. Now, I've heard that that's a terrible idea and they'll explode... BUT I've been using the same 4 or 5 bricks on top of my forge for years. Sheetrock works, too. I've gotten both sheetrock and those red bricks glowing orange.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
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I ordered a soft brick, it will be here tomorrow. I did see someone make one from the hard fire bricks. I am not sure how I would feel about red bricks nor what their insulation qualities are. But I would not be too concerned about them.exploding.

The induction coil looks fun, and it is another of those MOT projects that I will perhaps some day try to kill myself with :) But not today. I would love to hear about gypsum board, I have lots of that floating around, for sure.

So I now have something that looks like tongs. I am glad I ordered 2 sets of blanks because I will definitely want to remake these when I am not trying to play hot potato with the O/A torch with my son. These are not perfect, but we can tweak them some more tomorrow. I can't post pictures here from my phone, but when I am on the computer I will post them. They are not the worst tongs in the world, but "Aliquid melius quam pessimum optimum non est"... And all that :)
 
Absinthe said:
I ordered a soft brick, it will be here tomorrow. I did see someone make one from the hard fire bricks. I am not sure how I would feel about red bricks nor what their insulation qualities are. But I would not be too concerned about them.exploding.

The induction coil looks fun, and it is another of those MOT projects that I will perhaps some day try to kill myself with :) But not today. I would love to hear about gypsum board, I have lots of that floating around, for sure.

So I now have something that looks like tongs. I am glad I ordered 2 sets of blanks because I will definitely want to remake these when I am not trying to play hot potato with the O/A torch with my son. These are not perfect, but we can tweak them some more tomorrow. I can't post pictures here from my phone, but when I am on the computer I will post them. They are not the worst tongs in the world, but "Aliquid melius quam pessimum optimum non est"... And all that :)
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Yeah, I was gonna say that.
 
"Aliquid melius quam pessimum optimum non est!!!!!!"
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KenH said:
@Absinthe: You did good with those tongs. Doesn't look like they could have been any better even with a forge. As handy as you are with tools I can see building a forge in your future :)
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Thanks! Yeah, perhaps when my brick gets here today. :) Definitely cool to see the metal move, but I really don't want to be doing a bunch of forge work.
 
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