Vintage Rock Island 574 Vise

opaul

opaul

KNIFE MAKER
So, I went to the flea market this morning looking for old files and rasps to use in knife making and happened upon this old war horse. I checked it out and passed it by thinking it was a little rough and it is, especially in the working area - the jaws. After making the rounds at the market and picking up a few items, I stopped by the booth with this Rock Island vise. Long story short I felt sorry for the old war horse and decided to bring it home and see if I couldn't put it to use in my shop.
It looks like someone butchered the jaw liners and drilled through the jaws to attach them. As you can see they did a very poor job. I don't necessarily need steel jaws and could probably get by with oak or other soft jaw liners. But it would be nice to be able to semi-restore this back to as close to the original condition as possible.
I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions on going about the restoration, I'll post pic's as I go along. Smallshop (aka Ted) is problably an expert at this sort of thing, so I'm hoping he will weigh in.
Here she is in all her rusted glory:)

 
The most obvious thing I would probably do (apart from general clean up with a mill file) would be to drill those jaw holes to the next size thread (coarse) minor diameter. Then tap...and then make some liners that fit. Even though what they did works...it's a long clearance hole that can shift when whacking on something in the jaws. Threading those spots will keep your liners nice and tight.

I love old vises...even when they should already be retired...Dad had an old one that he made hardwood liners and glued thick hard felt to for fine work. I remember using it back when I was about 10...lol. He taught me to draw file on that old beast.

good score.
 
Smallshop said:
The most obvious thing I would probably do (apart from general clean up with a mill file) would be to drill those jaw holes to the next size thread (coarse) minor diameter. Then tap...and then make some liners that fit. Even though what they did works...it's a long clearance hole that can shift when whacking on something in the jaws. Threading those spots will keep your liners nice and tight.

I love old vises...even when they should already be retired...Dad had an old one that he made hardwood liners and glued thick hard felt to for fine work. I remember using it back when I was about 10...lol. He taught me to draw file on that old beast.

good score.
Click to expand...
Thanks Smallshop! I knew you would have some great advise.
 
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