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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 4:50 pm 
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Greetings all -

Some years ago I picked up an old woodworker's bench vise. I finally dug it out a few days ago and decided to try tuning it up. Turns out the two rods are slightly bent. Took some heavy hauling to get the two jaws apart. After polishing off these rails, I find that the rails miss the mating holes in the stationary jaw by about 1/8". (too narrow) I'm not about to be able to bend them by hand and spreading them to get them to insert in the jaw they won't, of course, slide whatsoever. So, the question is, how would you go about realigning the rails with the jaw? I could by all means put one rail my big machinist vise and use some pipe to try bending them but it has to be an incremental effort to avoid overshooting the mark.

Or, is it even worth the effort?

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 6:34 pm 
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DennisS wrote:
Greetings all -

Some years ago I picked up an old woodworker's bench vise. I finally dug it out a few days ago and decided to try tuning it up. Turns out the two rods are slightly bent. Took some heavy hauling to get the two jaws apart. After polishing off these rails, I find that the rails miss the mating holes in the stationary jaw by about 1/8". (too narrow) I'm not about to be able to bend them by hand and spreading them to get them to insert in the jaw they won't, of course, slide whatsoever. So, the question is, how would you go about realigning the rails with the jaw? I could by all means put one rail my big machinist vise and use some pipe to try bending them but it has to be an incremental effort to avoid overshooting the mark.

Or, is it even worth the effort?


Can you get the rods out of the vise face? They are probably pinned in place (may have to drill out pin), or maybe just press fitted, so if you can get them out take them to a machine shop and have them straightened. I wouldn't attempt to do it in place since you could easily get them out of plane as well as going too far apart.

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 10:03 pm 
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Hey Dennis,

What do the ends of the shafts look like? Is it something I can reproduce on the machine lathe? It might be easier to just replace the two rods with new ones.

Cheers,
Tom

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 10:23 pm 
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Ditto what Tom said! The effort (cost) of straightening those steel rails would be more than the worth of the vise...plus...straightening them with heat may weaken them. Brainstorm replacing them. BTW..... got a pic of the vise?

Don


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 10:29 pm 
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pictures please

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:57 am 
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Daddy Loves said,

a picture beats a 1000 words


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:55 am 
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OK, my bad, no pix. I'll get 'er done. Busy all day today.

As for machining new rails, Tom, I'm not sure if they're bent other than at the point they're attached to the moveable face. I need to get out the calipers and measure along their length.

Thanks for all the comments. I'll get back to it tomorrow.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 3:43 pm 
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Hey Dennis,

I'm pretty sure that I can reproduce the shafting accurately, it's the end that may be difficult.

Cheers,
Tom

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 5:51 pm 
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Well, Tom, here are some photos to lend a bit of clarity to the discussion...

It appears the rails are press fit into the movable jaw and peened over. There's no drift pin that I can discover:

Attachment:
bar ends.jpg
bar ends.jpg [ 469.06 KiB | Viewed 7103 times ]


As you can see here -

Attachment:
bar free ends.jpg
bar free ends.jpg [ 267.96 KiB | Viewed 7103 times ]


there's about 1/8" misalignment of the free ends where they (are supposed to) mate with the rail holes.

Now here's the odd part. I carefully cut a block to fit between the rails at the free end which should be a no go where they're fixed into the sliding jaw. But they appear almost perfectly parallel along their entire length!

Attachment:
guage free ends.jpg
guage free ends.jpg [ 259.69 KiB | Viewed 7103 times ]
Attachment:
guage fixed ends.jpg
guage fixed ends.jpg [ 262.49 KiB | Viewed 7103 times ]


So anyway, I tried prying the rails apart using my farmstrong techniques and a bit of scrap iron I had lying around ...

Attachment:
spreader.jpg
spreader.jpg [ 302.56 KiB | Viewed 7103 times ]


At least I managed to get the rails into the fixed jaw. But then when I went to assemble the screw and half nut, I'm completely baffled by this. It appears this is either the wrong half nut for this vise or I'm missing something about how it's supposed to go back together. So help me, I'll swear the threads are backward on the half nut.


Frankly, I think I only paid $25 for the thing at a junk store. It may be work $2.00 at the scrap yard. I'll put it in our upcoming garage sale for free. (grin)

End of my end of the conversation. (hehehe) Oh, it's free to anyone who wants it. Now don't all call at once!

OOps can't add more than five attachments. To be continued.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 5:54 pm 
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Here's the photo of the half nut and screw ...

Attachment:
halfnut 02.jpg
halfnut 02.jpg [ 395.99 KiB | Viewed 7101 times ]


I kept thinking I didn't have it oriented the right way but no matter how I turned, flipped or whatever, the threads STILL don't match. I gotta be doing something wrong here. Perhaps wasting so much time on the stupid thing is part of it?

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:52 am 
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DennisS wrote:
Here's the photo of the half nut and screw ...

Attachment:
halfnut 02.jpg


I kept thinking I didn't have it oriented the right way but no matter how I turned, flipped or whatever, the threads STILL don't match. I gotta be doing something wrong here. Perhaps wasting so much time on the stupid thing is part of it?


An old Abernathy 70D!! :-D I have the 80D model. These are great vises, and I'd clean that baby up and put her to work. These old models often go for $100 or more at auctions, even in bad shape.

Anyway, the patent for the design is available here if you're interested: http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=0114 ... patimg.htm . includes illustrations of the mechanism, which may help you.

If you want, I'll take a couple pics of the mechanism on mine sometime today.

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 10:19 am 
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Hey Dennis,

Methinks thou hast parts from more than one vise.

Just my 2¢,
Tom

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 10:29 am 
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tms wrote:
Hey Dennis,

Methinks thou hast parts from more than one vise.

Just my 2¢,
Tom


You could be right. The 2 part nut design was not original with the Abernathy as far as I know, but the installation and function should be the same. The design may have been changed to a 2 part nut in later production tho.

Here's mine. The 3 hole plate is just a stop to set opening distance. Not necessary for operation.

Vise face to the right in the pic.

Image

Looking from the face as the nut would be when installed.

Image

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 11:28 am 
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Sure looks that way, Tom. There's no way I can get the threads to match up.

I'll skip over to that link, Gene, and see if it will shed any light on the subject. I doubt seriously that I'll ever get the rails to slide easily by hand, though. Like I said, it's free for the taking FOB my driveway. (grin)

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 28, 2017 11:36 am 
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Gene -

What's pictured on the Abernathy site doesn't look like what I have.

At this point I think the highest and best use for these parts is to make a cider press out of the acme threaded screw along with some other scrap I have lying around. That is if I can find an acme nut to fit.

Thanks for all the comments, folks. It was an interesting trip while it lasted.

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