One man's garbage is another man's knife vise.

M

montana guy

Joined
Dec 18, 2009
Messages
472
I saved this from the trash heap about 3 years ago at a job I worked at. Guy was just tossing it because it has some cracks in it. Told him I don't know what I will use it for but I am sure it will come in handy some day. Yesterday it came to me, a vise. Not super heavy duty but better than my hand. I am actually thinking of making a reproduction of it in a much heavier duty model. The ways it could be used are endless and the types of jaws one could make are endless also. One of the things I thought it would be real good for is mounting it to a drill press table thus making a make shift mill type table.

If I do remake it I would make the design about the same, both ends would move and be lockable. I would change the way it locks, get rid of the round locks you see at either end of it with the set screws, and just put the set screws in the slides. I'd put 2 or 3 set screws so I would not have to scar the ways from having to torque 1 screw so hard to keep it from moving. I would make it out of steel, not cast. I would make the slides much stronger and longer, as short as they are they will round out the holes and create a tipping of the jaws. The potential of this little thing is huge as I see it, a stronger base and you could replace most vises. I'd improve the threaded rod, make it bigger and put it through thicker metal so it would never strip.

I still need to clean this one up, paint the jaws I slapped together and get some soft inserts I can mount to the jaws so I do not scratch my blade. That is my 1st knife in the pics, will post better ones when I am done in a different thread probably.

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The blots are loose and the blade is just sitting there so not to scratch it.
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Holds a knife well to glue on handles.
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It looks to me like you've got a great piece of equipment. Where are the cracks you mentioned? BTW, that base is cast steel. I assume you thought it was iron, but it is steel. Iron is both too soft and brittle for a base like this, assuming it was a table mount for some kind of mill.

Also, instead of building new, I'd just cut a new, longer, threaded rod, probably of the same size, but so it goes all the way through and put a nut or something on the backside of the left movable mount. That will give you more freedom of movement and a more secure way of locking down the left movable mount.
 
Sadly it is cast iron, went to patch part of it with the welder and it is defiantly cast iron. It is an old motor mount for a piece of newspaper equipment. The cracks are on the end opposite the threaded screw, they are bad but strong enough still for hand tightening. The reason I am thinking of making a new one is I have an idea for it. To explain it would take longer than I have to write right now. When I get it done, which with the ever increasing limited time I have it could be a while, but it will be one amazing tool I think.
 
I have one just like it and use it for what it was designed for. It's really handy if you have step pulleys on your grinder.:thumbup:
 
it wouldnt take much to turn it into a grinder similar to what i have. do you have access to a mill and lathe?
 
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