New vise

[SteveHGraham]

You mean like an inexpensive Clausing lathe than you can use now?

Hey, I used that piece of junk while I had it!

What a machine. No brake, no clutch, no metric, no tooling...

But Plaza Machinery got its check, so that's all that matters.

[ctwo]

Money well spent! I bet you learned a few things, so time not wasted either

[SteveHGraham]

I feel just great about it. I'm so blessed.

[SteveHGraham]

I did say I had "tried" to teach myself to use imperfect tools. "Tried."

[ctwo]

As long as it was your best.

[warmstrong1955]

I did say I had "tried" to teach myself to use imperfect tools. "Tried."

Untrainable?

[SteveHGraham]

I bought a Harbor Freight hydraulic press!!!

I even used it once.

[warmstrong1955]

I bought a Harbor Freight hydraulic press!!!

I even used it once.

Good heavens!!!!
There's hope!!!!

[Harold_V]

I did say I had "tried" to teach myself to use imperfect tools. "Tried."

I don't mean to brag, but what the hell! I will.
The last job I held, just before I started my humble (commercial) shop, I CHOSE to operate a little Clausing (imperfect) lathe. For a period of a month, every job I ran had at least one feature with no more than a thou tolerance, and in many cases, it was tighter. I'm proud to report that in that period of time, I had no reject parts.

It can be done---acceptable quality parts made on a less than great machine, but it requires experience, care, and understanding, to say nothing of patience.

Harold

[spro]

Getting back to stephenc's vise, this is looking good. I wasn't aware it fit both ways to the shaper. Frank Ford's remarkable repair also shows the requirement that the original bolts holding the fixed jaw are right. If the socket head caps are loose fit or the threads are poor/loose, a bolt can fail. That immediately puts all the pressure on the key and twists in the slot.
That vise can be great if they copied Kurt's design right. It should have greater grip with less force. It appears the shcs/bolts work in tandem with the key- they rely on each other. If it were mine, I'd fit the best quality bolts, especially with shaper.

[stephenc]

Being on a budget and making due with more harbor frieght tools then I'd like .
I learned that it is usually wise to replace the bolts in just about anything critical with just about every that comes from China .
Even my lathe I slowly replaced all the fasteners over the first 6 months I owned it

So I'm glad Frank posted his repair as well . It gave me just the reminder I needed to check out and most likely replace the bolts in the vise .