Vise on very old ww bench

[t peterson]

Happy New Year folks. I have a very old wood workers bench. Hardrock maple, wooden screws on both front and end vises. I purchased the bench about 40 years ago from a fellow in his 80's who said his dad used it to make chairs. It has been used hard over the years and since I just completed my dream shop I decided to refurbish the bench. Some sanding, some scraping and a few coats of tung. The end vice is perfect. The front vise is loose in the tracks and has a couple large chips out of the wooden screw. It will hold flat/square objects OK but anything else is a life threatening experiece. I'd appreciate some comments ...keep the vice and use jigs, replace the vice with something modern, make a new screw? I really like the vintage stuff, am retired and spend a lot of time in the shop and don't have a clue how to cut a new screw. Thanks for your thoughts and comments. tom

[Steve Clardy]

Welcome t.
Can you repair the old vise maybe?
Steve

[t peterson]

I was thinking about that, Steve. I'm not sure what it entails. Probably disassemble the vise, preplace the runners (?) on each side, resurface and put a metal faceplate on the moveable end. Doesn't appear to be too difficult but that's the initial thinking on most of my long term projects. I was hoping someone had an experience with this. If not, I'll charge ahead with that plan and if I screw it up, get a replacement. Thanks. TP

[Steve Clardy]

Can you post pictures of the vise?

[Tom Churchwell]

It's not clear from your description exactly what the problem is. Unless the chip outs are vey large--multiple contiguous threads missing, the remaing threads in a 2"+ ? nut should be adequate. Wood shrinkage is possible although unlikely since the other vise works well.
If it's shrinkage, gluing a couple of hardwood toothpicks around each of the nut threads should take up enought slack.
If too many threads are broken and you can't find/afford a commercial threader the right size, making your own tap and die is realtively straightforward: for the tap, grind an old file to the right thread geometry and morise it into the old vise screw at the right helix angle. Epoxy the tooth and a female hex headed bolt into the mortise, so that you can advance the tooth in very small increments (about a 32nd each pass through the nut). Making the die requires mating two pieces of wood --one drilled to the diameter of the screw and the other about 1/32 smaller and embedding a cutter with the right geometry at the right angle in the smaller hole. Making the cutter is painfull, but you can buy replacements at most of the major tool supply houses.
I used this methodology to make a European bench about 20 years ago and have used it continuously since.
Whatever you do, don't trash it. Pass it on, it's a treasure.

[Jim Young]

Hi Tom, I am going through the exact same thing as you are right now. I just haven't made my way to fixing the front vice yet. I have a write up on the bnch I found. http://www.simoli.net/pages%20woodworking/Shop%20pages/workbench.htm

This is the bench I am currently restoring.
http://www.simoli.net/images/Woodworking/Shop/wRestore8_20060104.jpg

[t peterson]

Thanks Jim. My bench, including the base, is very similiar to yours, including the nics, burns and notches. The working side edge is especially rough. Also, there is a solid sheet of 2/4 maple over the tool trough from one end to the other. The figure in the bench wood is remarkable. I read your strand and did appreciate your narrative. Perhaps we can keep in touch as these project progress.

Tom..thank you for the technical advice. It will be very helpful as move on. I guess I really never intended to throw it away, just searching for solutions. This is certainly the place to find them.

Steve..I don't know how to post pictures but I will learn.

Thanks to all. TP