Warning if you are a collector this is not the post for you
I know alot of people prefer to buy new tools and build furniture than to work on tools. I am odd in the respect that I really enjoy working on old tools. I guess it allows me to do woodwork and metal work. This Fray was bought on that online auction site for around $20 and was in pretty bad shape as you can see from the before pictures. I took of the old pad and the after market wrist for the guy that likes a handle with some more girth. It was also missing the factory thumbscrew. After I had the brace stripped down to its birthday suit I used a brass wire wheel to remove the 100 or so years of rust. Squeezing the jaws shut showed that they would not close properly I reworked the chuck so that the jaws would close properly. Somehow the wrist area was bent which prevented the wrist pieces from operating properly so I had to straighten it as well. A new pad and wrist was turned from Honduras Rosewood and I recast the pewter rings. For the thumbscrew I had to rebore and tap the original to 7/16-14. The original was already 14 tpi but was somewhere between 3/8" and 7/16". I ordered iron thumbscrews from McMasters Carr and drilled and tapped them for 7/16-14. I threaded in a new threaded portion and pinned the thumbscrew to the shaft like the original. I tried forging my own thumscrews but realized that I needed to improve my blacksmithing skills. It now looks like a Holt pattern thumbscrew than a Fray but it works great. Sorry for the lousy pictures they are from my cell phone. Thanks for looking.
Cody
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