How old is a Morgan 10A vise?

[Lawrence A. Ramsey]

[Silvan]

Looks like it would go. It sand blasted up pretty good. It's pitted, but there's plenty of metal left. It will probably just be a little sloppy.

OK, that could work. I haven't tried heating it recently. :)

While I'm posting, I'll just answer a couple others here in one place for once. Checked again, no washing soda anywhere, so I decided to try Oxy-Clean before spending any money.

It's working. I only have a 1A trickle charger, so it's working verry, verrrry slloooooooooooowly. I'm not sure if it's the chemical or what, but the anode isn't disintegrating. It's collecting little stalagtite looking thinks, and it's quite freaky to behold. The vise is doing what it's supposed to do, so I'm pretty sure I'm not eating it. Rust is turning to black slime.

The big block that the screw runs through moves. The four holes that the rods go through move a little when I whack them. I still can't turn it to save my life. I think the business end of the screw still has rust deep inside. That area hasn't really started to turn black yet either.

I put some Liquid Wrench on it. I'll try heating and beating the hell out of it when I get back. I think it might go now that I'm only trying to un-seize one thing. If not, the heat will burn off the oil, and I can try electrolysis again. :)

Freon... Don't let the EPA hear you say that! ;)

:)

[Silvan]

I have...

53 cents.

If I don't get it to go, I might try getting something similar on Ebay though. I don't care what it looks like, I just want a bigger front vise, or at least a second front vise. These things are damned handy!

[Larry C in Auburn, WA]

I bought two Morgan vices (200A) about 3-4 years ago and have been very happy with them so I'd keep working on it. Based on an updated post of yours it sounds like you're making progress so I'm sure you'll have it tuned up in no time. IIRC the guy I bought them from said they came from a High School shop class. Seems plausible, but it doesn't help determine the age. Good luck!

[Jon]

Quite some time ago I found (rare now) a website that had an old (but well known) article entitled "Cleaning Rusty Tools - Electrolysis Made Easy".

I've used the same process to cleanup vises, pliers and even a old "pitcher pump" for my wife. The old 'recipe' called for either "washing soda" or "baking soda" (you know - Arm&Hammer?) at about one tablespoon per gallon of water. What this stuff does is only provide a medium for the electrical current. If I were you, I'd stray away from Lye. Yea, it'll provide a path for the current alright. So would salt water, battery acid, muratic acid, (oh, lets not forget radioactive plasma)! What you're trying to do is remove corrosion, not make more! Like the author of the article repeats over and over, "This Aint Rocket Science". Any POS battery charger or power supply that will deliver 2 amps or more at

6-24 volts will do. Your 1 amp trickle charger will just take longer (but you knew that).

Hope this helps, Jon Veeneman

[Silvan]

a High School shop class. Seems plausible, but it doesn't help determine the age. Good luck!

This one was mounted on the back of a delivery truck, for some reason. Being outside for umpty dozen years didn't do it any good. I was standing there when it fell off, and the guy said "Here, you want a vise?"

I'll see how far I am tomorrow. All I have to do it get it to move one good time, and I should be able to get it going nicely.

If not, it will make a better boat anchor than my table saw.

[Silvan]

Maybe so, but it *is* a cool chemistry experiment.

Took a loooong time to really start to look like it was going to do something, but it's cheaper than buying a better charger. Dad used to use this one to keep his motorcycle battery charged up, which is exactly what it's designed for.

Hmmm... I can't remember why Dad sold his motorcycle. Betcha it had something to do with Mom bitching at him for wasting money.

I'm glad SWMBO doesn't do that to me. She may roll her eyes, but she understand on some level, and she never tries to badger me into not doing something. We both learned a long time ago that neither one of us really cares what the other one thinks about a lot of things, and neither one of us is ever going to change to suit the other. We're fine with that.

I'm glad I didn't "marry my mother."

But I digress. I need to get motivated to go out in the cold and whack on that vise.

[Dan]

I apologize for missing this thread till now. I have a Morgan Vise a friend gave that I was able to break loose with liquid wrench. He told me he got it from his uncle who'd been using it since the fifties, and he believes it was old then.

What I found after I'd gotten the screw turning was that it was, for lack of a better description, the "quick-slide type": the screw itself only turned about two revolutions before hitting a stop in both directions; there's a slot in the screw and when it's in the right position, you can slide the face back and forth, to where it touches the piece, then tighten it with the screw.

Is it possible you've got one of these, and you're at the end of the spin travel in one direction or the other? In my case I was trying to do just that with a piece of pipe in the screw handle, then after the third treatment of LW I reefed it the other way and nearly fell over when it broke loose.

Haven't looked at it for a few weeks and I can't leave work right now to go check it so I might be remembering a few things wrong. Maybe I can take a few pictures this weekend to see if it might look like yours. From your description, mine is definitely smaller. :-)

Dan

[Silvan]

Wow... I like old stuff. :)

Not necessary. I can tell you for sure that mine isn't the quick slide type you describe.

In any event, after electrolyzing away most of the rust, then stewing in Liquid Wrench overnight, then heating it and beating the crap out of it, I finally got it to move.

I had to whack on it with a big ball pein hammer for a very long time to get it to do anything, and now it has lots of dents on the pipe, but it's moving by hand.

It's not very smooth, but it's free enough that I think I can get it into service from here. Maybe. I'll see how it goes after I get it mounted, which is a pretty non-trivial undertaking in of itself. I'll have to reconfigure my poorly-designed workbench.

At least I finally got it to move after two years of fooling with it. :)

[Bob Gramza]

wooden handle on it. Mine just needs a little clean up. Looks and adjusts pretty nice.

[Silvan]

I'm probably going to saw off this ugly, bashed-up metal handle and replace it with something fancy once I get my new lathe going.

Maybe.... Walnut?? :)

[Silvan]

I don't think I ever posted an update.

For anyone who cares...

After quite a lot of effort to get the thing worked free, it's now as silky smooth as any other vise in my shop. The effort of working the screw back and forth so many times has actually polished the screw silver again. There's some pitting to be sure, but I don't think it's going to keep me from getting many years of service out of the vise.

The color question has been answered... It's not really warm enough to paint anyway, and I want to get it into service, so I just waxed it as is. It pretty much looks like slightly rusty cast iron covered with dull, hazy wax. I think it's somehow fitting that it looks really old, since it almost certainly is.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to get the bolts out. There are two threaded metal plates that fit inside a slot in the fixed jaw. I can't coax the plates out without removing the bolts, and they're broken off in such a fashion that it's going to be a real bitch to get them out. If I could weld, I'd tack a piece of rod to the end, but I can't, so I'm going to have to come up with something else. Or cave in and take the thing to work and get my boss to do it.

[Lawrence A. Ramsey]

[ranck]

Lawrence A. Ramsey wrote:

Go to Heavener Hardware, or the big box store of your choice and ask for "easy outs". I know Heavener has them because I bought one just a couple weeks ago. They are basically hardened left-handed drills meant to extract broken off screws or bolts. They come in several sizes and fit in a tap handle. There is a drill size marked on the easy out that is the size pilot hole you drill first. Some people call them "screw extractors." Actually, if the size is approriate you can borrow mine. Send me an e-mail and we can set up a meeting.

Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va.

[Joe Gorman]

[Silvan]

Right there with the left handed shovels, right? :)

No, I know you're serious. I've seen them somewhere or other, and that sounds like a good plan.

I got off easy though. I had a big cutoff disc for my Dremel that was able to reach into the crevice and get at the thing. One of them came out with little more than a tap and a twist. The other one, I had to cut way down, hammer the sacrificial screwdriver into the kerf, and then wrench on the screwdriver (crescent wrenches _are_ good for something, though Bob Vila would surely have used pliers) to break it loose.

It was pretty determined to stay put, but I got it. I've gotten the vise installed, and have already used it. The only down side here is that I put it in the middle of my bench, and now I'm getting paranoid about that after looking at all the pictures of workbenches with the vise on the far end, where it doesn't have to penetrate any support members.

Well, I didn't want it at the far end, and what's done is done. I lined up my little cheapo at the far end, and now I can clamp a 72" board with no more than 24" at a stretch unsupported, which feels right.

It's been a fun adventure. Best of all I got a really awesome ~$100+ equivalent vise for surely less than $1.00 in supplies/electricity.

[Cdball]

I called the Milwaukee guys. They told me Morgan produced in Chicago from 1929 to 1956. No way to know any more specific than that. 10-A vises sell for about $175 brand new according to the guy in Milwaukee.

[Keith Nuttle]

washing soda is Sodium Carbonate, a very common chemical

If you can not find Sodium Carbonate ( Na 2 CO3)(Washing soda) use baking soda Sodium BiCarbonate (Na H CO3)

Have you tried to soak it in light oil?

[uumikew]

I sent a message to the guys at milwaukee tool about the color to repaint my 100 A Morgan and they said the color is called safety blue. I found it at the local home depot in a spray from rustoleum. Have fun.

--mike--

[John Grossbohlin]

Find Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda in the laundry section at the super market...

I just did an inherited Stanley No 6 with it and it turned out very nice. I've got a router plane, dividers, and a few more items to go...