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"shimming" vise pads

I recently picked up an old, used, Wilton "L" shaped quick release wood vise... (39 bucks newly listed off ebay) After a little cobbling around, I've got the thing mounted on my bench, and I'm very happy... It's very solid and heavy, but it works smooth and easy. I think I'm gonna like this thing. Only problem, the jaws are very slightly out of parallel with each other, and it appears they've always been that way. I'm figuring that I can correct this defect by gooshing some type of HARD setting adhesive or something behind one of the pads, closing the vise, and allowing it to harden before finally tightening down the screws holding the pads in place. Would anyone in here have any recommendations of what type of product I could buy to accomplish this?

Reply to
Marty
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This is what the vise looks like... Not MY vise, but a picture of one like it I stole off another guy's site that sells 'em...

Reply to
Marty

SHOOT... One more try at the picture, if it makes any difference... I'm not very good at this computer stuff...

formatting link

Reply to
Marty

Are you sure the vise wasn't constructed this way on purpose, so that as the vise is tightened down the vise jaws will come into parallel? If that is the case, then the fix you are thinking of is counter productive.

I'd think something with a little bit of elasticity in it so the adhesive doesn't crack and eventually fall out. Maybe construction adhesive or 15 minute epoxy?

Reply to
Jim Weisgram

I always use wood jaw pads, usually about 1/2" thick.... Could you make a set that was tapered a bit to offset the misalignment?

Reply to
Mac Davis

Thanks for the help guys... :)

I was wondering if the vise was made to flex, but it seems pretty rigid when I crank it down hard. With the angle design, any flexing would have to work in two directions. The uneveness is small, but I'm kinda anal about such things.

The vise is seven inches wide, and I'm using pads made from 3/4 inch thick plywood extending about an inch beyond the edges of the vise. That's kinda thick, but I won't be needing the nine or ten inches the vise opens to. When I got it, there was some kind of hard adhesive or something inside the jaws, so I figure the last owner may have done something similar to what I'm planning. Probably I'll go with the construction adhesive idea unless something else comes up, like a recommendation for "Elmer's Vise Evener" or something. :) Thanks again!

Reply to
Marty

Marty wrote the following:

Disclaimer: I know nothing about that vise. How are those 2 steel shafts connected to the cast outer jaw? Are they screwed in? If so, perhaps one shaft has unscrewed a little?

Reply to
willshak

Good question Bill. I went down and twisted around a bit, and however the shafts are connected, they seem tight. Everything is solid now, but I suspect that over the years, the vise has yielded a bit to heavy use... the corners of the "L" touch at the same time, but the "corner" is very slightly open. It'd work OK, but being a picky old coot, I'll probably try the construction adhesive route... maybe check and see if the local John Deere dealer has some goop that might work good... =20 Thanks, guys

Reply to
Marty

Before installing the tapered or shimmed vice pads, try putting a solid block of something in the vise that only touches the side that is closing first. Then crank down on the vise hard. You may be able to straighten it out.

Reply to
Larry W

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0(H L Mencken)

That might work Larry, but there's not much in the open side to the "L" to crank down on... Maybe a little brute force would be a logical thing to try though... I like your Mencken quote... My personal philosophical equivalent of that is "Nothing is as simple as another person's problems." :) Marty

Reply to
Marty

You'd probably also like this one, I believe also from Mencken:

"Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself."

Reply to
Larry W

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Marty

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0(H L Mencken)

You'd probably also like this one, I believe also from Mencken:

"Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself."

Yup. I do! Marty

Reply to
Marty

This sounds like a Boeing engineer. Or, as a co worker used to say: How to make an airplane expensive.

Reply to
CW

CEO of a company I used to work for was like that. Expected a bunch of parachute experts to design railguns and robotic hands and was angry at their "defeatist attitude". Also expected us to "wander around" major defense contractors and see what we could learn. The day he "wandered around" Boeing Missiles and Space and got walked out by security (after a debate over whether to charge him with espionage) we had a party.

Reply to
J. Clarke

EPILOGUE... If anybody's curious about how this thing came out, I picked around the racks at Ace Hardware and picked up a tube of Devcon's "Metal Patch & Fill Compound."with a claimed PSI strength of 125 lbs. per sq. in. After cleaning off the inside of the front face of the vise with Gunscrubber to degrease it, and then slathering Vaseline on anything I didn't want to get gummed up, I squeezed out a mess of the Devcon stuff on the surface of the wood pad, ALMOST screwed it into place with the two screws out of the way into their countersunk holes but not tight, and then lightly closed the vise. I clamped the two wooden pads to keep them tight together, and then left the whole thing alone for a couple of days... It's winter here, and my workbench is doing good to reach 50 degrees F. Tonight, I went down and opened the vise, tightened the screws in the pad, and cranked the vise down of a length of 2x4. Perfect. :) The board was held evenly and firmly for it's full length in both horizontal and vertical positions. Due to the temperature down there, I'm going to give things longer to cure before really cranking down hard on anything, but I'm happy. :) Marty

Reply to
Marty

Glad it worked. I'm even more glad you posted the resolution of your problem. Too often questions are raised here and never answered.

Reply to
Larry Kraus

Thanks Larry. I think this thing worked out pretty well. Obviously, how this works long-term may still be up in the air, but it's a cheap, simple solution, and even if the material eventually failed, it could easily be reversed by sanding or chipping it out and trying something else. =20 Marty

Reply to
Marty

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