Using Clever Techniques to Restore a Hopelessly Rusted, Frozen Vise

Making a boat anchor is easy: Just buy a heavy cast-iron vise, neglect it for 27 years and boom, you’ve got a rusty piece metal that can serve no other function.

Unless, that is, you’re the Swiss tinkerer behind the My Mechanics Youtube channel. He acquired an old, rusted and hopelessly frozen Gressel vise for $20 and was determined to bring it back to its original glory and function. To do so required a lot of creative problem-solving, including building some clever little jigs and contraptions to get the darn thing apart:

I sat through the entire video and didn’t get bored once. However, if you’re sneaking peaks at the office and the boss is about, here are some time codes for jump-cutting:

Timestamps

00:00 preview

00:35 loosen the stuck movable jaw

02:09 disassembling

04:39 restoring the spindle

05:11 removing the pins

05:45 restoring the movable jaw

06:58 restoring the body (fix jaw)

08:14 sandblasting

10:09 painting

11:02 making the missing part

12:10 restoring two screws for the missing part

13:10 restoring the jaws

13:27 reassembling

15:53 showing off the finished product


via Core77
Using Clever Techniques to Restore a Hopelessly Rusted, Frozen Vise