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