Hi all.
Most everyone agrees the vise definitely needs to be improved.
Here's something I did. The pivot bolt which attaches directly to
the bed was a very sloppy fit in the hole of the fixed vise jaw. I
took a piece of thin wall brass tubing, 1/4" ID ('cause that's what
was handy), cut off about 3/8" , slotted it, and pushed it onto the
bolt. After a little trimming on a belt sander it fit snuggly into
the hole in the vise jaw. The bolt was reinstalled and snugged just
until the lock washer was fully compressed. Then I put a lock nut on
the other end of the bolt to keep it from turning. The fixed jaw now
can be adjusted without loosening the bolt and there's no slop around
the pivot point. Next, I replaced the sliding nut and washer under
the other end of the vise jaw with a t-slot nut (Grizzly G9510). The
wide part of the nut doesn't span the slot, but bears against one
side of the slot. Now, adjusting the vise requires loosening just
one bolt (and one wrench, no need to hold the lower nut). This has
made the fixed jaw of the vise much easier to adjust and I don't have
to worry that clamping work tightly in the vise will shift the pivot
end of the jaw. More to come.
Tom
