I purchased a "light-duty" vise from the local Ace Hardware store. It weighs about thirty pounds, and I carried it home in a backpack (with an extra canister of MAPP gas) on my Raleigh.
It is also completely covered in grease. I can understand lubricating the moving bits, but this thing looks like it was dropped in a vat before shipping off to the store. The screw, both handles (for the jaw and the rotational lock), jaws, and the flat surface on the anvil were all coated in a thick ooze.
After a quick wipe-down (now I need to go back to Ace and get more rags), I used the vise to pinch the slot on the fork blade closed. It was much easier than trying to use the C-clamp, but I encountered a few issues-
First, the vise is just resting on my workbench. I still need to hold on to it if I need to apply any sort of torquing force to it, such as trying to turn the handle to close the jaws on a stiff piece of steel tubing. This is just going to be unavoidable for now, but I may drill some holes in the workbench to semi-permanently mount the vise. I'll need to be able to remove it if I want to move the workbench around.
Second, the slot did not close evenly. One "tang" on the end of the blade moved much more significantly than the other. I don't think this is a huge deal, but it does mean that the end of the fork blade will likely be a little uneven. When I opened the slot up again with the file, it took more material off of the less pinched side of the slot, so maybe it will even itself up if I try to close it up again. I may be able to adjust the position of the blade in the vise to favor the unbent side of the slot.
Work has become difficult because a) we've hit full-on New England Summer and it's hot as balls and b) there is zero ventilation in the basement. Sweat just pours off me and there's no air circulation to help it evaporate. The file is frequently binding in the slot, making it slow going to get it opened up again.
Slowly but surely, work moves on. I'll take photos of the second blade as I slot it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment