Vice Rebuild

I was visiting a scrap metal yard recently, looking for anything that would be useful for making stuff, and I came across this big Samson woodworking vice. It was in very rough condition and missing the parts for the quick-release mechanism, but the essentials appeared to all be there, and the cast iron parts weren't broken. So for $15 I bought it, not really sure why since I've already got a couple of decent Record woodworking vices, but I figured it was too good to get melted down for scrap.

From what I could discover, Samson Tools operated from 1908 to 1940 when they were discontinued, but I couldn't find much else.

1. Oven Cleaner
2. Brake Cleaner
3. Oil
4. Paint
5. Round Bar
6. 10mm flat bar
7. 3mm x 25mm flat bar
8. Drill Press
9. Metal Lathe
10. Grinder
11. Wire wheel
12. Polishing wheel
13. Pressure Washer
14. Power Supply
15. Masking Tape
16. Pencil
17. Rubber Hammer
18. Hammer
19. Pin Punch
20. Gas Torch

The first part of the rebuild is to dissemble and inspect the parts. I was pretty lucky as everything came apart reasonably easy. Once you drive the pin out of the back the parts should all just slide apart.

I did have to use a rubber hammer to knock the drag bar off the end, they shouldn't normally be very tight and I later discovered it was off a different vice and was actually the wrong size.

I'm always keen on trying new methods of cleaning up old tools, and as much as I would like to put this in the dishwasher to see how that goes, I am very certain my Wife would object. I've found that all old oil and grease need to be removed before applying paint stripper, and since paint stripper is normally caustic why not try some cheap oven cleaner that is also caustic and designed to cut through grease?

I gave all the parts a decent spray down and left them overnight. The next day I cleaned them with my pressure washer and they came up amazing! It even removed most of the old paint, which was very impressive.

I then placed the parts into a plastic tub one at a time and added some water. I then sprinkled in some washing soda to make the water conductive. I won't go into all the details on using electrolsis to remove rust, but basically you just need to connect the negative terminal to the item you want to remove the rust from and the positive terminal to a sacrificial piece of metal (ie: an old bolt).

Then turn on your power supply, I use an old 12volt one. Keep an eye on things, and when the rust is removed from one part swap it out with one of the others.

Now you can use a wire brush (slow) or wire wheel on a grinder (fast) to give everything a final scrub. Lastly I gave the parts I quick spray with break cleaner to remove any dust so the surface is ready for painting.

For the screw and handle I gave it a quick wire wheel buff over the screw end and then polished the handle end with on the grinder.

I didn't want this rusting so I sprayed it down with some canola oil. This leaves a pretty good film when it dries and seems to really protect the steel.

I put some masking tape around the slide bars as you want these to be clean from paint so the vice runs smoothly.

Use a decent oil-based metal paint, I like to use the Hammerite paint as it is a primer and rust inhibitor as well as pretty hard wearing once it's fully cured.

I then gave everything a couple of coats of blue paint and allowed it to dry.

I put some masking tape over the front of the vice and rubbed over it with a pencil. I then used a lever handle off a different vice as an example to sketch out what I thought it should look like.

You probably could transfer it straight onto metal at this stage, but I made a template out of a piece of plastic so I could easily refine the shape.

I traced around the plastic template with a permanent marker and drilled a small pilot hole at the same time. You can now cut everything out with an angle grinder equipped with a cut off disc.

Now I used a combination of grinders to smooth everything out.

Lastly, clamp the lever steady and drill the hole. I used 12.5mm bit for this.

I was very lucky to have just purchased a small hobby lathe, and this was the perfect chance to figure out how to use it. I started by measuring the diameter of the hole in the front jaw of the vice. The shaft needs to be a smooth fit, easy to turn but not sloppy.

You will probably need to make a small spacer to lift the handle away from the face of the vice.

I then turned an old metal bar I had down to the correct size and cut it slightly longer than I thought I'd need.

I then very carefully turned the first 10mm of one end down to be slightly larger than the hole you drilled in the lever handle and made a small bevel on the end to help the piece fit in.

The fit on this part needs to be tight, so tight it can handle the tension on the lever without moving. To get it together, I used a gas torch to heat up the lever so it would expand slightly. I then drove the shaft into place with a hammer.

To my surprise the fit was perfect! Out of the entire project I'm most proud of this as I've never tried this method of joining parts before, also I'm very happy with turning the shaft to the correct tolerance.

Of course, you could just weld the parts together, but I can't weld and didn't want to bother someone else to weld this for me.

Lastly, I used a dremal and polishing wheel to smooth everything down.

Paint the parts and assemble the lever.

I was pretty disappointed that the vice wouldn't slide freely when I did a test assemble, as I eventually figured out this was because the drag bar was slightly too large and it was bending the bars outwards. This prevented the vice from fully opening.

This forced me to make a replacement drag bar. Luckily, I had figured out a way to do this a year ago on another vice.

I hope this doesn't make me a one-trick pony, but it feels a little bit like I've done this before!

I have no idea how so many parts were missing from this vice, but at least this one was pretty easy to make. I just cut a piece of 3mm thick flat bar to the correct size with an angle grinder and bent it over in my vice with a hammer.

Lastly, I just needed to drill a hole in the correct spot and find a bolt that would fit the vice.

Most of these old vices use imperial threads, so easy for those people who refuse to convert to metric like the rest of the world, but a pain in the butt for me. At least I found a local engineering shop that stocks some a while ago and I've normally got a few ready to go now.

I thought this was going to be easy, but I made the mistake of assuming it was the same size as my record vices. So after buying a piece of 25mm wide flat bar I still had to trim it down to the correct width (about 20mm). I then found the bar wouldn't slide smoothly in the vice, so I had to round over and polish the edges smooth.

Now that I had all the parts, I assembled the entire vice and aligned the quick-release handle and quick-release bar. I could then mark where the slot needed to be cut into the handle.

I then drilled a 3mm diameter hole through the bar and used a hacksaw to cut the slot down to it.

You should use a small file to clean up the slot and smooth everything out.

Now I just needed to drill and tap the rod so I could clamp the quick-release bar in place. You will also need to cut a slot or drill a hole in the bar to allow for the bolt.

I also cut an old spring to length and placed a washer between the bolt and spring, this keeps a small amount of tension on the quick-release handle.

Unfortunately, the vice once again wouldn't slide easily when the release lever was pulled. The groove in the half nut was pretty rough, so I filed it smooth. This helped a little, but it was still too tight.

I ended up having to shorten the spring to lower the tension between the half nut and quick-release bar.

At this stage, it's pretty obvious the vice was cobbled together from various parts, and the spring wasn't the original. I suspect the half nut is from a different vice as well.

I cut a couple of boards to the same size for the jaws of the vice. It's important to make these jaws a bit bigger than the size of the metal jaws as they act as a sacrificial surface. If you are working on a project and cut too deep you hit the wooden jaws rather than the steel of the vice. This protects both the vice and your tools.

I then taped the two pieces together to keep them aligned while they are installed in the vice.

For the screws I selected some old flathead screws that would have been the sort used when this vice was made. I gave the heads a quick polish and then cold blued them to help protect them from rust.

I would have loved to use some polished brass screws, but I didn't have any big enough.

Now close the vice onto the wooden jaws and use the vice to clamp them into place. I used one of my birdcage awls to start the hole and then screwed the boards into place. Then I just removed the tape to allow the boards to separate.

And of course, the last issue on this vice was discovered: the two jaws are not aligned correctly! They angle out at the top by quite a lot, they should engage at the top first, but they should only be by a tiny amount. I have no idea what caused this and at this stage it wouldn't surprise me if the jaws are from different vices.

Luckily this is actually a pretty easy fix, I just needed to plane the wood jaws down be thinner at the bottom. This allowed the jaws to engage correctly.

I like to add a decal onto the tools I fix, it's a simple little step that really makes the completed tool look great. In the past, I've found an image online and printed it out. This time I really struggled to find a Samson Tools logo, so I used an AI to generate something that I thought looked great.

Now you can print it out, cut it out with some scissors and glue it in place.

Finally, once the glue dries give it a clear-coat to seal it in place.

Well, this turned out to be quite the journey and was a lot more complex than I initially thought it would be but the finial result is great.

I managed to save this from the scrap heap and it's now a fully functional wood working vice.