Hi,
Still pretty raw and liable to ask dumb questions.
I’ve recently patched-up and installed an old bench vise and am pleased as pie to have it.
Not sure how to keep the grease (not excessively applied) from getting on my wood. Is it merely a case of making damn sure the workpiece doesn’t touch the guide rods or thread? Or is there some ‘clothing’ I am supposed to install over them to keep their mucky parts from contacting my precious timber?
Replies
Hey,
Can you attach wood to the faces? And you can put a piece of scrap under the workpiece over the screw and rods.
Mikaol
My twin-screw vises came with instruction to add a 5/16" diameter pin on the chop with a receiver hole in the bench apron that protruded an inch or so. The theory of this is that it caught anything heading for the screws and therefor any grease that might be present. Seemed more bother than it was worth to me and I have not missed it.
I just position what I want to grab and grab it. I do have leather on the chop so I get a pretty good grab with minimal pressure. Most of my vise work is to move a dog to hold something on the bench as opposed to in the jaws. Of the times I do grab stuff in the jaws I guess I am just subconsciously careful(?).
Hi,
Many thanks.
I have made new plywood faces for the faces of the jaws.
I have tried a little bit of scrap but it’s fiddly when clamping at the side.
Suppose I’m just new to the process. Like not sticking your hand into a spinning saw blade, I guess one just makes sure the wood doesn’t touch the greasy guts of the vise.
Thanks, I’ve thought about putting a leather apron into the jaws but the sag vs stretch potential starts getting complicated. I guess I’ll just use scraps and be careful.
Why not thoroughly clean the working parts of the vise, and apply a thin coat of Johnson's Paste Wax to all the moving parts, rub with a rag, and you are good to go. I use it on all my cast iron machine tables, and if rubbed out, it doesn't dirty up the wood pieces. One of my antiques vises even had cast in it "No oil on screw" to prevent folks from using sticky oil that would catch crud and wear the screw faster.
Huh! Good advice.
Ad-vise.
I’ll ungrease-ificate the screw and rods as best as I can and put on something innocuous like you suggest. Dunno if I can get the JPW round these parts, but I’ll come up with something. Thanks!
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