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Using Clever Techniques to Restore a Hopelessly Rusted, Frozen Vise
This man brings tools back from the dead
By Rain Noe - Nov 16
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
Rain Noe
Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.
5 Comments
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are penetrating oils not available there? or are the different formulations of WD-40? It worked, but I'm not sure how much was the WD-4 and how much perseverance. Nice work, though.
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Great video! Relevant to starting to collect items for a shop. I have been looking at vises lately, this makes me not to worried about getting an older one since I have access to the machinery to repair it. I think that green metal paint was neat to see, didn't know there were coatings like that.
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I’m sorry, but how is any of this relevant to industrial design?
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Well, I for one learnt what heat treatment is.
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maybe your setting a small workshop for model making and testing your concepts
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Continued Reading
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By Joel Moskowitz - Nov 15
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From the top: Paring Chisel, Ashley Iles Beveled Edge Bench Chisel, 2 more paring chisels, 2" Ashley Iles Bench Chisel, 2 Nishiki extra thin paring chisels, and a Registered Chisel. When a tool maker or seller talks about paring chisels, we don't mean chisels that can be used for paring:
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For many contemporary furniture makers, Instagram may serve the twin needs of inspiration and self-promotion. Whatever did the talented and ambitious do before #instafurniture, #interiordesign, #maker, #furnituregallery, and the like? I had occasion to mull over this topic at the current Metropolitan Museum exhibit, "Chippendale's Director: The Designs and Legacy
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By Rain Noe - Oct 30
How to Easily Attach Sheet Metal to Wood: The "Reverse Rivet" Trick, No Rivet Gun Necessary
All you need is a drill, a pair of pliers and a hammer
ID students, take note: Eventually you may want to present a project in metal. Depending on the object you design, it may be easier to fabricate the object in wood, then paint it to look like metal. Alternatively, you could skin a wooden object in sheet metal, which raises the
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