Turning Garden Ornaments in to Working Tools

[Alpha-Dave]

For the top-coat, I went with blue enamel for both; it is very high quality, and much easier to apply on top of the primer than applying the primer to the metal.

Even the fiddly bits go well.

I probably won’t go all the way inside for the top coating, the zinc gives plenty of protection.

 

[heimlaga]

Glad to see those vices resurrected!

The anvil by the way looks very good. No junk anvil would survive the amount of wear needed to wear down the edges like that. We all need an anvil don't we.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Truly one of the most satisfying things about this is peeling the masking tape off!

Assembly was a bit of a pain; the quick release wouldn’t work on the Fortis, but a quick look back at the disassembly photos showed what my error was.

Wrong:

Correct:

 

[Alpha-Dave]

The first holding job was its own jaws so that I could clean up the threads:

Annoyingly the front and rear jaws have different bolts, that are only 1 thread-length different. Of course I only realised this having put them on, so that part had to be done twice.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

In comparison the Parkinson was very easy to put together.

It also was useful for tapping its jaws.

Annoyingly the last tweak of the last bolt just to nip up a few degrees caused one of the bolts to shear.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Fortunately I was able to remove the jaw, and drill it out from the front. Pleasingly none of the threads were damaged.

Even better, while thinking I was going to have to order some 5/16 bolts from ebay, I remembered some odd bolts from some disassembled furniture that were imperial. Some sawing and filing and 2x were just right. I replaced the 2x rear ones. I might do the front ones, but I prefer the look of the old bolts.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Back to fully working!

The only thing I’m now wondering is whether to replace the handles like I did for the Record, the Fortis’s is quite wonky.

Then there is my next headache that I don’t actually need all 3 of these; all the clean up of these was done with 2x other vices!

 

[dannyr]

Excellent, especially overcoming the probs. (It's usually poss to straighten such a tommy bar without removing it -- but go on, you want to make a new one).

Suggestion - next vice should be a George Blair All-Steel - not so common, but made in your patch. (first Team valley, then Yorks moors, approx 1950-90??) very solid vices - original design.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Interesting, I was not aware of those ones! There do not seem to be many pictures of them, so I suspect they are not common.

The next project might be one of these:

The York works fine, and the 112 is the one cleaned up on the previous thread. The 35p (although quick release) works ok too, it just needs stripping and painting.

The 75 requires a couple of pieces making: one of the locking handles was replaced with a metric bolt that cross-threaded so didn’t work. I remade the part in aluminium, but have since learnt to weld, so making a proper replacement from a steel bolt should be easier. Then the pipe jaws need remaking, but that should be relatively simple.

 

[SVB]

Lovely, skip the hammerite, it will look amateurish and you have put so much work into this project. Go that extra mile and go for the 2 part paint job, it will be far more authentic.

The OP finish is ace so i take nothing away from that. One tip I was given was to thin hammerite 25% - it goes on much less gloopy amd given a nicer finish.

 

[Pete's Page]

Fortunately I was able to remove the jaw, and drill it out from the front. Pleasingly none of the threads were damaged.
View attachment 111466

Even better, while thinking I was going to have to order some 5/16 bolts from ebay, I remembered some odd bolts from some disassembled furniture that were imperial. Some sawing and filing and 2x were just right. I replaced the 2x rear ones. I might do the front ones, but I prefer the look of the old bolts.
View attachment 111465

Hiya I am going to start a restoration of a Parkinson type F number 7 soon can you tell me what size screws sand bolts I will require as the originals are all stripped or corroded? many Thanks Pete,

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Hiya I am going to start a restoration of a Parkinson type F number 7 soon can you tell me what size screws sand bolts I will require as the originals are all stripped or corroded? many Thanks Pete,

Hi, they are definitely not metric. I don’t have the vice anymore. The jaws were held on with 5/16” bolts (according to my notes above), probably BSW. There is a smaller screw holding the quick release plate that I think may have been 1/4”, but I can’t recall the thread pitch.