This restoration was on an AMAZING vise that was made by the Mantle & Co., most likely in the 1920s. Very little history remains of that company or this vise they made, but the patent can be found here: https://patents.google.com/patent/US1059545
If anyone has any information on this special tool, please contact me at
[email protected] This vise was found in a fairly poor condition with many holes drilled into it, broken castings, as well as a small jaw missing and swivel base missing.
I spent an insane amount of time thinking about how to approach the repairs as I really didn't want to risk doing something that could ruin things further, so naturally I chose the hardest and most risky option; cast iron welding.
I wanted to use pure cast iron rods to torch weld the holes in the vise so that the colour match of the repair would be perfect. Any repairs that were not going to be visible, were fixed with brazing.
I also completely re-japanned the whole vise with 5 coats of japanning.
Making the missing jaw was complicated enough that I had to get the machine shop that makes the wrenches and screwdrivers for me to 3D model it and replicate the part in-house. It turned out amazingly well!
A lot of this restoration was spent sanding and lapping mating surfaces to ensure the vise was actually useable and restored to previous working condition.
I shall keep this insanely unique vise forever and ever as it is just too interesting to part with!
I would like to thank Evapo-Rust for sponsoring this video.
Wrenches and screwdrivers are now for sale at www.handtoolrescue.com
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Podcast (with Jimmy DiResta and Andrew Alexander) - https://anchor.fm/fitzall