Post by mnhermit on Aug 12, 2007 12:15:27 GMT -5
Somewhere about 30 years ago while visiting my grmapa he asked "You got a vise?"
"Well I smoke too much..."
"No you smarta$$ - a vise!!"
"Oh,,,no I don't"
"I have one in the shop I dno't use anymore, want to take it with you?"
"Sure"
He led me into his shop and dragged what I thought was an anvil out of a pile of junk. At least twenty pounds of steel shaped like a vise glared at me from the floor.
"Let's get this into your car."
"Umm, OK.' I'd said I'd take it, no going back now. I didn't have a bench it would fit on, I'd have to build one. It looked like this vise was going to involve a lot more than I'd thought.
Over the years the vise got moved with me from farmhouse to trailer to apartment, to duplex and finally to where I am today. Usually used as an anvil or a counterweight, but finally mounted properly on a sturdy bench and used as a vise.
Then last winter I was misusing it to hold some round stock while I cut lengths. The last cut I was making was binding and twisting so I cranked on the handle harder and SNAP! You know I didn't think there was a way for a human being to put enough pressure on a lever to snap a piece of 1/2 inch steel screw - I was wrong.. I thought about simply leaving it broken - it had worked as an anvil for years - but it was my grampa's.
I took it apart as far as I could, removing both pieces of the screw and started making the rounds of the few machine shops in the local area. How hard is it to machine a new screw - apparently beyond the capacity of computer controlled lathes. Eventually one of them suggested a welding shop - "Maybe he could weld it together."
So I showed my two pieces of screw to Jerry the welder - "Leave it with me, I'll see what I can do."
A couple days later I get a call from Jerry, "I need the rest of the vise." So I loaded the pile of vise into the truck - I think it's gotten heavier over the years - and took it into town for Jerry.
"Now that I've got it all I'm sure I can fix it."
So for $85 and a month at the welding shop I have my grampa's vise back home and maybe it will last another 70 years if I can avoid misusing it - but it will always make a great substitute anvil.
"Well I smoke too much..."
"No you smarta$$ - a vise!!"
"Oh,,,no I don't"
"I have one in the shop I dno't use anymore, want to take it with you?"
"Sure"
He led me into his shop and dragged what I thought was an anvil out of a pile of junk. At least twenty pounds of steel shaped like a vise glared at me from the floor.
"Let's get this into your car."
"Umm, OK.' I'd said I'd take it, no going back now. I didn't have a bench it would fit on, I'd have to build one. It looked like this vise was going to involve a lot more than I'd thought.
Over the years the vise got moved with me from farmhouse to trailer to apartment, to duplex and finally to where I am today. Usually used as an anvil or a counterweight, but finally mounted properly on a sturdy bench and used as a vise.
Then last winter I was misusing it to hold some round stock while I cut lengths. The last cut I was making was binding and twisting so I cranked on the handle harder and SNAP! You know I didn't think there was a way for a human being to put enough pressure on a lever to snap a piece of 1/2 inch steel screw - I was wrong.. I thought about simply leaving it broken - it had worked as an anvil for years - but it was my grampa's.
I took it apart as far as I could, removing both pieces of the screw and started making the rounds of the few machine shops in the local area. How hard is it to machine a new screw - apparently beyond the capacity of computer controlled lathes. Eventually one of them suggested a welding shop - "Maybe he could weld it together."
So I showed my two pieces of screw to Jerry the welder - "Leave it with me, I'll see what I can do."
A couple days later I get a call from Jerry, "I need the rest of the vise." So I loaded the pile of vise into the truck - I think it's gotten heavier over the years - and took it into town for Jerry.
"Now that I've got it all I'm sure I can fix it."
So for $85 and a month at the welding shop I have my grampa's vise back home and maybe it will last another 70 years if I can avoid misusing it - but it will always make a great substitute anvil.
