On Sun, 23 Oct 2011 06:09:48 -0400, Tom Gardner mars@tacks wrote:

About a year or so ago we bought a 7x12 Jet bandsaw. The used machinery
place said it was used for cutting samples used to demonstrate CNC
machines and was very low hours and looked like new. Instead of a crank
or hand-wheel on the vise it had a cast iron lever. I imagine it woas
used to make a cut on the same piece of stock over and over. The vise
is a quick-set type, the moving jaw will slide free back and forth and
then lock with the lever...I think. I never played with it much and
never could get it to work right, besides we have other bandsaws.
Finally I got curious and frustrated enough to take the vise apart.
Well, it seems the floating casting that has half threads to engage the
screw was in backwards. By simply reversing the casting and replacing
the lever with a hand-wheel the saw works great and holds a piece of
stock. I just wonder if it came from the factory that way.

Now that I'm on a roll in the shop I pulled the striped nut on the 6"
Colombian bench vise and ordered a new one for $64 ---OUCH! But, it
will be nice to have a working vise there! I've spent too much time in
the office and everybody else seems to just let things go. Tools aren't
put away, chips are all over machine tools, flat surfaces have turned
into piles of stuff, stock on consumables and steel stocks are low or
out, etc. Boy, are my feet going to hurt like hell getting the shop
back to where I like it.

Maybe you can't do it in your factory. But in the packing shed nobody
leaves till everything is put a away, cleaned, and swept up. I think
the crew works harder the last ten minutes than any other time. I'll
be damned if I'm going to clean up somebody else's mess.

Karl