I bought a 4" heavy duty vise in a garage sale for $5. It was made by Paramo
in UK.
I cleaned it and derusted it like someone here suggested. I found that
underneath all that grime it had been blue once. So I painted it fiery red
'cos that was the only can of paint I had.

The issue is with the jaws. They are a bit chewed up, but not badly. They
were held on by 4 1/4-20x3/4" flat head screws and not well at that. The one
jaw was OK, just needed tightening. The other two screws were completely
chewed up. I managed to re-thread one of them without problems. The other
for some reason became hard to do and when I decided to back out the die,
the head snapped clean off. My attempts to remove the residual screw shaft
from the die have so far proved unsuccessful. The little stub sticking out
just chewed up my existing vise, resisted all vise grips and even file did
not seem to want to touch it. I managed to grind it somewhat flat but even
so I cannot get it out.

I went on to spark test it and as far as I am concerned it is mild steel.

So the questions are as follows:

1) Does anyone know how to get Paramo spare jaws? I did a search and
understand that the company has gone under some time ago.
2) Are 4" jaws pretty standard dimensions, i.e. would Irwin, Wilton or such
like fit?
3) Is there any reason why the screws holding the jaws would be hardened
screws? I propose to replace the massacred one with ordinary screw.

And a final message:
I am convinced that the die mishap is simply due to the fact that the die
just became dull after the first attempt. In that it behaved like other dies
from the same set. Never ever buy tap and die sets from Canadian Tire!

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

On 2008-07-02, Michael Koblic wrote:
I bought a 4" heavy duty vise in a garage sale for $5. It was made by Paramo
in UK.
I cleaned it and derusted it like someone here suggested. I found that
underneath all that grime it had been blue once. So I painted it fiery red
'cos that was the only can of paint I had.

The issue is with the jaws. They are a bit chewed up, but not badly. They
were held on by 4 1/4-20x3/4" flat head screws and not well at that. The one
jaw was OK, just needed tightening. The other two screws were completely
chewed up. I managed to re-thread one of them without problems. The other
for some reason became hard to do and when I decided to back out the die,
the head snapped clean off. My attempts to remove the residual screw shaft
from the die have so far proved unsuccessful. The little stub sticking out
just chewed up my existing vise, resisted all vise grips and even file did
not seem to want to touch it. I managed to grind it somewhat flat but even
so I cannot get it out.

I went on to spark test it and as far as I am concerned it is mild steel.

So the questions are as follows:

1) Does anyone know how to get Paramo spare jaws? I did a search and
understand that the company has gone under some time ago.
2) Are 4" jaws pretty standard dimensions, i.e. would Irwin, Wilton or such
like fit?
3) Is there any reason why the screws holding the jaws would be hardened
screws? I propose to replace the massacred one with ordinary screw.

And a final message:
I am convinced that the die mishap is simply due to the fact that the die
just became dull after the first attempt. In that it behaved like other dies
from the same set. Never ever buy tap and die sets from Canadian Tire!


Can you simply drill and tap another hole nearby ? (with a good tap)
That would be the cheapest and fastest solution. This is a vise, not
an antique BMW.

--
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"Ignoramus4323" wrote in message
...
On 2008-07-02, Michael Koblic wrote:
I bought a 4" heavy duty vise in a garage sale for $5. It was made by
Paramo
in UK.
I cleaned it and derusted it like someone here suggested. I found that
underneath all that grime it had been blue once. So I painted it fiery
red
'cos that was the only can of paint I had.

The issue is with the jaws. They are a bit chewed up, but not badly. They
were held on by 4 1/4-20x3/4" flat head screws and not well at that. The
one
jaw was OK, just needed tightening. The other two screws were completely
chewed up. I managed to re-thread one of them without problems. The other
for some reason became hard to do and when I decided to back out the die,
the head snapped clean off. My attempts to remove the residual screw
shaft
from the die have so far proved unsuccessful. The little stub sticking
out
just chewed up my existing vise, resisted all vise grips and even file
did
not seem to want to touch it. I managed to grind it somewhat flat but
even
so I cannot get it out.

I went on to spark test it and as far as I am concerned it is mild steel.

So the questions are as follows:

1) Does anyone know how to get Paramo spare jaws? I did a search and
understand that the company has gone under some time ago.
2) Are 4" jaws pretty standard dimensions, i.e. would Irwin, Wilton or
such
like fit?
3) Is there any reason why the screws holding the jaws would be hardened
screws? I propose to replace the massacred one with ordinary screw.

And a final message:
I am convinced that the die mishap is simply due to the fact that the die
just became dull after the first attempt. In that it behaved like other
dies
from the same set. Never ever buy tap and die sets from Canadian Tire!


Can you simply drill and tap another hole nearby ? (with a good tap)
That would be the cheapest and fastest solution. This is a vise, not
an antique BMW.

I do not see a need to drill and tap: The threads in the vise itself are
fine as far as I can determine. My concern was the choice of screw to
replace the one I broke, i.e. is there a reason why a 10-cent screw should
not do the job. I am only asking because of the condition the screws were in
and the strange behaviour of one of the screws. To be fair, I cannot tell
why the existing screws were mangled the way they were. It does not seem to
be the threads in the vise.

Also, should one need to replace the jaw plates in the future, I wondered
where to get a matching pair.

Since I posted this I found that Acklands carry a line of Record vises.
Inferring from some of the comments I read when googling the matter Record
is some sort of re-incarnation of Paramo. The picture of their vise looks
exactly like mine. They also do spare sets of jaw plates for it. They might
fit.

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 18:46:47 -0700, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:


1) Does anyone know how to get Paramo spare jaws? I did a search and
understand that the company has gone under some time ago.

Make new ones out of 1040, 4340 or similar steel. harden and temper to
250-300deg C. Leave the faces flat.


3) Is there any reason why the screws holding the jaws would be hardened
screws? I propose to replace the massacred one with ordinary screw.

The screws will be 1/4"BSW, but run a 1/4"UNC bottoming tap down the holes and
you won't have any problems. The screws should not be under any significant
shear or tension in normal use, so relatively low-grade hardware should work.


And a final message:
I am convinced that the die mishap is simply due to the fact that the die
just became dull after the first attempt. In that it behaved like other dies
from the same set. Never ever buy tap and die sets from Canadian Tire!


Caveat emptor :-)


Mark Rand
RTFM

Actually, the threads seem to be 1/4-20 UNC, at least those screws go in
with no problems. However, I came across a minor problem when trying to
replace the said screw: The head is countersunk differently from a standard
flat-head UNC screw. The angle is much wider. I would say 100 degrees. Thus
the hardware store screws were sticking out. This was solved rapidly with an
angle grinder and the vise is now fully functional, not to mention pretty!

Now to find a place to mount it...:-)

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC


"Mark Rand" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 18:46:47 -0700, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:


1) Does anyone know how to get Paramo spare jaws? I did a search and
understand that the company has gone under some time ago.

Make new ones out of 1040, 4340 or similar steel. harden and temper to
250-300deg C. Leave the faces flat.


3) Is there any reason why the screws holding the jaws would be hardened
screws? I propose to replace the massacred one with ordinary screw.

The screws will be 1/4"BSW, but run a 1/4"UNC bottoming tap down the holes
and
you won't have any problems. The screws should not be under any
significant
shear or tension in normal use, so relatively low-grade hardware should
work.


And a final message:
I am convinced that the die mishap is simply due to the fact that the die
just became dull after the first attempt. In that it behaved like other
dies
from the same set. Never ever buy tap and die sets from Canadian Tire!


Caveat emptor :-)


Mark Rand
RTFM

On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 20:56:08 -0700, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:

Actually, the threads seem to be 1/4-20 UNC, at least those screws go in
with no problems. However, I came across a minor problem when trying to
replace the said screw: The head is countersunk differently from a standard
flat-head UNC screw. The angle is much wider. I would say 100 degrees. Thus
the hardware store screws were sticking out. This was solved rapidly with an
angle grinder and the vise is now fully functional, not to mention pretty!

Now to find a place to mount it...:-)
When I found out what my Henry #3 was, it took about half a blink to
assign it's predecessor, a red "tiger" chindia (chin/India) to second
son's garage/shop.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

In article
nications,
"Michael Koblic" wrote:

Actually, the threads seem to be 1/4-20 UNC, at least those screws go in
with no problems. However, I came across a minor problem when trying to
replace the said screw: The head is countersunk differently from a standard
flat-head UNC screw. The angle is much wider. I would say 100 degrees. Thus
the hardware store screws were sticking out. This was solved rapidly with an
angle grinder and the vise is now fully functional, not to mention pretty!


Flat-head screws with 100-degree heads are quite common in airplanes.

The original reason was that sheet aluminum can be dimpled to fit a
100-degree countersink without danger of cracking. This was used to
fasten airplane skin to the stringers within.

Joe Gwinn