To a good home!!!

[Rockoonz]

Lortone calls the part a push bar, if that helps. The same part in my 24 inch saw seems to be close to the same dimensions wise but is definitely a cast part with a parting line and longer threaded portion like the HP part. Possibly either the 18" saw is a lot older or someone made the bent one. If I end up making a replacement it won't involve welding since I don't have anything but a 110v wire feed now.

[quartz]

Probably safe to assume cast steel rather than iron, not as brittle. Are the threads 1"-8? That will be the about last area to approach on the project so I'll have plenty of time to work it out, I can think and tinker with that while doing other things. Pics. helpful, thanks.

[oregon]

If you don't enjoy the tinkering aspect, buying a replacement, if you can find one, is probably the best bet. We debated, but seemed like a good shop project for my son to figure out. We did go from some pictures with a ruler from an original part, so his dimensions weren't just guessed at. Using the full width on the back end is good, but we thought you also want some room for the heel of the vice to rotate, so you need a bit of a gap on the front end. The pin width is also pretty well dictated by the height under neath and the width (we thought you also want some slop here for the heel to be able to rotate. at least as much as the heel/table will let it)

His part is working great, not to hard to fab. In hindsight, the threaded rod (we used a stock size that was at hand 1/2" maybe) shouldn't be too long or you loose some width because you won't be able to close the lid of the saw. It was a pretty easy fix to shorten that! And the threaded portion of his block could probably be half as long as it is.

We did case harden the part when complete, hard to imagine the other one above bending so much and not 'popping' loose?

I think in the 'public space' use, the clamp gets barely backed out, then the next person comes along and instead of unscrewing all the way and moving the assembly as close as possible, they tend to go from where it's at, eventually someone's pushing on that back bar to tighten it and it breaks. It seems like a very robust design, but it's not intuitive to someone who just walks up and is used to a regular work bench/shop vise screw clamping things down. I've seen a couple busted like that. And if I do remember right, on the newer HP's this whole mechanism was narrower, the push bar and the tracks on the vise table, I think that's why the part above seems so narrow. That also played into the decision to fab one if I think.

Have fun.

[Rockoonz]

Threads on both the 18 and 24 are 5/8-11. Looking at the threads on the pretzeled one they are pretty rolled over in spots, so I'm thinking they were using a mighty long cheater bar to crank it down. Not the first time I've seen vice issues because someone would rather crank it down too tight rather than use wood wedges to get a good grip on the rock. I might open it up to 3/4" while I'm at it.

[quartz]

My wife calls me a die-hard tinkerer, not trying to reinvent the mousetrap, just enjoy the challenge.

Lee, the screw looks bigger than that in the pics., thanks for that. When I worked at the sawmill we used to say "you can't idiot proof everything".

[Rockoonz]

Where I work they do a thing called Poka Yoke, supposedly mistake proofing.
I told the boss they'll just make a better idiot.

[Deleted]

Cheater bars are for "unscrewing" the vice!!!

If you don't have discipline, throw out the cheater bar.

Nice thread Larry and Lee.

[quartz]

Thanks to Lee, oregon, and littleoregon for informational help. Between all three, I've got a fair handle on what to do here.

[Fossilman]

LOL,I forgot to give you a bottle of aspirin to go with the saw Larry!!!!!!!!!!

[quartz]

Mike, I'm very appreciative of your passing that saw on to me, enjoy the challenge of bringing it back to life, no aspirin necessary.

[Fossilman]

Oct 5, 2016 22:33:53 GMT -5 quartz said:

Mike, I'm very appreciative of your passing that saw on to me, enjoy the challenge of bringing it back to life, no aspirin necessary.

Just yanking you chain my friend!! LOL........I knew it was going to a good home,when you first took a look at it several months ago....
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