Huge Ridgid/Columbian 6" Combo Vise Restoration

[theastronaut]

I bought a Powermatic belt/disc sander off marketplace a few months ago and when I got there to pick it up I noticed a big vise on a table peeking out from around the back of his shop. I asked if he'd sell it, he said he'd think about it, so I texted him a few weeks later and made a deal on it.

It's a Ridgid 60FCPN, which is a rebranded Columbian 206 combo vise, and weighs 165 lbs. This one had a rough life outdoors on a table that seemed to be used for sandblasting, so there was a good bit of wear on the thrust face of the dynamic jaw and spindle, but the castings were in good shape otherwise. I'll bore and sleeve the spindle bore with bronze to make that a smooth fit since I'll already be doing machine work. It'll need a new handle, so I'll bore and sleeve the spindle to make the new handle fit with minimal clearance.


As found:







I thought my Columbian 606 M2 6" vise was big...





I started by disassembling everything and soaking all of the parts in citric acid to remove the rust.





Its going to need a sturdy table, so I built a stand for a 42x26" cast iron T-slot table I picked up last year at an auction. The mounting holes in the vise base happen to line up with the t-slot rows almost perfectly. The legs are 4x6" tube with 1/4" wall thickness with 2x2" braces. The bottom braces are low enough that the pallet jack will lift it to move it easily. I'll weld in bottom plates with nuts welded in to make threaded feet to level it.







Mocked up.








The worn thrust surfaces.







Spindle chucked in the lathe to turn the thrust face flat.






Checking to see if I could reach the spindle bore with the Bridgeport... just barely made it.





I'll be adding roller thrust bearings to reduce friction and increase clamping force, and I'll add another roller thrust bearing with a spring on the backside to take out any backlash between the spindle and lock ring that pulls the jaw open. As it was built it only had a lock collar with no thrust bushing, which works ok since opening the jaw takes very little force, but I can make it better..

[Getter-Done]

Nice work, I love the T-slot table.

That thing ain't going to move on it's own.

I have a few old vices I have collected over the years.

Not one that Cool thought.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Nice work, I love the T-slot table.

That thing ain't going to move on it's own.

I have a few old vices I have collected over the years.

Not one that Cool thought.

I'm guessing it'll weigh around 800 lbs all together, should be plenty stout enough for the kind of work I'll use it for.

[theastronaut]

Started the lathe work last night but didn't get to finish, the motor that came with the lathe has always been weak and last night it finally bit the dust. I got the area of the shaft that goes through the dynamic jaw turned down, and started on the handle end but it died before I got it all the way cleaned up.

















The brass bushings and sleeves came in from McMaster so I can bore and sleeve the dynamic jaw's bore and the handle bore. I found the Athol 714 a couple weeks ago, it's pretty decent overall besides the ratcheting handle "repair".

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I'm guessing it'll weigh around 800 lbs all together, should be plenty stout enough for the kind of work I'll use it for.

I have collected a t-slot table myself.
One day I hope to make it into something like you have.

It is of a different dimension than yours of course.

I also collect the Lantern tool post stuff.

Glad to see you putting them to use.

I have a 10" Atlas/Craftsman lathe.

[SRU1436]

Looks great. The table and vise.

[Greg58]

That vise table is pure stoutness!
I have a weakness for old American made vises, I have bought several at online auctions.
My best is a Charles Parker, that I has to dismount from a bench that was staying. The pics were very poor, and they had made no attempt to clean it. Once I got it home and cleaned it up it is a prize!
Greg

[straight6chevyguy]

Looking forward to seeing it finished, love the old heavy duty vises!

[theastronaut]

Got the lathe motor replaced and started back on machining the spindle. After turning down the end I bored the handle hole back to unwallered metal.







.003" press fit on the bronze sleeve, then turned down within a couple thou and sanded flush with 150 grit.

[Getter-Done]

I love the bronze insert in an Unwallowed hole.

Great work.

I have a few vices that I have my eye on at work.

I have saved them from the scrap pile maybe 10 times now.

They are on a shelf behind my machine I operate at work.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

I love the bronze insert in an Unwallowed hole.

Great work.

I have a few vices that I have my eye on at work.

I have saved them from the scrap pile maybe 10 times now.

They are on a shelf behind my machine I operate at work.

I've got a guy that has been collecting broken Wilton vises where he works, he's supposed to get permission to take them and see they're something I'm interested in. Maybe there will be enough parts to make one good vise.

[theastronaut]

Got the dynamic jaw bored and bushed last night but ran out of time to get the bore faced so the thrust washer sits flat so I'll work on that tonight.





https://youtube.com/shorts/cQm8dBf2n...8lfA4mDgqRJQhj

[theastronaut]

I finished cutting the thrust surface and cleaned up the rest of the bore snout while I was at it, then tried to reassemble it but the spindle gets in a bind before the jaws close all the way. I figured this would be an issue, tolerances weren't that tight when it was new so the misalignment didn't matter. Abom79 had the same problem on the Fireball vise he machined from raw castings. I set up the dynamic jaw on the surface table last night to find the height of the bore relative to the bottom slide surface.

[theastronaut]

Took a little thinking to figure out how to measure the height of the nut relative the slide. Settled on using an adjustable parallel in between the slide surface and the area of the spindle shaft that goes through the dynamic jaw, and used the notches on a Starrett precision level to see when the spindle was exactly parallel with the slide surface as the parallel was raised.









.105" shaved off the base of the nut with a flycutter and Milwaukee power feed.









Test fit- works perfectly now, no binding.

https://youtube.com/shorts/GdCFjt5JT...k6hMWbe7vaYdUZ

[theastronaut]

I started roughing in the soft jaws tonight using 1.5" square aluminum bar I already had, and figured out how to add serrations with the boring head.


I started to chop it in half on the bandsaw then figured I could mill the center out first to create the stepped top lip and have a lot less to cut with the saw after milling. This is just roughed in to get it all squared and have a starting point for finalizing the fit, I'll go back and dial in the step height to match the jaw shelf dimensions better, and shorten the top step/overall height a bit.





















The fun part- I set the boring head up with the bar inserted horizonally, with it adjusted all the way out. Ground a hss bit to about 55* with a slightly rounded tip, then lapped it using 1500 grit hoping it would leave a better surface finish. Mill rpm was around 450, .030" depth of cut, feed rate was however fast a Milwaukee M18 drill goes at full trigger speed in low gear, the original Bridgeport power feed doesn't work so I had to improvise.

https://youtu.be/-LYm3xhACfU

[HO455]

Nice work! I'm digging your old school machinists tools.

[SRU1436]

I love it, great work. I love old American made vises myself and have several.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by HO455

Nice work! I'm digging your old school machinists tools.

Originally Posted by SRU1436

I love it, great work. I love old American made vises myself and have several.

Thanks dudes!

[theastronaut]

The jaws shelves weren't parallel to the base, and needed to be matched to each other. I clamped it in the mill and found that the static jaw shelf was around .055" lower on one side than the other- noticeable by the very narrow machined strip on the far side and wide strip on the near side.









Touched off on the left, big drop off on the right.













About this time I realized I should weld up the saw blade cuts...









The weld was impossible to machine with the tooling I have, carbide wasn't digging into it. I covered the area in sharpie marker as guide coat and carefully ground the welds down close to flush.









Finished by block sanding with 80 and 150 grit. I'm not a fan of the wide machined flat on the static jaw and the very narrow flat on the dynamic jaw, I'll address that when I smooth out the castings before paint.













Four corner height check. About one thousandth spread, decent enough.









Dialed in the step dimension of the jaws to match the jaw shelves.









Lapping the jaws to the shelves.

[straight6chevyguy]

Man that thing will be like new or better when you're done with it.