Oliver Pattern Makers Vise Repair - Brazing Broken Cast Iron for Andy Rawls 

Incredible repair Keith! I can’t thank you enough for making this happen. Thanks for sharing your talents with us!

I watched Andy's video when this happened, and it was awesome to see how many comments recommend you to fix it for him. It just shows how close knit this community is! It's good to see this come full circle. Looking forward to seeing Andy using this vice in his next projects.

I genuinely think that brass repaired cast iron is beautiful when you can see the repair. The gold colour contrasting with the grey iron.

I watched the episode where Andy dropped his vice and was hoping it ended up with you to repair Keith. Awesome

Love Andy. Glad you can help him. The heartbreak he demonstrated when he broke that vise was almost as much as mine.

Good work, as usual. Your videos are surprisingly calm and tranquilising. The opening music sets the scene perfectly.

New subscriber from Andy's channel. My heart sank when he dropped it but was encouraged by all the helpful suggestions. Fantastic seeing how you fixed it, beautiful job and very educational. I shall watch your work as often as I can, youre a very kind and generous man. 👍

When I saw Andy drop the vise in his video, my first thought was, "I bet Kieth could fix that." I'm glad he contacted you and that you were able to save that beautiful vise!

Excellent.

Good morning everyone, from the UK time for a coffee and a video 🍵😁

Another awesome repair. Thanks for sharing.

Nice job Keith, I always love to see your repairs.

Excellent job as usual Keith 👍

Hi Keith, I have watched you braze for years. And learning from you has worked well for me on the cast iron engines used in the Oil field. I have not had any returns. Thanks Keith for taking your time in teaching in the way a person can understand. Always a pleasure. Your friend from Ohio

Lovely repair, Keith. Outstanding work as always.

I like the addition of the plate. Very well thought out.

As usual Keith you produced another great video. Thanks for what you do.

Nice repair a friend of my father's did cast iron repairs for one our government Shipyards !

Great job amazing to watch a true craftsman at work

Top drawer brazing, Keith you done a real good job on that, thank you for sharing!

I watched the video that showed the jaw as it fell and broke. I contacted Andy and suggested either you or Adam Boothe fix it. I am glad he took the advice. Well done. I will be watching for his video of installing the vice.

Great job, Keith. Thanks for helping Andy with this. I know he really appreciates what you did.

Great job. Thanks for helping Andy out of a jam!!

Very nice work Keith .

great repair...and mate..glad to see you looking so healthier.

Beautiful repair by a guy who knows what's what! Great job😊

Great repair job...I am sure Andy is 100% happy with you quality of work. I am a new sub and looking forward to more of your talented work

Great video. One can also use silver-solder to coat both broken surfaces, let it cool down a bit, then apply more flux, heating and pressing the parts together. This method does not need grinding or any joint-preparation except cleaning out grease and the like. The more silver, the better, but it is common with 44% The benefit, is firstly, you preserve the geometrical dimensions better, no grinding, and the strength is not less. The silver content may scare you, but with this method, you are only using a small amount. The silver works to the solder, to make it flow and penetrate fluxed surfaces like water.

Very nice job Keith. You are becoming quite a dab hand at brazing cast iron!

Great video as always, Keith!

I watched the fall video. It made more sense seeing the whole vise. Glad you were able to save it.

New subscriber,Andy sent me over, Thanks for helping Andy out,he was hurt when the mishap occurred,he all smiles now,Great repair,

Very good instructional video for cast iron repair!

Thank you for sharing. Very nice professional repair👍

Keith, I’ve heard reference to your name several times on my utuber sites but this is the first time I’ve seen one of your videos. I am now subscribed and enjoyed the video. I appreciate what you’ve done for Andy Rawls and have already watched his video showing your contribution. Thanks.

I knew you could fix this plate. When I seen the first video, I you were right person to be able to fix it. I’m glad he reached out to you.

As a subscriber to both channels, thumbs up for the community. Awesome 👌

Nicely done

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

Very nice work!

Nice repair! I concur with the steel face decision to distribute any point loads .

love how you work keith!

Great job! You’re the king!

Beautiful job, Keith!

Nice repair, I have an Emmert pattern makers vice which I picked up out in the trash years ago. The top lip on the hinge that mounted the vice to the work bench was broken so I cut and drilled a piece of 1/4 inch thick x 2 inch angle iron and screwed it to the remains of the hinge. Worked great, love the old vices.

As a Journeyman welder I have used a number of different methods of repairing and I agree with you wholeheartedly in regards to brazing versus other methods. NiRod will work but it much be done in increments and each increment must be peened immediately to overcome the shrinking of the weld filler material. Arc welding of any kind causes carbon migration to the weld zone which tends wo weaken the weldment. Brazing does not have this problem because the cast never actually melts. One thing I have noted with virtually all of the cast repairs using brazing is the lack of "searing" the cast prior to actually brazing it up. To sear the surface, you use an oxidizing flame and simply run the flame over the prepared surfaces once or twice. When you do this you will see small sparks coming off the cast iron surface. What those sparks are is the carbon granules in the cast burning away so you can achieve better brazing results. Another thing is the use of flapper wheels for grinding. Flappers are meant for polishing a ground weld. Due to the fact that a flapper is soft and pliable, it will seldom if ever take a weld down flush. You need to use a hard disk and take the weld down to just about flush and then finish with a flapper. If you don't, the flapper will deflect over the weld and leave a hump in the middle and dish out on either side of the weld. The best hard disk for this kind of work are called "Coolie Hats" or type 28 disks. These disks are not flat but in fact shaped like a shallow bowl. There is little need to angle a coolie hat to get it to cut since the angle is built in. When flushing down welds they work great because you can put them down flat on your work surface and they will only remove the high spots. Type 28 Coolie Hat Grinding disk: www.abrasivessafety.com/grinding/angle-grinders/depressed-centre-reinforced-bonded-wheels/

I work in a place where there is very little engineering tradition. Cast iron brazing just isn’t known or used . People do stick weld cast but post welding cracking / cooling is always a problem . Post machining also is a problem with stick welding .

Really enjoy your videos so much Mr Rucker. I can’t wait for the next video!

Hi Keith awesome content my friend been a avid fan for a long while now and may I say u are looking great congrats on the wait lose hope all is well adam uk

thank you Keith

Andy is one of the finest woodwokers i have ever met. with i had 10 percent of his talent

High Keith. I haven't watched this video yet but, while it was on my mind, thought I'd ask for an update on the stoker engine. Love to see something that was in such poor condition rebuilt and working again. Love your channel, txn.

New subscriber from Andy’s channel. When it broke I was hoping to watch a craftsman repair it. Awesome work!

Nice work

Nice work.

Beautiful job a great way to start the morning.

Wow.What a fantastic job you made of that Keith!!

KEITH, GREAT JOB AND GREAT VIDEO...

Fun stuff!! Great Work!! Cheers!! I can't wait to see more content~ 🎉

Nice repair Keith. Looks very good. Great idea making the top plate. Thanks for sharing. Take care, Ed.

I have an antique Emmerts pattern makers vise that’s had several repairs done to it (a couple not so great) At work we have a Kindt-Collins one from the 1960’s (they bought the patterns from Oliver) that’s in perfect condition. I’m going to miss that vise when I retire soon.

KR, have not seen your videos in a while, but good as usual. thank you for the great content. Also noticed some other personal changes, hope you are doing well, and those changes are positive for you.

Nice work Mr. Rucker. Pre heating to cherry red is the key AND slow cooling from cherry red. Brazing is less likely to crack under these conditions than welding. So good job all-round.

Watched Andy break this. At the time I thought of you to fix it. Glad he reached out to you.

That vise is extremely delicate with very thin castings. I’m amazed it doesn’t fail under normal use.

Beautiful repair on a difficult casting 👍 The strengthening plate should prevent further damage. Maybe suggest to your mate that he could spray the mating surfaces with a copper primer ( the kind used by panel beaters), prior to finally fixing the plate. Regards Robert (Sydney, Australia)

Exelent repair !!

Thanks for sharing great job on repairing it

I seen a welder use a portable buddy heater to slowly preheat cast and then rosebud. Great show

Keith, speaking of rosebud tips, my dad worked for a now defunct door manufacturer many years ago, and their signature door products for architectural products were knot block doors. When pine lumber is finger jointed, the section with the knots were cut off to make more uniform products. His employer bought these by the pallet, and they selected the best from these pallets. These were about an inch thick, and were applied in various patterns on both sides and were bevelled to highlight the blocks. As they were finishing the doors, they took a rosebud tip to certain doors, and charred the surface, followed by wire brushing the doors to give them a weathered effect. The final step was Thompson's waterproofing finish. I know you do woodworking, and thought you might like this process.

9:50 using an oven was exactly what i was thinking right before you said it!!! Brazing is the best for most cast iron repairs Ive used it several times over the years. I had a pair of old exhaust manifolds and instead of replacing them I scrapped them flat and brazed the studs in, worked out great.

Hey Keith, New subscriber just over here from Andy Rawl's channel. Great repair on the Oliver vise!

It's good to see, Keith, that the porosity of the casting didn't limit the brazing to adhere.

excellent...thank you

Andy sent me - new sub. Great work 👍🏼

My cousin once broke his dads 4" bench vice on the outboard or moveable jaw, snapped it off at the thin point by using a large pipe wrench and beating it with a hammer. This happened on an 80' boat in Alaska where you couldn't just go replace the vice at the nearest hardware store so his dad, who was an old school mechanic that grew up using a torch, decided to braze it up. His son said no way it would ever hold and with a grin the old man said "I think it will work just fine". He brazed it up and his son tried everything he could think of to break that braze job to no avail. That was 25 years ago and to my knowledge it is still in use on that boat! Your braze job looks like it will hold up equally as well, Thanks for the lesson in brazing!

Nice Repair Keith

Great job 👏 👍 👌 😊

King of the Braze!

Another Vintage Machine saved from the scrapyard!

Andy sent me…I didn’t know you had a channel. I’m an OWWM guy over the years (my shop is full of restored WWII era Delta machines). Great job! I’m a new subscriber.

Mr Rucker you’re looking much better, the color is back 👍

Thanks for sharing 👍

Another one salvaged!

Nice repair on a difficult part! I was hoping you would use the old planer you restored last year. May the next project. KOKO!

Nice job 👌

Hiya Keith. Corner is broken on my Emert Turtle. I'm gonna watch this one quite a few times when I try this. 😀

Charcoal for grilling is nice to use for heating up something.

When I saw the title of this video, it made me smile, Keith. I was one of I don't know how many viewers that, after cringing and groaning when watching Andy drop that vice on the cement floor, I suggested he contact you, lol! Great work as always, Keith. And, as an obese person myself, I gotta say, you're looking like you've lost a substantial amount of weight! I wonder how much... I'm working on it myself - but not with anywhere near your level of success,

Wow, we are having an Oliver morning. We watch "Ross the Oliver Man" and "That Oliver guy-Chris Losey" Granted they are Oliver tractor owners, repairers, and users of Oliver farm equipment they are great RU-vid presenters. Ross is an expert at Down Home humor and Chris is a study of the exact way to repair properly. If you have any interest in what is required to put food on your table you will like these channels. I believe that OLIVER was the parent company of the Oliver pattern makers vises as Oliver made many products including some railroad tooling.

I always cut tracks with the mini grinder edge into the vee’s to increase the overall surface area. As far as temperature you did not mention the cast iron ‘shadow’, to my simple mind the key to superior weld strength when brazing. I have also used drilled holes and tapping Allen screws into the vee pathway before brazing on really heavy cast iron pieces.

Nice work. I doubt that the plate is required, but it is a good insurance policy. Thanks for sharing.

I dropped a bench vise and the swivel base broke in two. I put used a lot of flux and heated it in the forge until brazing rod flowed into the break. It was just like sweating copper plumbing. I was so surprised how well it worked! The vise is still in service. I can barely see the repair.

Excellent work as always Keith. Not disagreeing with the steel plate but, perhaps a plate of phenolic or poly? Still a soft face yet strong and sturdy. Cheers :)

Nice work Keith. ✌🇦🇺

You can get silicon bronze mig brazing wire, it is magnificent. Id never heard of it til last year (i knew about gas welding silicon bronze, just not as a coil of mig wire) it is fantastic for thin materials and auto body among many other things

Great video and excellent advice and walk through! Looks like you could have used a right angle die grinder. Ive got a ryobi cordless one that works great for this.

Good Morning Georgia!😊

I was taught to put my thumb on top of the file, not my finger, the reason being id it locks out your wrist so easier to keep the file square, plus see how easier to hold the file horizontal

TIG using phosphor bronze filler works very well