I love old tools and quite often they are the right price. With a little tweaking (well sometimes a lot...) an old tool can be brought back to life and be useful for another lifetime.

The quality is often superior even if they are a little slower or take up a little more room... One such tool I bought off an uncle of mine, he wanted to retire to the coast and if I wanted to buy his tools I had to buy the lot. An old Dawn vice (100mm or 4 inch) came with the bargain and I set it up outside my shed and used it as a welding vice for quite a few years.

Needless to say it ended up looking a little "daggy"

Step 1: Strip It Down.

The first step is to assess that the job is worth doing, in this case the vice was still working... a little creaky but it did still work. Make sure you have all the parts necessary to rebuild and then get into it.

Dismantle, clean and prepare the vice (or other tool that you're repairing). Anything goes at this stage, use wire brush, sandpaper, file... I did most of this with an angle grinder fitted with a wire brush. I will say at this point that I have many "vices" but one I have had for many years, is vices... so this is not my first. If you are working with a Chinese vice (or most any heavy cast tool made in China) you may find a coat of filler between the rough casting and the paint, it hides a multitude of sins and most times it is best left there.

If that is the case you're better using sandpaper to remove the paint and then fill any gouges or nicks with body filler before proceeding. In most cases the finish you end up with will equal the effort you put into the work. The Dawn however was good quality Australian cast iron with no filler. Happy about that.

Step 2: Final Preperation...

Clean all parts with solvent, (turps, thinners etc.) to remove any dust, grease or oil and take a good long look at your job. If you're happy with your base then proceed, if not, now is the time to improve the finish.

When you are happy, decide where you "don't" want paint and mask it off. The detail here makes all the difference to the finished product, if you need to get a knife and cut away some masking then do it. If you want a nice clean edge the masking tape can be cut off by carefully running a fine file across an edge to remove the masking tape very accurately.

Once you have finished with the masking give your job a base coat of paint, I used a self etching primer and gave it 3 coats. Follow the instructions on the can as to time between coats. I try really hard to do any spray paint job in the morning ... if you spray in the afternoon it just seems to turn out a dull finish, cooler air, drying time, not sure. Just sayin...

Step 3: Final Coat...

This has got to be the easiest part of the whole project. You pick your favourite colour paint and spray away...

Two or three light coats should be enough, if the paint is too thick it will damage easier in use so enough to cover but not excessive. And if you have masked off well, it's a no brainer...

Step 4: Completion...

When the final coat is dry and hard (I left this for a week and got back to it the next weekend.) remove the masking tape, clean up any parts that were missed earlier and re-assemble. I used a new split pin on the screw and new bolts on the jaws. A light oil on the moving parts won't go astray either.

Probably the most difficult part of the assembly was compressing the spring and holding it back far enough to insert the split pin. I wanted to avoid using any tool that might damage my nice new paint... and the spring is quite heavy.

Step 5: All Done...

Once finished I put it with the rest of the collection, when I said it would last another lifetime I probably should have said two lifetimes because it will never wear out sitting there... maybe I'll need a welding vice soon.

Since restoring this vice I've found another two in need of a little (one needs a lot) TLC.

I hope you found something of interest here.