Stanley 400 Mitre Vice Problems

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Framing77

Grumbler in Training
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Mar 8, 2018
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Dublin
Hello,

I bought a Stanley Marsh 400 mitre vice for picture frames. After a good clean it has two issues.

One vice runs perfectly smoothly on its threads, but the jaws are not parallel and seem to get further out of parallel as they close.



Does anyone one know the cause of this, and was the solution may be?

The second vice runs smoothly until it's open about 2" and then it gets tight until becomes almost impossible to open further.

Is anyone familiar with these issues? Any recommended solutions?

Any advice or tips appreciated.

Thanks
 
I know that what I am about to say is obvious; but, is there any looseness in the threads and the movable jaw that will allow for the correct the miss-alignment? The second threaded rod might be bent or have threads that might have to have the threads repaired. Those original Stanley vises are probably over 40 years old as Stanley discontinued them in 1984.

 
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Did you take the vice apart to clean it?
Both issues could be from corrosion on the screws. Additional cleaning and lubricating may be needed.

As Jerry said the moving jaw of the vice can be a little sloppy, that doesn't matter. It will normally come back to parallel once a it gets resistance from the fixed jaw, assuming a frame is in the vice. I wouldn't worry about it unless I was trying to join a really skinny frame.
 
It looks like the upper piece may be a replacement from another vice, the shapes look slightly different.

But as Wally says, the real test is does it keep moulding in place correctly? If it does then no worries.
 
Thanks for all of your advice. I'll go over it again in terms of cleaning & lubrication. Will check threads for looseness & corrosion & for possible replacement parts.

Appreciate it.
 
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