I oil the leadscrews on my vises just like I oil the leadscrews on my mills, lathes, etc. its a loss system, but keeps fresh oil there. Wipe up excess with a rag.
Couple of reasons I dont use grease much at all in the shop:
Grease mixed with dirt, grit, chips, swarf etc. makes a wonderful lapping compound. Thats why one should never use grease on mills, lathes, surface grinders, even though they have felt/neoprene wipes, stuff will get in there and quickly ruin your machine. Oil on the other hand, does a great job of flushing out the crap, and lubricating.
Grease is an emulsion of oil for lubrication and binders/thickeners/plasticizers. Generally, grease has a working/shelf life of 1-2 years before the oil either evaporates or separates out. Weve all dealt with old hardened grease, thats the stuff left over after all the oil has gone, very little lubricating qualities.
Ted, Thanks for posting the Wilton exploded diagram, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
At the back of the vise there are two pins, those hold the nut in place.
As far as the nut, easily replaceable is a relative term; most conventional vises, all you do is remove the moveable jaw/ram assembly by unscrewing, loosen the small set screw on the back of the nut and slide the nut out.
Looking on the web, those pins are not thru pins, and need to be removed by backing them out, lots of discussion about making special tool for their removal, and some have had to resort to drilling them out.
Great pic of the swivel lock, that pic next to the beer can gives a good idea of size, on my 4-inch reed, that bolt is inch. So, a good size bolt. It also shows that a ham-fisted workman can break an anvil with enough force.
Unfortunately, you didnt show the caming teeth on the other side, that engage corresponding teeth in the base, this provides a significant amount of holding power with light hand tightening. Full swivel to full lock is one revolution.
As the picture shows, the wilton vise relies on friction to keep the vise from swiveling, think two plates sliding against each other, the only way to get it tight is by clamping harder, thats a lot of force on that ring which is less than inch thick cast iron. It's also the reason that Wilton uses two bolts, while vises utilizing the caming system only need one.
That cut away of the Wilton vise confirms my examination of mine, the moveable jaw is mostly hollow, while the fixed jaw is solid; wonder why they did it that way, would like t have seen them both solid.
Respectfully
Mike
Last edited by Mike Hunter; 12/01/19 12:01 PM.
