[MFchief]

Hi guys,

I use this vise, which has about 10 threaded holes on the bottom, 4 1/4-20's for the keys and 6 5/16-18's for whatever?
When I had the vise off the table today I noticed the holes were full of gunk and starting to rust. I cleaned the threads and ran an old tap thru them, and plan to put in socket screws to keep them from collecting more gunk.

I'm planning to fill the holes with grease prior to installing the screws, but I thought I would ask if anyone knew something better to put in, other than grease?

Terry

[pickled]

You could use wax or hot glue as a plug. I did that before and it was pretty effective. I now use NLGI grade #2 synthetic water resistant grease on all my plates, vises and rotary tables so I don't have to worry about staining and rust so much any more.

[MFchief]

I like that, if I put in a short screw then cover it with wax, it would be self cleaning when you back the screw out to use the hole.

[pickled]

Yes Sir. Just make sure to perform a quick and dirty test to confirm that your current coolant isn't a good solvent for the wax first :-). I was using a synthetic coolant that made me have to change up my technique to hot melt glue because it dissolved the wax very quickly. All that damn chemistry that I took in college is actually still working for me here and there LOL!

[MFchief]

Good idea, I'll try paraffin and toilet bowl ring's, which are some kind of petroleum/synthetic these days, since I have them on hand. If they don't work, I have hot melt glue also.

[CadRhino]

Set screws to fill the threaded holes and I like boshield t-9 for long term anti-corrosion

Hi guys,

I use this vise, which has about 10 threaded holes on the bottom, 4 1/4-20's for the keys and 6 5/16-18's for whatever?
When I had the vise off the table today I noticed the holes were full of gunk and starting to rust. I cleaned the threads and ran an old tap thru them, and plan to put in socket screws to keep them from collecting more gunk.

I'm planning to fill the holes with grease prior to installing the screws, but I thought I would ask if anyone knew something better to put in, other than grease?

Terry

[pickled]

You will be happy to get that area clean and sealed. I went after the same thing as you, but it wasn't just for corrosion. I was getting sick of putting my 6" vise on the table and having alignment issues that were caused by the tiny little chips that would fall out of one of those holes at the last second and jack up a side of my entire set-up by a thou or two! I have no clue how chips would get there in the first place, but they will find a way. I do appreciate vise keys, but it's the little things like a paint chip, a wayward piece of rust or some hard oxidized goop getting between the mating surfaces that can still ruin your day.

Everything here gets the bright light inspection on a clean bench, multiple hand wipes and a final acetone shine treatment before I throw on a coat of fresh grease and place it on the table. Keeping the grease coat thin has been good too. I have never had an issue of having a vise settle over time once it is torqued down either. This has been true even after 3 months of flood coolant usage without breaking down the fixture. Continuous improvement never ends in this world. Have fun!

[Steve Seebold]

What kind of coolant do you use?

I use SwissLube Blazocut 2000 Universal and there are no stains anywhere on my machine.

[pickled]

At the time that I had staining issues it was an Oak Signature synthetic flood lube in the sump. Now I use Kool Mist (mixed a bit stronger than the label) for profiling and use air blast coupled with a steady drip of a synthetic PAO based ISO32 compressor oil for drilling/deep pocketing. My tools love the compressor oil and it's flashpoint is >500F so risk of ignition is quite negligible for the small amount that I use during a typical project.

[popspipes]

At the time that I had staining issues it was an Oak Signature synthetic flood lube in the sump. Now I use Kool Mist (mixed a bit stronger than the label) for profiling and use air blast coupled with a steady drip of a synthetic PAO based ISO32 compressor oil for drilling/deep pocketing. My tools love the compressor oil and it's flashpoint is >500F so risk of ignition is quite negligible for the small amount that I use during a typical project.

Oil makes a world of difference in finishes drilling and tapping here.
I visited a shop that has a Haas machine and they use Hangsteffers coolant, op says they get no rust with that, black stuff floating on the surface but no rust.

[pickled]

I here good things about Hangsteffers, Blazocut and Qualichem from multiple parties. I just had a bout of dermatitis a few years ago and a constant hack from a few different coolants (Mobilcut 100 and Oak Signature) and couldn't identify what the similarities were other than my symptoms. From there I went to Kool Mist 77 and have been happy. Last year I added some orange essential oil to my Kool Mist on a whim and it really improved it's performance and made my shop smell awesome :-). I found that it stained aluminum though so I would have to empty and flush the container before working with it. When I ran out of ReLion while turning a Grade 5 Ti part on the lathe I grabbed the closest thing that could possibly work to finish- the compressor oil. It did such a killer job that I have just moved over to it on the mill.

[MFchief]

So I put in some Li grease that I had open, nothing special, installed the screws and sealed with paraffin, not sure how long it will last, but easy enough to check the next time I pull the vise off.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Terry