Nippy vice upper jaw plate problem

I recently bought a Nippy vice in good condition but on cleaning it realised that the "V''s" on the upper jaw plates don't match (or mirror) each other. In other words, my vice has two plates for the movable jaw instead of a pair of plates !

I can't turn one plate over as the fixing screw-holes are counter-bored and I can't countersink the holes on the underside (to fit countersunk screws) as the plates are hardened.which rules out filling the holes up with weld and re-drilling them.

I really need a matching plate, could it be possible that some reader of this forum has a spare "fixed" upper jaw plate for a nippy vice?

If the jaw is case hardened you could locally grind it to reach soft metal or you may be able to drill with a sharp carbide tipped drill. Colin

Thanks for replying. I'm now considering taking the carbide tipped drill route to cut a countersink on the underside of the plate but I will have to see how much metal I have to play with as per the drawings. It's one of those small but challenging problems.

Edited By C J on 18/04/2014 16:46:00

Edited By C J on 18/04/2014 16:46:28

Hi CJ

From your images - if the counterbored holes are in the right place can you just replace the countersunk screws with cheese head - modified for height as necessary, or make up some drilled "slugs" to fill in the counterbore with the end face countersunk to take the existing screws. The slugs wouldn't really need hardening but could be made from silver steel, hardened and tempered to taste if you wanted.

Keith

Isn't the Nippy vise made by Record of Sheffield

I believe they are still in business or are they now Irwin I would have thought a phone call would help

Roy

Can't you just remove it, put it on the back jaw where it would fit (if you swap the screws about) and make a new one for the front?

graham.

The Nippy vice was made by Murray Son ltd

Mike

has anyone tried fitting a tommy bar to the handle? have often thought it would be a useful addition.

how would you got about drilling the handle which appears to be extremely hard?

cheers,

julian

The plate also has a V running along the edge as below which does make it harder to replicate

There must be quite a few versions of this vice around

... mine is by Jones & Shipman, of Leicester

Bought it new, in the early 1970s.

MichaelG.

Thanks for all the info and suggestions.

I've since inspected the plate and see there is enough material on the underside to add a countersink to the smaller bores (shown in the above photograph) and use two 1 /2" 1/4 " Whit screws with 90 degree angle countersink heads..

Yes, I could just use domeheads but I want the top of the vice to be flush and will grind the countersinks out with a dremmel if I have to.

Job done, fixed jaw plate now reversed.

Many thanks for the helpful messages.

I bought a 10mm 90° solid carbide spot drill off eBay to cut the countersinks and some 1/4" x 1 1/2" countersunk Whit screws from my local engineering supplies.

I have never drilled hardened steel before so this was a first for me.