Eric of Hand Tool Rescue ran across this rare 1920s fractal vise made by Mantle & Co. and restored it to its former glory:
This vise was found is a fairly poor condition with many holes drilled into it, broken castings, as well as a small jaw missing and swivel base missing.
I spent an insane amount of time thinking about how to approach the repairs as I really didn't want to risk doing something that could ruin things further, so naturally I chose the hardest and most risky option; cast iron welding.
I wanted to use pure cast iron rods to torch weld the holes in the vise so that the colour match of the repair would be perfect. Any repairs that were not going to be visible, were fixed with brazing.
Making the missing jaw was complicated enough that I had to get the machine shop that makes the wrenches and screwdrivers for me to 3D model it and replicate the part in-house. It turned out amazingly well!
The restored fractal vise:
The video clip of the restoration process is fascinating to watch: