Tools - Miscellaneous

I've had a set of these wrenches in my tool bench for years (maybe as long as twenty years!), and just happened to run across them again recently. When I saw them, it occurred to me that it might be a good wrench for tightening/loosening the nuts on my mini-lathe chuck. I tried it out and it worked well. It's a very thin wrench (less than a quarter inch), and the fact that it has a ratcheting action without having to fit over the end of the nut makes it ideal for working in the cramped space behind the chuck. As far as I can tell, the "Lockjaw" brand is no longer sold, but I have seen used ones on Ebay. Sears sells something similar under the name Quick Wrench, and there are a number of other vendors with similar products (look for "open ended ratcheting wrench"). The later models appear to be thicker, but that should not be a problem due to the "open end" feature. As I recall, my open end ratchet wrenches ended up in the back of a tool drawer because they don't work nearly as well as a regular ratchet wrench, but when space is tight, they're a good solution.

Panavise Refurbished

Picked up this older style Panavise at a garage sale. It was not functional due to:

• The section where the ball rotates horizontally was slightly corroded and frozen in place
• The nylon jaws were badly worn (one had a piece broken off, and a rusted screw)
• The handle for tightening the vise was missing
• Generally just dirty and in need of minor maintenance

I took the vise apart, cleaned up the corrosion, and put some molybdenum grease on the parts that needed lubrication. Made a new tightening handle from some drill rod and a couple of brass balls I had on hand. I removed the old nylon jaws, and milled some replacements from UHMW plastic, cleaned up the rusted screw, and put the new jaws in place. I also milled some shallow v-slots in the plastic jaws (both horizontal and vertical) to aid in parts holding. (I note that Panavise sells replacement nylon jaws for $3, but it was quick and easy to make my own). The paint on the vise still has a few nicks and stains, but these don't affect the function, and just show the vise has a bit of history.

Voila! I now have a fully functional Panavise.

I plan to screw the vise to a piece of board to improve the stability, and to enable me to clamp it to the top of a workbench or table.