rusty Vise Grips

Zachary Hoyt

Well-known Member
Found these under a house trailer that I was readying to be moved. Looks like someone lost them a long time ago. Is there any point trying to clean them up or are they too far gone? I have two good pairs like this and the are great, I think I heard they don't make these anymore.
Zach
a161336.jpg
 
Use electrolysis and it may surprise you. I cleaned up an old crescent wrench that looked almost that rough and it is usable now. Use the search on the top of the page and you can find out how.
 
Buy a gallon of vinegar and put the vicegrips in it. Shake it around every day or so and you will be surprised at what it will clean off.
 
Those look very very sad. I would drop them in some ATF and let them sit for say a month or more and hope but that is about all you can do
 
D, are you for REAL? Yep, let"s toss the good old American made stuff in the dumpster and buy a new one made in the "Land of Almost Right"????

There"s more metal in the RUST in the pix than in a lot of China crap!
 
They may be too far gone to salvage for use, but I would sure clean them up as best I could and hang them up or frame them. Make a good conversation piece.
 
Zach said he found this pair. If he throws them away, he comes out even. He doesn't have to buy another pair to replace them. D beatty is suggesting that they may be too far gone to justify the effort to restore them. Making an effort to salvage a good tool is a waste of time if the tool can't be salvaged. Eventually, nobody is going to pay you for all your good intentions.

Stan
 
I'd take as much rust off with a wire wheel on a pedestal grinder or an angle grinder as I could, and go from there. My guess is that they're too far gone. Show us what you get.

Stan
 
The screw threads on the adjustment mechanism will have been destroyed by the corrosion- You could get all the rust off by electrolysis, but what you'd have left wouldn't work.
 
Send it back to the manufacturer. Maybe you'll get lucky and they will send you a new pair?
 
Zachary,

Don't throw 'em! Husband has gotten them working when looking much worse than that. I'll get you a pic in a bit.

He said you might have to get a new spring.

And did I say, "Don't throw 'em!"? LOL
 
If you're like most of us, you've got an old bottle of molasses that will never be used, just sitting in the back of a cupboard in your kitchen.

Get it - empty it into a small container - brush the vice grips and throw them in, check on them next month. Swirl them around every now and then in between.

That way you've cleared your cupboards a little, and satisfied your curiosity on the vice grips. Win win.

Personally - I'd toss them and go out and spend 20 bucks for a shiny new pair.

Here's the thing about vice grip pliers that will make or break a pair: The teeth.

If the teeth are all rounded and chewed up - they're going to be a major source of frustration whenever you use them.

The biggest use of vice grips is to grab something like a rounded nut that doesn't want to turn.

Having sharp teeth makes that SO much more effective.

The ones in the picture will not have good teeth.

It'd be like saving an old philips head screw driver that has a chewed up tip. The end result is hardly worth the effort.
 
I'd clean them up and if I could get them to work even marginally,
I'd save them for the hammer banging, too close to the torch/welder clamping, etc, type jobs.
so I don't ruin my good ones.
Agree with the other posters that most of the new ones should be left in the store. weak
 
When I was digging for old bottles once I found a gun like that after I cleaned it and soaked it I tried to get it to move and it broke. Vise-Grips at garage sales are 1-3 dollars. I don't see that thumbscrew turning much.
 
OK, here's the pic. He said he had to use heat to loosen them and then cleaned the threads and replaced the spring.

He just enjoys using them (and some other old tools) when working on our old tractors.

a161362.jpg" width="650"
 
Yes I would through them in the scrap.For the time and effort it would take to maybe get them to work I can watch around at sales for a pair of good used(usa made)ones.
 
Sears never carried Vise-Grips . They had their own Craftsman version which I beleive had a reverse action of the release lever. They were /are real annoying to work with compared to the real Vise-Grip brand
 
(quoted from post at 21:05:36 06/25/14)
a161336.jpg

I have used molasses on crusty wrenches like that and it will save them. The phosphoric acid in it is what removes the rust but leaves the good steel. The problem I see is the molasses will not get in the threads or tight spaces to free up the rust but on an open tool like a wrench thats not a problem. Not much risk though, drop it in and forget about it for 6 months or a year. I use a container for tennis balls and a drywall mud box with glass covering it to prevent evaporation.
 
I completely agree with ShadeTreeRet, It can be
more fun telling stories about them than all the
work soaking them and all. Hanging them on a nail]in the workshop is more fun anyway.
 
When I worked in a farm equipment dealer's shop I would find old rusty wrenches in tractor tool boxes and put them in with one fussy mechanic's tool chest along side his nice SnapOn. I have cleaned up some pretty rusty ones but not as bad as the one shown
 
The spring is probably history. literally, there may not be anything left of it. If it was me, and I wanted to see how they would clean up, I would soak them a few days in white vinegar.

I have 2 vise-grips in my toolbox that I cleaned up and they work well, just don't look all that great, but they weren't this bad when I started. I have used governor springs for one of the cheaper kohler engines for the spring in them.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top