About a year or so ago we bought a 7x12 Jet bandsaw. The used machinery place said it was used for cutting samples used to demonstrate CNC machines and was very low hours and looked like new. Instead of a crank or hand-wheel on the vise it had a cast iron lever. I imagine it woas used to make a cut on the same piece of stock over and over. The vise is a quick-set type, the moving jaw will slide free back and forth and then lock with the lever...I think. I never played with it much and never could get it to work right, besides we have other bandsaws. Finally I got curious and frustrated enough to take the vise apart. Well, it seems the floating casting that has half threads to engage the screw was in backwards. By simply reversing the casting and replacing the lever with a hand-wheel the saw works great and holds a piece of stock. I just wonder if it came from the factory that way.
Now that I'm on a roll in the shop I pulled the striped nut on the 6" Colombian bench vise and ordered a new one for $64 ---OUCH! But, it will be nice to have a working vise there! I've spent too much time in the office and everybody else seems to just let things go. Tools aren't put away, chips are all over machine tools, flat surfaces have turned into piles of stuff, stock on consumables and steel stocks are low or out, etc. Boy, are my feet going to hurt like hell getting the shop back to where I like it.