Fly Vise Maintenance Day

[Sandan 0]

29 minutes ago, DFoster said:

 It took all of 3 minutes to disassemble my "toy", and another 5 minutes to clean, lube and reassemble.  John Larrabee the owner of HMH told me that I should clean and lubricate this vise "at minimum once per year" so that's good enough for me. 

My Dyna-King might not need it, but if it does it's done. If it needs it it's done. For preventive maintenance the amount of time spent is well worth it. An ounce of prevention......

[DFoster 0]

1 hour ago, Sandan said:

My Dyna-King might not need it, but if it does it's done. If it needs it it's done. For preventive maintenance the amount of time spent is well worth it. An ounce of prevention......

I like nice things and I make every effort to properly maintain the things I own.   I'm not a frugal person at all and don't mind spending extra for quality.  With any high end product I buy the deal is I spend the extra money and maintain the product as directed and in return I expect it to last well beyond what a throw away copy will.  It doesn't always go that way and when that happens I never buy from that company again.  Maybe it's a character flaw?  In my view vises like Dynaking, Renzetti, HMH ect. are not Bic shavers but precision tools worthy of a few minutes spent cleaning and lubricating each year.

[Sandan 0]

10 minutes ago, DFoster said:

I like nice things and I make every effort to properly maintain the things I own.   I'm not a frugal person at all and don't mind spending extra for quality.  With any high end product I buy the deal is I spend the extra money and maintain the product as directed and in return I expect it to last well beyond what a throw away copy will.  It doesn't always go that way and when that happens I never buy from that company again.  Maybe it's a character flaw?  In my view vises like Dynaking, Renzetti, HMH ect. are not Bic shavers but precision tools worthy of a few minutes spent cleaning and lubricating each year.

Exactly 

[Poopdeck 0]

I'm a frugal person who maintains everything I own. All of my vises are "throw away" vises that I have yet to throw away. The newest one is probably 20 years old and was cleaned once. I know all my vehicles go well over 200K miles and when I get rid of them they are still running fine. My boat, motor and trailer are 30 years old and going strong. Nobody would call my stuff the finer things but they all preform flawlessly because of routine/preventative maintenance. I don't believe a vise needs to be cleaned every year, regardless of who says so, but it is not going to hurt it so you might as well clean it if you want to. Myself I wouldn't wipe oil on anything, not my vise or my gun. Oil attracts dirt and makes funk. I wipe my guns down with a silicone cloth. I would do the same with my vise if I needed to. 

[knotjoe 0]

On 1/18/2021 at 11:53 AM, DFoster said:

Is anyone else doing the same thing?  I would love to see photos.

Yeah, but I don't have photos from doing the same thing earlier this year.

Lotta crap builds up in the nooks & crannies, I like to get it all out and wipe it down.  Never hurts to lube a bit on contact points for wear and continued proper fits.  O-rings do wear and fatigue, I hate it when they fail in the middle of something else.  

Skin oils/salts probably aren't the greatest salve for anything metal so some periodic maintenance is a good plan.  If nothing else, disassembly and cleaning is darn good for finding potential future issues with certain parts (like plastic knob splits/cracks).

[jcozzz 0]

O rings are the only thing i replace .I always have spares.I did wear out or rather have it self destruct a regal knock off that was sold to me as a regal when i did not know better.Been tempted to really lube that piece of junk and return it to the seller.

[DFoster 0]

13 hours ago, Poopdeck said:

I'm a frugal person who maintains everything I own. All of my vises are "throw away" vises that I have yet to throw away. The newest one is probably 20 years old and was cleaned once. I know all my vehicles go well over 200K miles and when I get rid of them they are still running fine. My boat, motor and trailer are 30 years old and going strong. Nobody would call my stuff the finer things but they all preform flawlessly because of routine/preventative maintenance. I don't believe a vise needs to be cleaned every year, regardless of who says so, but it is not going to hurt it so you might as well clean it if you want to. Myself I wouldn't wipe oil on anything, not my vise or my gun. Oil attracts dirt and makes funk. I wipe my guns down with a silicone cloth. I would do the same with my vise if I needed to. 

Exactly, dirt sticks to oil and grease.  Bits and particles from tying eventually work their way down into the lubricated points, even if they were lubed 20 years ago when the vise was new.  That funk will cause anything that moves or screws to have more difficulty doing so and it won't matter if the vise is expensive or not.    I can say my vise "feels" better after a cleaning because the moving parts move with more ease and to me that is worth the minimal amount of time it took to clean it.   As for wiping the exterior with oil, both my Renzetti and HMH owners manuals say the salt in the oils from your hands will eventually cause rust or pitting if left on the surface. I think wiping with a silicone cloth is a good way to prevent that.   A thin layer of oil is what they recommend if the vise is going to set unused for a while especially in humidity.  I tie much less in the warmer weather because I'm on the water so I'll wipe a little oil on. 

Like you I maintain my things, expensive or not because I count on them to work when I need them.  Lets just say I know this guy who instead of spending the last warm November afternoon of 2019 fly fishing had to rebuild the #@$% carburetor on the snow blower because he stupidly forgot to add #$% fuel stabilizer when he put it away the previous spring and snow was on it's way for the next day.  AND or what the rebuild kit cost I could have gotten a nice cape!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JSzymczyk 0]

I've spent my entire life doing PMs on equipment from hand tools to multimillion dollar transmitters to all sorts of other systems.  Preventive Maintenance is a way of life, unless you're someone who likes to "fix it until it's broke"....  I tear apart my vises whenever I feel like it,  surely way more than required.  Cleaned and Lubed makes life better.  In so many ways.

Foster, put a fuel shut off valve in the line before the carb and run it dry every time after use... if I remember correctly it's about a $7 part and ends the whole worry. 

 

[Poopdeck 0]

A fuel shutoff would only make it worse since a shutoff valve does not remove all gas from the carb. Stabilizer should be used in the fuel with or without a shutoff and especially when the fuel is being shut off. 

[jamieofthenorth 0]

On 1/19/2021 at 1:19 PM, DFoster said:

 It took all of 3 minutes to disassemble my "toy", and another 5 minutes to clean, lube and reassemble.  John Larrabee the owner of HMH told me that I should clean and lubricate this vise "at minimum once per year" so that's good enough for me. 

 

Like with you and your HMH, taking apart and cleaning my Dyna King per their instructions was super easy. I read somewhere that cleaning twice a year was a good guideline... I think that was in A.K. Best's books? Regardless, given the ease of the task, I see no reason not to do so. Why take a chance even if the risk is small? Plus, it's nice to see it look shiny and new.

[upnorthtier 0]

I had my regal revolution for almost 10 years and probably tied close to 50 thousand flies on it. The only thing I clean on it , is the pocket base. I never lubed or cleaned the vise itself and it still works great. It looks well used and I like that. I've been telling myself for years that I should clean it. maybe today is the day or maybe not

[WWKimba 0]

On 1/24/2021 at 8:48 AM, upnorthtier said:

I had my regal revolution for almost 10 years and probably tied close to 50 thousand flies on it. The only thing I clean on it , is the pocket base. I never lubed or cleaned the vise itself and it still works great. It looks well used and I like that. I've been telling myself for years that I should clean it. maybe today is the day or maybe not

Being from up north like me (central NY) you use the winter to tie and the other times to fish!  I love the story about Jack Gartside.  He drove taxi every winter so he could travel to fish the rest of the year!  I think that's why he developed so many simple and deadly fly patterns!!  Wonder if he ever cleaned his vise while he was alive?

Kim

[DFoster 0]

On 1/24/2021 at 8:48 AM, upnorthtier said:

I had my regal revolution for almost 10 years and probably tied close to 50 thousand flies on it. The only thing I clean on it , is the pocket base. I never lubed or cleaned the vise itself and it still works great. It looks well used and I like that. I've been telling myself for years that I should clean it. maybe today is the day or maybe not

You might be surprised at how much better your vise will "feel" cleaned and lubed. I know on my HMH little particles of fur and quills collect and build on the moving parts and eventually inhibit the smoothness of the vise.  I posted a care and maintenance vid specifically for a Regal Rev on the previous page.  Seems to be quick and easy to do.

[petelangevin 0]

Its funny but today i had to break down my  Norvise to its basic parts and oil up the bearings.   It was very sluggish. Spins much better now.   

[DFoster 0]

On 3/1/2021 at 8:46 PM, petelangevin said:

Its funny but today i had to break down my  Norvise to its basic parts and oil up the bearings.   It was very sluggish. Spins much better now.   

Hi Pete, I found this regarding Norvise-