TWISTEDWILLOW

Very nice!

Swedefiddle, I found out what you mean on the flex, after I got the holes drilled and bolted down the vise, the stand wasn’t near as ridgid as I thought it would be, when pulling on the handle you can watch the ibeam and plate flex. I’ll most definitely be taking your advice and I’ll add some channel to stiffen it up, Thanks for the tip

Very cool!

I’m not an expert by any means but I think the problem with cast iron anvils is how brittle cast iron is. I’ve got lots of antique tools and machines hanging around my shop and more than once I’ve dropped or knocked over something over made of cast iron and it just cracks or chips or knocks a chunk out of whatever it was. So I imagine that an cast iron anvil could and would be potentially dangerous if you were really working hard on it. But agin I’m not an anvil expert I’m just a beginner. 

Irondragon, yes the bottom plate is 26”x30” and when I did a mock up before welding it all together I was able to stand on the plate with the vise. 

Thank you for the advice Neil I was wondering if I would need to add gussets on the main support but you answered that thought for me.  

Thanks  irondragon 

Just started building my vise stand today I’ll  get it finished up tomorrow. I used 1/4” plate and 4”x10” ibeam. I still have to drill the mounting holes and weld on the socket for the foot.

Well that’s a decent enough price for a bench vise of any brand. Good find! 

I’ve found vises,tools and machines around my area just by asking around, also another thing I do is sometimes I’ll offer to do clean outs and haul offs or help people move to their new place especially if they are moving off an old homestead or their new owners are wanting to clean up a old property they just bought. Either way you can find all kinds of tools cheap and get paid to do it. Just throwing out another idea that might help you find the vise your looking for.  

I’m no expert on William foster anvils but I do have one and comparing the two it looks like that one is missing the heel and the hardy hole it might have broke off long ago and been ground back clean agin but I don’t know if it’s made that way either. But I’m sure someone else on here with more experience can give you better information. 

Thank you jlpserviceinc, the 1928 Westinghouse motor on the champion is burnt up I need to take it and get it rewound. I’ve got a modern 1hp driving the old silver mfg drill.

Ballast, that’s a sweet looking anvil, that’s cool that it has three sizes of pritchel holes. 

Champion blower and forge company model 50e 

If I remember correctly Holland’s vises were bought out by the yost vise company  sometime around the 40s. That’s all I know about Holland’s vises maybe someone else can be of more help. 

Thank you guys for your time and Input sharing your experience, I appreciate it. I’ll start pulling out everything I’ve been collecting and give it a go this weekend 

I agree with y’all, my two Peter wrights are smaller then that one but they both have the same feet as yours and With the same circle saying solid wrought.

USS Mesa verde 2006/2010 boatswainsmate 

There a read this first section that helps to explain how everything works here. I had to read it a couple times because I missed and forgot a few things. 

Had to google it to see what those were, I never heard of them before. That is a good idea, I don’t have one but It made me think about hardware cloth down at the feed store when I saw the pictures. The ground has been sopping wet around here lately but I could dry out the red dirt next to my wood stove in the shop. you have gave me another good idea I’ve gotta go into town tomorrow and pick up some feed I’ll look and see what all they got laying around that I could use for a screen. 

Yes it’s a cast iron pan Thank you for the tip. I read a post on here yesterday you were talking to someone else about that and his pan cracked on him after forging without a liner. We have lots of red dirt/clay in my area my plan was to dig up a couple buckets full to line it after reading your conversation, the only thing I haven’t read about or figured out yet is how to remove all the flint rock gravel from the clay. I’ve had flint rocks burst on me that were mixed  in a burning brush fire so I figured I’d better get them out of the clay before using it for a liner.

Tp, Thank you for the advice, I already got a load of coal from the stiglar coal mine, and I’ve found several hand crank blowers, anvils, vises and other tools and machines and an old rivet forge all thanks to using your method. I believe I have everything I need to start building my set up. I’m just trying to do my homework first before putting it all together and trying to use it so I can cut down on making setup mistakes and then asking you guys stupid questions lol. 

I see thank you, that’s why before I start setting up and using all the stuff I’ve been collecting I’m trying to read through this website because you guys seem to everything about every aspect of blacksmithing, there is so much information and so many posts on here for me to read through its kinda daunting, it might be a awhile before I start doing anything hands on. I also have a pile of books to get through to. I’m trying to soak in all this information before I start building so I can hopefully put everything together and build all the stands and forge correctly and then hopefully begin learning to use it all correctly without damaging me or the tools lol. 

That’s interesting that scale will polish the face off, I’ve been reading a lot of posts on various topics on here in the last few days and I found a lot of people saying not to touch an anvil with a grinder or anything else just to use them like they are. So I was wondering how all the dings and dents in the face would affect work but now it makes sense if it cleans off the marks with scale. Thanks for all the information

That’s really cool that y’all can tell what an anvil was used for just by looking at the the wear marks. Also that William foster project of yours sounds really cool I’d be really interested to see before and after pictures if you ever get a chance to fix it. Here’s pictures of the faces on these anvils. The William foster is kinda smushed down and the 122# pw has a million little dings in the face.