tmate

I recently picked up my first post vise on eBay, and cleaned it up before fabricating a stand for it. After disassembling and wire brushing it, I applied a thin coat of boiled linseed oil. I left it sit outside in the sun for most of a day to speed up drying. The rear spindle box collar was missing. This was probably because the heavy spring made it hard to close it enough to engage the spindle box threads. Someone in the distant past chose to just get rid of the collar, which made it easier. I fabricated a replacement collar out of a 2" ID one piece shaft collar. With some effort, I managed to get it all back together. I've had this 150 lb. press plate sitting around for close to 30 years, and decided to use it as a base for the vise stand. I used a 5" x 8" I beam for a column, and 3/8" plates at the top and bottom. The finished stand weighs upwards of 200 lbs., and the vise about 85.

Just finished a stand for my Rock Island vise. Total weight for the vise and the stand is around 300 lbs. including several 25 lb. barbell plates secured inside the wheel

I've owned this 9" South Bend model 9a for about 30 years. It was close to 40 years old when I acquired it.

I create the desired shape in CorelDraw, and my laptop computer moves the plasma torch along two perpendicular axes simultaneously to execute the cut. I would say 3/8" would be the maximum thickness for steel.

In my retirement years (age 83) I have been occupying myself by cutting out 2D replicas of British and American motorcycles. I've done about 25 so far. The shapes are approximately 19" long, and are cut from 1/8" thick (11 gauge) mild steel with my small home-made CNC plasma table. I/ve cut out a few cars and other shapes, as well. Hopefully you can recognize some of them.