My meager shop - Blacksmith Photo Gallery
My 6 inch leg vice on a stump with a hand crank grinder on the side.

Hello again,
Here is my leg vice which I bought from a farm auction a couple of years back for A$90. The leg was bent but not broken; ditto the handle; there was no plate/bracket with which to bolt anywhere; and the spring was missing. I repaired all that and fitted it to a pipe upright which I welded to a truck rim, found dumpster diving! I purposely left the leg clear of the floor so it doesn't get damaged when rolling the base about. A solid block of hardwood with a mating hole slots underneath, and ensures the vice is solid in use.
In this pic I have my anvil stored on top of the rim, a temporary measure to clear floor space.
My next job on it is to make a circular rack for hammers and tongs about the same diameter as the rim. I aim to have it removable, socket the legs into holes in the rim and somewhere up top too.

Cheers,
Makoz

I picked this vise up some years ago but didn't have anywhere to put it. With the shop slowly coming into harness I decided it was time to repair it and start teaching it it's job.

A trip to the beauty parlor was her reward for letting me have my way with her. She's a 4" Colombian w/new spring, wedges and paint.

Frosty

Here's my new 6" jaw, 100 pounder, on it's base. I'm going to add a 2" receiver hitch tube onto the back, to slide into my bench but the bench is going through some changes in height so I'll wait till that gets finished. Suprisingly... it's fairly stable on it's own for only having a 1/4" thick base plate.
The bottom base plate is a piece of scrap from an earlier project, that's what the holes are for.

Very Nice looking setup Scratch.
Finnr

My vice thery old

Edited November 21, 200916 yr by demid

every time ya do one of these i gotta upgrade the company canoe!, im also chasing a steroidal one 7" + big and heavy, not a dainty jaw 7 1/2", let me know a price if avail via pm etc.

6" 5" 3 1/2"

Edited November 22, 200916 yr by double_edge2

here's my big vice, 6.5" jaws, set in a concrete iceberg tube. It's a treasure I got at Quad state last year!

My 170 pounder. I have since mounted it onto a stand made of 1/2" plate and 2 X 3 tubing.

I have about 5 others in the 4-5 " range, but this one is my favorite.

Edited November 23, 200916 yr by Sask Mark
Added a couple more pictures

Did you know that the makers of the Peter Wright anvil also made vises? Here are 2 shots of the one I have. Notice the large overhang on either end. A good sign it's a Peter Wright. Also they had a "solid wrought box", which is stamped on the box.

If you can it's best to mount your vise on a solid post that extends about 36" into the ground and postioned behind your anvil so you have a working triangle from your forge, anvil and vise. This makes for less steps between them. All of the old smiths I knew thirty years ago called the vise the right hand of the smith because they are so useful. It amazes me the number of shops I've seen that don't have one. I don't know how they get anything done without it.

I just realized I may be missing the rear wood bushing on mine after looking at that last post, hmmmm now how am I gonna do that??

My Fancy one...

Did you know that the makers of the Peter Wright anvil also made vises? Here are 2 shots of the one I have. Notice the large overhang on either end. A good sign it's a Peter Wright. Also they had a "solid wrought box", which is stamped on the box.

If you can it's best to mount your vise on a solid post that extends about 36" into the ground and postioned behind your anvil so you have a working triangle from your forge, anvil and vise. This makes for less steps between them. All of the old smiths I knew thirty years ago called the vise the right hand of the smith because they are so useful. It amazes me the number of shops I've seen that don't have one. I don't know how they get anything done without it.

Wow, that looks exactly like one of my vices. If I didn't know better I'd say it was a picture of mine and with the "solid wrought box" stamp on the box it must be another Peter Wright.
If you look it all over you can see it was entirely hand forged.

Having purchased an Anvil some months ago, I stalled in the process of starting up, mainly due to time and money, but travelling through country Victoria in a quaint town called Burra, I stopped at an atique store and found the leg vice sitting in the back, works a treat, no play in the screw, nice and firm, the vice is 5 inch and i thought it was a bargain at $90.

Made by Fisher as in the anvil manufacturers. 6.25" jaws, weighs about 135#, opens to about 7" and the jaws stay square and parallel the whole way. Very cool.

Nice Vice Judson ! Never saw or heard of one like that before, thanks for posting.

Dick

Well here are a few of the vises I use and my "Big" vises... There is a 4" in the pic with the 8" and 9" for scale.... The 9" is 215lbs... The one on the stand with the Wilton machinest vise is a 5 3/4 and the stand alone one is a 6 3/4..

just because someone will say "I have never seen a 9" post vise"

This monster came from the Genva steel mill in Utah... 215lb, and yes 9" jaws... I know there are bigger vises out there but so far this is the grand daddy of my collection....

O.K. I think Larry wins the "mine's bigger than yours" competition! Oh wait! What if I lay my screw press on its side?? Would that count?

you notice it's laying on its side? it's because it takes 2 men and a boy to move it!!

Just out of curiosity, Is there anyone out there that knows of another 9" or something bigger? Someday I am going to put this on a stand but its not really useful for me at the moment. Its just way to dang much work to deal with a big vise, My 6 3/4 is about as big as I need and I find a 5.5 to 6" is ideal for most things. The only thing I can think of is like doing Darryl's animal heads it would be nice to have a really stout vise for the chisel work.. at 215 lbs this vise is heaver that a lot of anvils! Swinging that three foot long handle around half a dozen times to get it clamped on a hot chunk will cure you of wanting a big vise.... Especially if you clock yourself in the chin once or twice

found this a few years back pretty cool I like to collect vises and anvils(small ones that fit on fireplace) that is a quarter to show the scale

This is my vice set up. I like it becuse I can work 360 around it. I made it from a freight car axle and 2 inch plate 3 foot dia.

Gonna have to change your name to monstersqueezer.
Ken

Although not a post vise, I recently won this old Athol at an auction for 30 bucks. It has the number 614 on the other side. I it was covered with grease and would not turn. After I tore it down completely and cleaned it up I found it was in real good shape. There is still very good knurling on the jaws. I chose not to paint it. I like the old patina.