I think your leg vise needs a spring and proper mount.  It wont be very stable for forging or filing the two tasks that kind of vise was intended to do.  But I do think you got a fair trade.

Here are two of my vises. I found the Wilton in a soon to be scrap bin.

I needed a small portable leg vise for demos away from home. I picked up this 3 1/4" vise and with ideas I "borrowed" from this forum I came up with this stand. I put a rack on the side for jigs I use and a handle on the rear that doubles as a tong rack. Going to add wheels on the back of the plow disk for travel on hard surfaces once I acquire them. I torched in some holes on the disk to stake it down on soft ground. My other vise had to be taken apart for travel due to weight, it's a 5" vise with a 120# brake drum base.

Nicely done Jake!

 

Frosty the Lucky.

Here's mine

Brought this one home yesterday

 

My $10.00 vice that a welder put a piece of sucker rod for a leg. Have had it for 30 years.

Here are my vises i finaly got one about 4-5 months ago and another one last month. The vise on the stand is 4.5in and about 40-50 lbs give or take. The large vise leaning up against the stand is a 7" and about 130-140lbs give or take but i need to make a spring and a mount for it.

I just learned that I have a Model 434 1/2 Chas. Parker, manufactured somewhere in 1939 - 1946.  Says it's original cost was $24.00, and I paid $20.00 for mine at a flea market so to learn that it depreciated only $4.00 in 70+ years shows USA goods hold their value.   Of course, $24.00 was a Hell of a lot of money in 1939 - 1946, but still that is pretty neat to know.

 

I had to machine that special nut, if you can call it that,  inside the swivel assembly as it was cracked at the threads.   Didn't know that when I purchased it, only after I mounted it and noticed that the base would not tighten up.  I was lucky enough to have one of the machinists at work machine a replacement for me.  It is a pretty complicated item to machine.  

 

Not too sure if this was an issue with this model of vise, but now that I have it fixed it is one solid piece of equipment.  I have attached a picture of it, feel kind of guilty showing this because I do need to clean it up a bit after learning that this has some history to it.  Give me a couple of weeks, It will look like brand new again!

 

 

 

Here's my vise and portable stand. Not good for heavy bending but very easy to move with a hand cart. All of my forge equipment goes into the basement after forging so I have to make some compromises to get mobility. The base is made from old 4"x4" deck post.  It's not as top heavy as it looks.  The 4"x4"s stop where you see the screw lines on the top portion.  I used to have shorter vise mounted to it.

Ken

Finally picked up a leg vice for $50, was keeping an eye out for them for months, the end of the leg was sheared off where the ball would be, so I made a little pad for it to fit into. Goes leg, solid bit of steel, hard bit of rubber then 4X4 bit of hard wood, then the ground to give it a bit of shock resistance.

Had no bracket or spring (found it didnt need a spring as the jaw falls open when i wind it open) Was going to forge up a proper mount to screw it onto my bench, but 2 bolts and 2 bits of scrap seem to have done an alright job, Time will tell

 

 

picture uploading issues, please delete

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37075-post-vice/

 

My vise. Pretty typical stuff. Pre-cleaning,  Not bad for setting out in the elements for the last 10 years. Works well after I cleaned it and lubed it.

 

Still trying to decide if I want to commit the sin of painting it with Ford Motor Company blue engine paint.

 

 

 

My vise. Pretty typical stuff. Pre-cleaning,  Not bad for setting out in the elements for the last 10 years. Works well after I cleaned it and lubed it.

 

Still trying to decide if I want to commit the sin of painting it with Ford Motor Company blue engine paint.

 

 

Paint  on a vise (or anvil etc) is an abomination. Proceed at your own risk.

 

Tru dat.

Well, seeing as Fisher painted their anvils at the factory does that make them factory original abominations?

 

I paint my tooling my shop colors, Forest green and gold. It's hardly an uncommon practice through history, probably since paint was invented. I'll bet Minoan bronze smiths painted their tools shop colors, they painted everything. Red and black seem to be Minoan (national?) colors, though blue and yellow were common enough.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Well, seeing as Fisher painted their anvils at the factory does that make them factory original abominations?

 

I paint my tooling my shop colors, Forest green and gold. It's hardly an uncommon practice through history, probably since paint was invented. I'll bet Minoan bronze smiths painted their tools shop colors, they painted everything. Red and black seem to be Minoan (national?) colors, though blue and yellow were common enough.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

It isn't up for discussion. Painting vices/anvils/etc is wrong.

 

W.R.O.N.G.

As I recall your LG was gray and I don't think your post vise was rust colored. I'll check my photos and get back.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

I recently restored a 50lb 4.5" Peter Wright vise. I was fortunate to pick it up along with a Vaughan anvil, my first two smithing tools.

    
 
I used a drill type wire brush to strip off a layer of silver paint, then gave it a light coat of boiled linseed oil. The next challenge will be finding a solid place to mount it.
 
Another site mentions that post vises were typically forged from wrought iron or mild steel. In this case I can see that the wedge for the bracket is wrought iron, so that may be the same for the rest of the vise.

Fissionchips, The slight chamfer below the leg's corner fuller marks tells me you are probably in the U.K. On the other hand, the Peter Wrights exported to the U.S. had deeply chamfered legs. Your style of Peter Wright legs was also exported to a large degree to Canada and Australia.

That's incredible that you can tell the place of origin Frank. The vise turned up in Canada, so you are right on the mark.

Paint  on a vise (or anvil etc) is an abomination. Proceed at your own risk.

 

Tru dat.

Why?

Because Bob lives in a corn field.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Don't know much about it. The Gunter brother's set me up with it. Pretty awesome! Needs a new screw to replace the broken one it has. Right now it works well, but I would like it to be able to open all the way.