Post Vise

[ThomasPowers]

Hmm may be handy to fab a vise bracket to fit in a platen table to hold it horizontal...makes a bucker you don't have to hold while working on the other end.

[youngdylan]

Hmm may be handy to fab a vise bracket to fit in a platen table to hold it horizontal...makes a bucker you don't have to hold while working on the other end.

Platen tables seem to one of those tools that are much more available your side of the ditch, along with hossfeld benders, beverley shears, induction heaters. Guess are abundance of cheap flypresses doen't quite make up for it.

Soon as I get a bigger worshop I'll fab up a table with a 30mm maybe 50mm plate top and drill round holes for dogs ..... not quite as useful a square ones though.

[Mainely,Bob]

Bob, sorry the pictures not the most informative but if you look t top left you'll see the jaws of the vice where its grips the bar with tenon. The whole work is too large to use the vice when it is fixed vertical, hence used "loose" and used "free"and led on the work on the bench. Makes a big difference cos there aint much mass in the bar.

Ah ha!So you are using it just to add mass to the work and taking advantage of it`s inertia of rest to do the intended peening.
Now this application is totally independent from what we were talking about when it is fixed to the bench.
I still think having the leg firmly anchored to the floor takes up much of the impact/vibration of using a vise like this when it`s attached to a bench,especially a mid to small size bench.
I can also see where Sam is coming from about where the leg resists twisting forces.Without the leg the "cloverleaf" will act as a pivot point and possibly bend.The leg prevents that.
Seems like my buddy Arftist mentioned that a while back and I when "Huh?" then too.
Now I`m seeing the light.
Thanks Cap`n for the pics(they made a big difference) and explaining it for me and thanks too Sam for your explanation and for the new terminology for the former "vise hanger bracket". :)

[arftist]

Well, I think a lot of us probably learned something from this thread. I certainly mount my legs vises with the post firmly on something solid.
I have to admit though, to having several loose ones (leg vises wise guy), which I ocasionaly use. Un-mounted that is. Guess I won't feel guilty about it next time.

[Sam Thompson]

Here's a pic of mine. The bench legs are 5" dia, buried 18"; the bench top is 2" thick oak, bolted onto a 3x2" frame and then bolted onto the legs which are braced diagonally by more 3x2. The vice bracket is welded to a 1/4" thick plate 28x37" which is bolted to the bench top. The bottom of the leg is about 3" above ground level and is held onto the bench leg with a bracket. None of it moves but I've just tried putting my hand against the bottom of the leg (foot?) and hitting the rear jaw with a hammer and I couldn't feel a thing.

[Frosty]

Good grief Sam, you must be one tall fellow! There's no way I could put one hand under a vise leg and hit the top with a hammer in the other. Sure, I'm not holding myself up as some kind of "standard of human male" but I THINK I'm not completely out of spec. Oh alright, let's not factor what's left of my skull in the equation.

Frosty the Lucky.

[youngdylan]

.Good grief Sam, you must be one tall fellow! There's no way I could put one hand under a vise leg and hit the top with a hammer in the other. Sure, I'm not holding myself up as some kind of "standard of human male" but I THINK I'm not completely out of spec. Oh alright, let's not factor what's left of my skull in the equation.

Frosty the Lucky.

[Mainely,Bob]

Here's a pic of mine. The bench legs are 5" dia, buried 18"; the bench top is 2" thick oak, bolted onto a 3x2" frame and then bolted onto the legs which are braced diagonally by more 3x2. The vice bracket is welded to a 1/4" thick plate 28x37" which is bolted to the bench top. The bottom of the leg is about 3" above ground level and is held onto the bench leg with a bracket. None of it moves but I've just tried putting my hand against the bottom of the leg (foot?) and hitting the rear jaw with a hammer and I couldn't feel a thing.

Course you didn`t feel a thing!You`ve got all that steel plate and lower leg collar attaching the vise firmly to a solid hardwood bench leg that is buried in the ground!!!
That`s like saying I never felt the stones being thrown at my tank. ;)

[Mainely,Bob]

It occurs to me what I think I see missing from the pics of your shop there Cap`n.How come it is you got no hold downs and either a platten or holes thru your benches Bub?
While all those clamps and floating vises may come in handy,from all the varied work I`ve done on odd shaped boat/yacht parts(nothing I know of is odder than a boat,throw that square and level away!)nothing beats hold downs for nailing odd stuff into position and keeping it there.Once it`s pinned down you have all the weight/mass of that bench or platten behind it keeping it stable and in one place.
Only takes a hammer to operate a hold down in either clamp or release mode.Sounds like something a fine smith such as yourself could cozy up to once he tore his attention away from those glitter bedecked banner girls with nothin` on but the radio. :o

[Sam Thompson]

Course you didn`t feel a thing!You`ve got all that steel plate and lower leg collar attaching the vise firmly to a solid hardwood bench leg that is buried in the ground!!!
That`s like saying I never felt the stones being thrown at my tank.

So, I've proved my point... If you mount the vice securely then the leg doesn't transmit any of the energy of the blow into the ground and the leg is only there as a brace! :P

[pkrankow]

So, I've proved my point... If you mount the vice securely then the leg doesn't transmit any of the energy of the blow into the ground and the leg is only there as a brace!

Nope, you made a bracket that is at least as solid as the ground!
Phil

[youngdylan]

It occurs to me what I think I see missing from the pics of your shop there Cap`n.How come it is you got no hold downs and either a platten or holes thru your benches Bub?
While all those clamps and floating vises may come in handy,from all the varied work I`ve done on odd shaped boat/yacht parts(nothing I know of is odder than a boat,throw that square and level away!)nothing beats hold downs for nailing odd stuff into position and keeping it there.Once it`s pinned down you have all the weight/mass of that bench or platten behind it keeping it stable and in one place.
Only takes a hammer to operate a hold down in either clamp or release mode.Sounds like something a fine smith such as yourself could cozy up to once he tore his attention away from those glitter bedecked banner girls with nothin` on but the radio.

Bob there isn't a day goes by when I don't bemoan my lack of a platten table. When I set up my workshop I didn't really know what i was doing or would do .... no change there then. I built a table with a rigid frame but only a 1/4" plate top. Cos my two 2 off 250kg jibs cranes are tied into the bench it would be an absolute b**lache to replace the table.

I do use some wood working style clamps .... very effective. But because the top is so thin I can't just drill holes in it; I have to make special sockets that fit under the table. I've also got a few .bits of 25mm plate with 30mm square holes bolted underneath in a few places.

I've been looking around for a platen table for when I finally get out of my shoebox but they seem as rare as rocking horse s*** over here. The (very) few I've seen have all been big monsters about 8' square and 6" thick. I yet to see anything of any size on ebay. Planning on fabbing up a table using 30mm or thicker plate when I do move

[Mainely,Bob]

Nope, you made a bracket that is at least as solid as the ground!
Phil

Then attached said bracket to a solid hardwood leg that was buried pretty deep in the ground.
Kind of like saying it`s not necessary to firmly attach your anvil stand to the floor,you just need to set the anvil on a hardwood stump buried a couple of feet in the ground.

If the big honkin` bracket is firmly fixed to the leg that is BURIED IN THE GROUND then doesn`t that kinda,sorta firmly fix the leg of said vice to the same bit of floor the bench leg is firmly buried in,in a sort of casual,offhand,don`t look too close sort of way?
Maybe floors are a little more nebulous and act completely different on that side of the pond.

With that big old plate solidly bolted to the bench above and that mega bracket below I gotta say there Sam,yours is the most bulletproof (unsupported) leg vise I`ve seen with the exception of the one bolted to that several ton block of solid metal posted a while back.
Hofi has the biggest vise of this type and his is completely free of the floor as I think it`s on wheels but then again it`s the size of a small horse.

[Sam Thompson]

I give up! I think physics works differently on your side of the pond. I expect you can all fly or see in the dark as well. :)

[Mainely,Bob]

I give up! I think physics works differently on your side of the pond. I expect you can all fly or see in the dark as well.

I have been flying a few times when my bike and I parted ways during a ride.

I can also see in the dark pretty well due to the fact that I lived next to a nuclear power plant and now I glow in the dark thus lighting my own way.That`s why I wear these specs.

Glad we got to spend a little quality time together there Sam.How about we tackle quantum physics next? :)