Hardy Hole Vise?

[Greg Heim]

Hey guys,

So the topic title says it all. Is there a type of vise that was built to be inserted in a hardy hole? If not, why is this a bad idea?

[Dave Budd]

i have a small drill vice that I've stuck a but of box section to the underside of so it fits into my hardy. I use it quite a lot, but mostly for holding sqaure bars while twisting (my nearest vice is normally too cluttered).

[Rich Hale]

Some time back I did a blueprint for this site on how I made a hardy hole mouinting plate for a small shop vise. I use it quite often for hot rasping and twisting. Yoiu might look the the blueprint section or contact Glenn and see if he can find it.

[ThomasPowers]

My postvises are much more securely mounted than my anvils as most of them are designed to be easily lifted off their supports for travel and the big ones just didn't need much more than a couple of fence staples to keep them from wandering under heavy sledging.

So depending on what *you* plan to use it for shifting the anvil could be an issue.

[Greg Heim]

I've got a section of tree buried 3 feet into the ground and I have my anvil chained to that, so it's not going anywhere. But I was thinking a small box vise would be a lovely hardy tool to just pop in, do the work and pop out without having to figure out a place to mount a leg vise.

[ThomasPowers]

Never had to figure out where to mount a leg vise---pretty much anywhere there was a spot for one gets one! (I have 5 currently mounted and another 6 or so waiting to be mounted after the shop gets sorted from the expansion, doubled the size and am still working out where things will go; but I figure each telephone pole supporting the roof gets a post vise as well as a planned removable one in the middle of the shop in a gazinta.

As I teach off site my smaller anvils and stumps have to travel. I hope to bury a chunk of an old mine timber, 12" x 14" x 6' and creosoted, in my shop extension but am still trying to work it so I can back the truck in for loading and not have the big anvil, 515# in the way. Never enough room!

[Greg Heim]

My set up is out in the middle of the woods, so surfaces are a commodity.

[pkrankow]

I had considered it. I probably read Rich's Blueprint at some point (no, I can't find it, I just looked.)

I got a post vise on a mobile stand. No need for a hardy mounted vise anymore.

Phil

[Frank Turley]

Some farriers use hardy vises which can be fabbed. Some of them are vise-grip style so that hot rasping can be done quickly. Farriers also have been using home fabbed step vises for a number of years, and they commonly attach to an off corner of a rectangular anvil stand, so they are a little ways from the anvil. The step vise has a compression spring and flat half-round jaw shapes to accommodate the horseshoe. Both styles have an angle to them like Blacksmith Depot's "Chamfering Vise" which latter is used for edge-filing. The angle allows the worker to better see what they are doing and to better apply pressure with the rasp or file.

[David Einhorn]

I welded a short piece of square tubing to the back of one of my wrenches. I use it in the hardy hole of my small portable anvils as a small vise for twisting and bending at public demonstrations where people can see what I am doing up close.

[calala]

I used to do demo's in nursing homes and I converted an old leg vise, which had the leg broken off, to mount in my 250lb Peter Wright.

[Ridgewayforge]

One of the reasons why this is not the best option is becuase waling on the tail isn't an excellant idea, so I have been told. Leg vises have the leg so that you can pound on them and the force goes down to the floor. With a hardy vise, that pressure and force is deposited over the tail of the anvil. Now, if you're just using it as a small bening/twisting vise, I see no reason why a small vise can't be mounted there. A Wagon Tounge vise with a hardy shank would work well, no doubt, as would a broken 3" leg vise. Now, that's my $.02, someone more experienced may come along and refute everything I said, but that's my opinion stated above, take it for what it's worth! Who knows, maybe you'll revolutionize blacksmithing with your patented hardy vise! (in which case, can I get a discount? :P )

[calala]

Ridgeway I think you have stated the obvious, I don't think anybody would take to a 3" vise with a whopping big sledge hammer, or would they. Cheers John. :wacko:

[mat]

i have seen 2 vices that both seemed to be purpose built to fit into in the hardy they were both in australia, about 3in jaws and scaled down about 50%

[cvmikeray]

Here is my solution to the post vise

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/23445-my-post-vise-based-on-brian-and-lyles-vise/

[Ridgewayforge]

calala, sometimes, the obvious isn't all that obvious! :)

[calala]

Ridgeway your probably correct because I keep wondering how all the legless vises lost their legs. :(

[Ridgewayforge]

Well, it wasn't in the war, that's for sure. I'd recon to bet that some were overzealous smiths waling on a three inch vise with a ten pound sledge, but I can imagine some other ways in which a vise could lose its leg!

[ThomasPowers]

As they were generally forge welded on, lots of them had weld issues. I've seen some that had the leg cast into the floor and someone torched them off to remove them. One ran over by a bulldozer when they tore down the shop, must be 50 ways to lose your legger....

I have one with a green stick fracture of the leg I need to forge weld back with probably a bit of added material so the weld area won't be smaller---though I guess I could finish the break and overlap and weld to make it the proper size but slightly shorter...

[cvmikeray]

Mine was broke when I bought it . I bought a 6 inch to build another portable with but can't bring myself to cut off the leg .... It will get a dedicated stump in mt Smithy when build it.

[Hayden H]

I've got a sheared one, 2 torch cut, a break, and my personal favorite my 3 thats got a punched eye where the leg should be to bolt through the "leg".

[Charles R. Stevens]

I was looking over some of the documentation David Einhorn has on his simiportable forge. The blueprints show a small vice that aperantly indexes the hardy hole of the anvil.
You wouldn't hapen to have a better set of pictures of those blue prints, Mr. Einhorn? I can't make out mesurments on anvil and vice.

[SReynolds]

I use a hardy hole vise often (for particular tasks).It is simply a bench vice that I had removed the swivel from. I use that center bolt hole (in the base of the vise) to secure a hardy shank.

I do this two different ways, depending on the vice. On one unit, I welded a hardy shank to a 1/2" thick steel plat and BOLTED that to the base of the vice. One another, I used 1" square tube and welded a counter sunk washer iside. A 1/2" bolt secures the pipe to the base of the vice and serves as the hardy shank.

There are issues with doing so as the vise is going to be mounted really low and I can see where I'd have issues with operating the clamp handle depending on which direction it is mounted.

I have also had problems twisting hot steel with an anvil mounted vice as the clamp/wrench used to twist the steel will not always spin free and clear of obstructions.

It is quite usefull in bending longer stock when mounted in a jig, The jig being held in the vice jaws of course. I can literally walk around the vice (anvil)

[ThomasPowers]

A variation I have used was to take the moving jaw of a pipe wrench and forge it to fit the hardy hole and drill a hole crossways at the shaft end and fasten a spring to it and the anvil stump. Weld a T handle to the top of the jaw and you have a hardy hole holder

[Francis Trez Cole]

I have seen hand held vices like this one.
http://www.toolstop.co.uk/draper-30785-hv100-36mm-hand-vice-p46567

I would think it would get in the way some could be dangerous like leaving you hot cut harder in the harder hole. I have a separate stand I used a drill press stand