Hardy Holder Vise

[Avadon]

I've seen the blueprints on this vice http://www.abana.org/downloads/education/VerticalVise.pdf
"The Vertical Vise" and I'm wondering what the groups thoughts are on what is the best solution for a hardy holder. I have a home made anvil 377lbs that I want to attach a hardy holder to. Trying to think of the best way to do it. Thought about just buying a post-leg vice and welding the living heck out of it to the side of the thing. However that's not all that different than just using a bench vice as hardy tools don't really hold that well in parallel jaws from my experience. They tend to bounce around in smooth jaws and in toothed jaws they tend to really marr the shank of your expensive hardy tools. Wondering if something like this post vice would give me more purchase / grab on the hardy shank and really hold that tool in there. I don't think I would be using it for anything other than hardy tools. If I was to need that I could weld a post vice onto the other side as my anvil is just one big obelisk of an upright square.

Oh and I also thought about buying a post vice and trying to make special jaw plates like vertical jaws - attachment plates. However I'm thinking that could be really hit or miss as I'd have to actually create some support if I were to extend anything above or below the parrellel jaws as they are ment to grab things on the parallel not the vertical.

I already know about a welded tube with a shim in it to mimic an actual hardy hole. Ehh.. I'm not really interested in that. I'd really like a hardy hole of some kind that I can clamp the hardy in with insane force. I've upgraded my bench vices with much bigger stops so I can literally crank down on them with lethal force (lol) and I love the capability to hold things lightly or insanely. Haha

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I want to do this the best way possible.
Also if anyone has built this leg vice i'd love to hear and see the results form it.

Cheers,
Av

[David Einhorn]

Depends what you are using the hardys for. Because my portable anvils for demonstrations have different sized hardy holes from my shop anvil I make most of my tooling on angle iron that can be moved to various work stations in my shop as well as used on the vise attached to my American Civil War Traveling Forge. For a cut off hardy for your vise you can also weld a length of steel to the top of a piece of angle iron. On the other hand I also have cut off hardys and some other tooling for my small anvils for historical demonstrations.

[David Gaddis]

Look at some post like "square peg into round hole". I watched and helped Brian Brazeal and Lyle Wynn put a 1 inch square hole into a heated 3 inch thich piece of steel a few weeks ago. YOU could do it too.

1)Started out with a 7/8 in diameter hole
2)Indexed the square drift into the cold hole so that it would line up easily when heated. That means the round hole is bruised with the drift so that 4 upsets are set up on the circle...front side then coordinated on the reverse side too
3)weld on the ends an appropriate handle to safely manipulate the piece when heated
4)heat appropriately...the whole piece may not need to be so very hot as the hole location
5)move the piece safely to a striking location with good support...to remove any warpage tendencies
6)insert drift and make 2 good hits, returning drift to cooling solution
7)insert drift to finish the hole
8)drive from reverse side too
9)cool and remove handles as necessary
10)post cooling may reveal a "too tight" situation for the drift to pass through easily
11)re-drift cold!
12)enjoy a beverage while you photograph your new project...while expressing WOW with larg grin
13) Exclaim "I DID IT!"

carry on

[ThomasPowers]

Why do you need "insane force"? Give us the problem you are trying to solve and perhaps we can suggest a better solution.

[Timothy Miller]

The hardie hole is about as good as it gets for holding tooling. The next step is a dovetail with wedges. You see this on some cutlers and file makers anvils. Vises no matter how big or strong will allow tools to move somewhat. The nice thing about the hardie system is that you can just quickly lift out the tooling and put in a new one. Switching tools back and forth when you keep having to turn a handle can be tiring. I have seen in some cases tools were clamped to the anvil with straps around the waist when large work was being done with strikers. You could put a tab off the side of the tool and clamp it to the side of the anvil. I did that once to use some power hammer tooling on my anvil.