Things to look for In a post vise

[Speedmouse]

To day while at a steam rally I stumbled apon a post vise it looks really nice and stands about 4 ft tall or up to my hip, il try get a photo up tommorow.
Anyway I was wondering what one should actually look for in a post vise. What makes one better than another and things to look out for when buying them?

[Fatfudd]

The most important thing to look for is that the threads on the screw and female receiver/screw box are in good shape. Usually the screw is fine because its made out of steel where as the screw box is cast iron. They can get messed up and the vise won't tighten. There isn't any easy fixes, that is you can't order new parts. If you look at the vises section here on IFI you can read what some folks are doing to fix their broken post vise's screws. The next thing would be cracks or poor repairs. Other than that if they will tighten with a lot of pressure pretty much anything else is fixable.

[ThomasPowers]

What he said! You can reweld the jaws, deal with cracked legs and twisted shafts using easy to do methods. Messing with the screw and screwbox gets into high dollar machines and time!

Now the "perfect" vise will have clean jaws that close evenly, good sq threaded screw. Solid shafts and a complete mounting and spring system.

Some people like the beveled legs cause they are "pretty". In general the heavier examples are better than the light ones as they stand up to abuse better. (these were made in all sorts of weights and sizes---I've had large light ones and small heavy ones and vice versa!) 4" is a common size with ones larger getting a bonus on price. 6" is considered a *LARGE* vise and 8" if it's in good repair might be best sold on to a collector and the money used to buy/build a powerhammer...

I have a 6.5" and a 4" in my shop close to the forge: the large one for whaling away and the small one for lighter work---much easier to close the vise with my knee on the small one...