Hi guys,

Is your vise mounted? Do you have it fixed to your bench or is it portable?

I'm going through a drastic reorganising of my shop just now and wondering if I should retain my vise as portable or fix it to the bench.

Cheers
Andy

My vise is on a stand which has been buried in the dirt floor.  I worked in a shop with moveable vises and didn't really care for it.  I do have another vise in the shop which is moveable, though. 

Greetings Mac,

 

I have several set ups for my vises but I will pass on one that works well for me in one of my shops that requires portability...  This set up is easily moved with a shop cart and the small top shelf is great for clamping or tools and punches....  The Cole vise removes with ease and the large pads on the legs make it quite stable...  Good luck you will get many suggestions on which is best as we all have our favorites..

 

Hammer on

Jim                 

Hi jim,
That's the kind if thing I was thinking of building as I quite like having my vise mobile, especially seeing as my workshop is so small.

Though I'm considering bolting it directly to my workbench which saves me having to move it around all the time.

Can't do anything for another week at least yet as I'm working offshore for now.

Cheers
Andy

here is my shop vices, they are on a 30 gal barrel filled with concrete.

I've had a large (5" jaws) leg vice on its cast iron stand in my workshop for about 7 years and its always driven me mad. It moves around when I don't want it to. So I fanally got around to burying a wooden post (tree trunk) in the ground and mounting a vice to it. MUCH happier! :D  It doesn't matter what angle I twist or bang at it, the thing doesn't move :)

We have two post vices in the shop.

One is attached to a piece of structural tubing with a 1 in top plate. It's a large, forged, HD vice does move about some when its being used. The flexibility of being able to move it outweighs the aggravation of its unintended movements.

Another smaller vise, 5 in, Indian chief, is mounted on any of the (5)- 2 inch sockets located on the underside of the tables perimiter.
The sockets will mount any tooling fitted with a 2 in square tubing spud. The table is about 900 lbs and it keeps everything steady. The modular set up allows a great deal of flexibility and it will always breakdown to a clean flat surface for lay out work.

I have always tried to keep the shop modular so we can fully utilize the open floor space. Anything fixed hems in you dance floor. The power hammer is stationary but all else, including the coal forge can be moved should we need to.

Peter

I have two vises in the shop; both are mounted to portable stands; both have a small shelf for small tool storage. They are fairly heavy but slide around on the concrete floor and they are stable in use.

We have two post vices in the shop.
One is attached to a piece of structural tubing with a 1 in top plate. It's a large, forged, HD vice does move about some when its being used. The flexibility of being able to move it outweighs the aggravation of its unintended movements.
Another smaller vise, 5 in, Indian chief, is mounted on any of the (5)- 2 inch sockets located on the underside of the tables perimiter.
The sockets will mount any tooling fitted with a 2 in square tubing spud. The table is about 900 lbs and it keeps everything steady. The modular set up allows a great deal of flexibility and it will always breakdown to a clean flat surface for lay out work.
I have always tried to keep the shop modular so we can fully utilize the open floor space. Anything fixed hems in you dance floor. The power hammer is stationary but all else, including the coal forge can be moved should we need to.
Peter

That's a brilliant idea Peter! I like that a lot.

Mac, i see from your workshop thread that it looks like the floor is wood, or at least looks like it.  Is the shed part of the rental or is that something of yours that you can adjust to taste?  I ask because my suggestion if you want something that is portable, yet wont move around when it is in use, you could fix some anchor points into that wood floor (find the supporting members) and bolt your portable mount down when its inside the shop.  If you dont want to put large-ish holes in the floor you could screw some 2x4  chunks to the decking with countersunk bolts pointing up through it and mount onto those.  The blocks can be unscrewed when you leave and will leave minimal holes in the floor, readily patchable with just about any wood filler compound.

Unfortunately yes it's part of the rental. To be honest the shed needs ripping down and rebuilding as it is past it's prime no say the least. But it doesn't leak too much since I fixed the roof and it does have a power socket so it's not all bad.

I like the idea of screwing some wood down though then bolting to that. Easily doable.

Andy

I currently have 5 postvises mounted in my shop with a few more planned.

 

In the armour side  I have a 6" and a 4" mounted at opposite ends of the work bench (about 3x8', steel framed and covered with 2"x6" planks with a shelf underneath stacked with heavy stuff--it's got a chunk of soapstone laboratory benchtop on it too so I can set down hot stuff on it.)

 

In the forging section of the shop I have 1 6.5" leg vise fastened in to a utility pole buried 5' deep an surrounded by concrete that holds up the roof truss.  It's foot is tied into a 2'x4' x 1" section of grader blade---this is my "Heavy Work" vise!

 

Across the shop from that one is about a 4' sq heavy duty workbench with a 6" and a 4" mounted on it for "lighter work" (the workbench is covered with 2" thick slabs of steel and the undershelf has my choice of an old alloy library stacked on it  over 1000 pounds!

 

Still to go is to mount one in the middle of the dirt floor using nesting heavy duty square tubing so I have a removable vise that I can put in place and use when I need a LOT of space around it for bending long lengths.

 

This is how my vises are mounted. The top is my grandfather's on dad's side and the blue one is mom's dad. I used a pipe coupler, nipple and pipe flang to make the base.

 

This is how my vises are mounted. The top is my grandfather's on dad's side and the blue one is mom's dad. I used a pipe coupler, nipple and pipe flang to make the base.

 

Base is12" diam x 3ga light pole shaft on a 1/2" thick plate, topped by 3/8" plate. Vise is mounted on a flange that is 1/2" thick and welded to a length of 7ga x 8" pipe. Hammer rack is just 1/4" rod ring spoked to top plate every 3 or 4 inches. Currently, the rig is bolted to the floor about center point of shop...

 

Ohhh leg/post vise??? I don't have one :rolleyes:

Mine is mounted on a plate welded to some 2" sq. tube set in 300# of concrete, it don't move! I love that I can work 360 deg. around it.

I have two post vises at home and one a school. Of the two at home I have one of each, a stationary one and a mobile one.  My shed at home serves more puropses than it should and so the ability to move somehting out of the way is great.  However, it is also nice to have one mounted at a work bench for the times that I need it there and more stable. I actaully preffer both options as it is the best of both worlds.  The one that I took to school is mobile and it always will be.  Not for the fact that I need to move to help the kids work but more for the fact that I need to keep it away from the welders. The only table that is close to the forge/furnace at school is the welding table.  That is just too close to new welders. If you need pctures of the various mounts I made let me know.

Very much a case of horses for courses then.

I'm still offshore, itching to get back home and into the shed.
Andy

Hey Andy

 

seeing your limited space I would recommend a moveable vice stand so you can shove it out the way when not needed 

 

your floor is limiting as well so a stand with a largeish plate to sit on the floor that you will stand on when working on the vice seems a good solution so that you dont twist it around 

 

here is how i build mine but you can go with wood or what you can get your hands on it is normally standing up a wall but i drag it out the middle of the floor when needed 

 

i find that you can counterweight a vise on a flat tri-leg base just as easily as the flat base, and from the flat base vises i have worked on i notice that they have been more wobbly than ones with legs. i have to put more effort into bracing myself against the vice when its on a flat base because after a while they tend to get dished and then are able to rock.  

 

but this is based on student type equipment, YMMV.

Go to the Bear Hill Blacksmith web site and take the Shop Tour for some interesting vise arrangements along with many great shop ideas.

I do have a handful of vices un-mounted, but the link is to a semi-portable stand that is in use.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/28636-vice-on-tank/?hl=tank

 

Next un I am plotting is a tooling rack just big enough to fit over a pallet jack, with a leg vice mounted on the end (maybe another on the opposite end).

 

AndrewOC

Good idea Daniel. That is likely what I will be going for.

Just have to wait until I can get home to build it all! :)

This is the mount I modified for school. It works nice it just is a bear to move until I put round wheels on it. It originally held a basketball hoop that fell and smashed the ring flat. I saw it in the school's junk pile and knew just how to use it. It does not work real well for much leverage as it does spin. But for what the kids do with it, it works great.

This is the mount I modified for school. It works nice it just is a bear to move until I put round wheels on it. It originally held a basketball hoop that fell and smashed the ring flat. I saw it in the school's junk pile and knew just how to use it. It does not work real well for much leverage as it does spin. But for what the kids do with it, it works great.