how do you guys mount your legs

[HIGHSIDER]

A drilled hole...

 

Drill it over size & let the toe of the leg sit into it. Don't have it tight. There's no need to have it tight. As long as it remains anchored and the vice remains stable during work.

 

 

[Chinobi]

the hole my leg sits in has some slop in it because I had a really difficult time cutting it in and the result was a tad oversized.  it isn't really a problem in terms of stability, but when filing or using a hacksaw on something in held in the jaws (or anything that generates a strong horizontal thrust) the leg would slap around that 1/16th and add that much more metal on metal noise and vibration.  searched around for a suitable gasket material and came up empty, so I just wrapped a bit of duct tape around the leg just below the shoulder and it hasn't budged since.

[Adhamh]

I'm just a beginner with a small forge doing like work ( 3/4 stock is large to me...)

 

I happened to get lucky and get a Colorado Fuel & Iron Company leg vise recently.  It was covered in caked on gunk and the bolt was loose, so I took it apart and am cleaning it.

 

Once I'm done, I need to mount it....

 

Will mounting it to a 4 x 4 post in a 5 gallon bucket of concrete be sturdy enough for light work?  I'm also going to get a plate and make sure the leg rests on that.

 

I'm really space limited and don't have a proper shop.  Since I'm just beginning I just need something that will work for a while and not some of the awesome mounts I see in this thread.

 

Thanks,

 

Adhamh

[Chinobi]

the base of a 5 gallon bucket (despite being filled with concrete) is still a very small footprint relative to the height and weight of a post vice, methinks that will be pretty unstable in use for filing and sawing.  I personally wouldn't want to deal with a sufficiently sized plate steel base in a small shop either (but im biased anyway), so I would still suggest some kind of tripod, especially if you want to move it around to use and store in different places.

 

consider how you will fix the plate you plan to mount your leg into to the bucket you are pouring your 4x4 into as well.

 

do you (or your family) own the property?  can you make modifications to it, such as drilling concrete anchors into the slab?  can you dig a small diameter hole (assuming dirt floor or dirt nearby) and basically install said 4x4 as if it were a way too deeply designed fence post and set a small bit of pipe in the concrete where the leg would need to sit (or otherwise drive a stick of pipe into the ground for the leg)?

 

sorry I missed the bit about 'temporary' before I started typing :) but I cant stand temporary solutions for the most part, because they often have a way of becoming semi/permanent and if they don't you will have to redesign and reconstruct later, better to make it right the first time than have to patch it up later IMO :)

[Adhamh]

I can make modifications, but I don't have a concrete floor.  I have a wood floor in the shed or a rock floor on the covered porch.  I'd like to have the vise on the covered porch.  I don't want to mount the vise to the shed, I want it to be independent.

 

If I did a hole in the ground for the post then the vice will be mounted out in the rain, and I don't want that either.

 

It sounds like your concern with the 5 gallon buck is that it will tip over easily?  I think that's valid.  Any way to calculate a good footprint size?

 

I was also thinking of a steel plate.  If I used a metal bucket, I could attach the bucket to the steel plate.  The steel plate would also have a hole in it for the leg.  This might give me a big enough footprint...

[old rascal]

Adhahm,

I think the steel plate is the way to go. That way when you're on the plate you can exert more force without the vise moving. You might take a look at my rig on here. I wonder how you would attach a steel bucket to it though. A few good twists would tear out the bottom of the bucket. Maybe if you welded a few pieces of rebar to the plate and up through holes in the bucket into the concrete that would work.

 

Rascal

[Chinobi]

don't forget that the vice is not 100% permanently attached to a 'permanent' mount either.  only the mount is permanent, the vice and be bolted/unbolted on as needed and taken inside when not in use.

 

yes, the footprint of a 5 gal is very narrow relative to how much mass a post vise has at a higher elevation, makes it very topheavy and unstable, especially when adding horizontal forces from filing etc.  plate mounts allow you to combat that by standing on the plate itself and using your body weight as the counterweight.  if you go with a plate you can forgo the bucket and the concrete and all that business, get yourself a piece of 3x3 or 4x4 or round steel tubing and weld that to the plate as your spine, no sense bringing concrete into the equation when you can keep the whole structure steel.  I think rascal is right too, trying to attach a bucket to a plate and filling it with concrete is going to be a significant weak point in the structure.

 

my grief(s) with the plate mount is that they are (typically, not always) often asymmetrical, with a larger pad in the front of the vice and very little off the sides and the back, which drastically limits where you can stand to work on it and as such the direction you can come from with full power.  if you really want to get some serious force into it for heavy filing your stance is such that your rear foot is carrying most of your weight and your front foot is almost lifted, and as im on the tall end of avg that usually means that my rear foot is beyond the edge of the plate, which definitely does not work.  my least favorite thing about the plate base is that the ones I have used are almost never actually flat, and you end up riding them like a seesaw while you are working which is really annoying, loud, and robs you of a lot of power.  this is likely because they are all 'classroom grade' setups and get pretty well abused, but if your target workspace is a rock floor (cobble? flagstone?) its not going to be flat to start with, so even a flat plate will dance.

 

of course this is all just my anecdotal experience of a little better than a year of doing this, so your mileage may vary :)

[arkie]

My old 4" post vise is mounted on a wooden workbench outside.  The leg was prone to swinging so I rigged up a brace from 1/2" rebar and 1" black pipe.  I fitted up the rebar to the vise leg and workbench legs, hammered the rebar ends flat and drilled holes for lag screws to the bench posts.

 

I then split a 3" long piece of 1" black pipe lengthwise.  One half was welded to the rebar where it curves around the front side of the vise leg.  The other half was held in place on the back side of the vise leg and both halves were secured with hose clamps.  Holds firm and steady plus if I need to move the vise, the split pipe comes apart and off comes the vise.

 

[Crazy Ivan]

I found that the hole in most dumb bell weights are a perfect fit for the end of your post, so i dropped it in and mounted it to my bench and locked the weight in place with 4 nails i made to keep the weight in place. I have a concrete floor so maybe driving nails through it might not have been the best thing for my floor, but it sure is good for my confidence when i drive hand made nails into 3 inches of concrete without a problem! It does work great though and its easy to find weights for free. I used a 10 pounder for mine.

-Crazy Ivan

[humphreymachine]

Finally found a less than ideal but passing way to put my 8” Columbian to use. I was facing two problems. Firstly -- I had not decided upon the final layout of my shop when I poured the slab so was unable to cast a post into it or anchor bolts for that matter. Secondly – the forging area of my shop is relatively small at 12 x 12 feet which severely limits the placing options for a large post vise particularly given that I use my welding table as a bending jig for longer pieces so did not want a centrally mounted vice protruding above the table’s top surface. Then there was the problem of wall mounting the vise – both the lack of available space and the fact that a heavily used large vise would probably shred a stud wall. The solution was to mount the vice to a large chunk of wood beam sandwiched between two studs and run a heavy metal strap to the welding table to minimize breakout/movement of the wall. There is a sliding door to the vise’s right and ample space to the left and in front of it so it can now be used to work fairly long pieces. The drawback is that there is not much space behind the vise but this was the best I could do.

 

I also mounted my two leg vises to a large steel plate – again -- not ideal but it seems to work for most smaller projects. The vice on the right is forward of the bolt heading vise so can accommodate pieced in the horizontal plain.  

 

[arftist]

My post vice is mounted to a 1/2" thick plate welded to the top of a 5" pipe 8 feet long and set 5 feet into the ground in about a yard of concrete, and then filled with concrete

The leg itself is set in a hole in 1" plate welded to the pipe at ground level with a large 1" thick gusset holding it up. 

 

In spite of this though, the leg does not actually have to be bedded or attached for the vice to have great utility, in fact a loose vice mounted to nothing at all often comes in handy. 

 

Obviously a rigid mount (such as mine) makes a more effective tool than a loose floppy one, but it is NOT necessary, just helpful. 

[Mr Metal]

The leg of a post vise is there to provide the vertical support needed for the heavy work the vise is designed for.  I use a heavy piece of steel approximately 4" by 24" by 2" thick with a hole to accomodate the tennon on the leg.  This piece is secured to the concrete floor of my shop.  One of those heavy pieces that connect one railroad rail to the next would work but you may need to weld on some steel to make it lay flat.  

[Alec.S]

This works for me..... 

 

;) 

 

 

[Adhamh]

Okay, so my current mount isn't sturdy enough.  I went out and got a 55 gallon metal drum after reading about other people using these for vise mounts.  I'm a little stumped because I don't have a welder...  

 

I'm thinking I could cut the top of the off, so that its the right height.  Then get steel tubing and use bolts to make a square that fits inside the barrel.  At this point I could screw a small piece of metal plate to the steel tubing and then attach the leg vise to that plate.

 

Here's a rough drawing of what I was thinking about.  Is that too little?  Too much?