May 21, 201412 yr I scrounged enough scrap to make a vice stand. A friend of mine gave me a footing plate off of and old crane that was broke down in his pasture. worked out well. I tacked it up and I am going to lug the thing over to his place so he can weld it properly. My flux core just wont get it. I hope to find a heavier vice to mount on it someday.
May 21, 201412 yr You may want to: Straighten the leg on the vise. Weld a socket to the base plate for the leg to stand in. Stand the leg vertically in the final assemble so any pressure is straight down, not at an angle.
May 21, 201412 yr Author glen, it may be the way the pic looks. but it is vertical. I put a level on everything when fitting up. the base plate has a hole the nub sits in. ill try to post a better pic. You can see that it is slightly out of vertical because there is no spring. I need to make a spring and that will hold the vice perfectly vertical. I want to straighten the leg but am not sure how to go about it without dicking it up.
May 21, 201412 yr Well the first thing you can do to straighten the leg is to find a blacksmith! They can heat the metal till it's soft---I'd go a high orange and hammer it straight. Might require digging a trench forge in the yard if they don't have an appropriately sized forge to hand.
May 21, 201412 yr Author I was thinking about putting a torch on the bends then trying to straighten them that way.
May 21, 201412 yr Cheap propane weed burner would do that fairly quick I'm guessing.... Have a helper to rotate the vise horizontally while you straigten the leg on the anvil. A few heats like that to finalize the straightening should do the trick I would think.
May 21, 201412 yr As many vises were made from Wrought Iron you may want to heat to Wrought Iron working temps and not mild steel working temps.
May 21, 201412 yr Yeah, get it WI hot and straighten it on a wood block with a wood mallet. You won't have to worry about deformation or actually forging it that way. When I say mallet, a block of wood between the hammer and the leg will work fine, it isn't going to last but it'll do the job. Heck, a decent size tree limb shortened to working club length might be preferable to the 2x4 under the single jack option. Frosty The Lucky.
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