What is the attraction of the post/leg vise?

[arftist]

A couple comments on vises;

Most machinist's vises are cast iron.

Cast iron can be very strong but is is brittle , like glass. Strong impacts can break grey cast iron.

I have learned the hard way and broken large vises. I did eventually buy the 8" malleable iron Wilton.

A large cast iron vise (100LBS or more)

Can withstand some light hammering.

One other thing often left unsaid, a machinist's vise resists twisting much better.

My main leg vise has a large machinist vise mounted on the same post.

You need them both.

[gote]

I recently bent (and slightly upset in the bend) a hundred or so 10x10mm mild steel bars in my machinist's vise. It did no harm whatsoever but this anonymous Swedish vise weighs well over 25 kgs and is made in cast steel. The post wise held a tool that was needed in the process so I could not use that.

I think that the moral is: Get yourself a machinist's vise (also) but make sure it is not cast iron if you are going to hammer on it. In this part of the world there are five anvils to every post vice on the market.

[kustomizer]

I have these 2 - 6" vises I use all the time, both mounted on 1 1/2 inch thick steel benches with 5 inch pipe legs. I think they are both Reed vises about 80 to 100 years old but I don't know their age for certain. I bend, beat, heat, and weld on them all of the time and have never noticed any change in their performance or function.

I like that bench vises open and close while the jaws are parallel where the post vise opens in an arc and is only parallel when closed. Perhals that increases the clamping force by minimizing the contact surface, I don't know for sure. I sold the 5 inch post vise yesterday but still have a 3 inch and a 4 inch post vise if anybody needs one, I will keep the 7 inch one for now.

here are a couple of the bench vises.

[ThomasPowers]

Most of the postvises I have owned are parallel at some point where they are open and are not parallel when the jaws are closed; of course I've only owned 30 or so so far; so your experience may be different.  I hope you are speaking from actual experience instead of from inference.

[kustomizer]

I just went and closed the 3 I have now and the 7 inch as you say looks to be parallel open about an inch, the 3 and 4 inch ones are parallel when closed as was the 5 inch as near as I could tell but they could be bent. I am certain that the normal work you use your vises for is not the same as mine and likely our expectations are different too. I have heard several compelling reasons folks like the post vise and I am going to put one to use and see how it works for me and my projects.

thanks

[ThomasPowers]

Wear and "sprungedness" does make a difference as does cackhanded repairs; but unworn postvises often have the parallel jaws setting out from totally closed.  It would be interesting to grab a punch and see where they are set to see if there were differences in width of jaw or heaviness of build. (I have gracile and robustus versions of several jaw widths)

[SReynolds]

I have read the "fact" that one cannot work steel 360° surrounding a bench vise. But unless you mount the leg/post vise to a section of pipe or a long tree trunk buried into the shop floor, you can't operate 360° around a post vise either.

A very simple solution is to mount a bench vise onto the top of the anvil. Warn you. Do NOT simply weld the hardie shank to the bottom the the vise mounting plate. I use 1/2" thick steel plate a bit larger than the vise footprint and cut a square hole into the center of that, larger than the OD of whatever the shank size is. Bolt the vise to that mounting plate. Weld that hardie shank INTO the mounting plate. It is embarrassing to have the vise fall onto the floor when folks be watching you work, cuz you simply welded the shank onto the bottom of the mount. Duh! Ooops!! there she goes......

I have done this on several vises I use and thata way.....I don't need but one permanently mounted vise to the work bench.

 

[bigfootnampa]

I know I already had a very heavy machinist vice, about 80 pounds, and after I got my first little 4" post vice... I never used the machinist vice again!  It became an orphaned tool!

[notownkid]

3 hours ago, bigfootnampa said:

 It became an orphaned tool!

I hate to see orphans so send it to me and I'll give it a nice home, hardly beat it.