I am building a bench in my smithy to mount my newly aquired post vise (freebie from my neighbor). How much room do you recomend to leave from the back of the vise to the wall? Would 24" be enough? Thanks..

-Rich

Some folks like to have a vise just about in the middle of the room for big bends etc.
I have a four foot radius around mine. If space is an issue, however, I am sure 24" is fine. You can always move it around later.

Yes, it really makes no difference - whatever works for your shop.

Does the bench it is going to be mounted on have to back up against a wall?

Try to makew a compact triangle with your forge, anvil and vice. You will find yourself doing a lot of work at the vice. Needless to say you should be at the midpoint of the triangle. To me this is more important than the amount of space behind the vice but fortunately I have effectively unlimited space in my shop so have a clear 10' on one side of my vice and closer to 25 on the other 3 sides.

Consider doing a temporary fix with your vice at first in case you want to move it later.

My shop is an old horse stall. It is 8' x 14'. With the way the doors are laid out I don't have many options. I need a workbench and that leaves no room for a vise in the middle so I plan on mounting it to the bench.

My small vise (4" jaws) is on a heavy bench mounted to one of the heavy beams of my pole barn--24" from back to front It's to the right of the forge about 6'. To the left about 5', set in the fine gravel floor on a mulberry post is the bigger vise (6" jaws). Except for the forge there is at least 10' clearance in the rest of the area. I probably use the smaller vise twice as much as the other.

Keep it far enuff away you can your largest wrench, breaker bar etc.

Well if you are mainly forging knives you could probably mount the mounting plate to the wall. If you are doing gates you probably want more like 10' behind it and railings should have about 20' around it, now what did you say you were going to use it for---I don't recall?

I mainly do small stuff. I don't plan on getting into gates and fencing. I made a small bench 30" off the floor and 20" off the wall. That gives me 24" from the jaws to the back wall. If I find that is not enough room in the future, I guess I can modify it. Thanks for all the advice.