Newbie post leg vise question

[killbox21]

When does one use the post leg vise? I have found a 100 videos on youtube of people restoring them, but I never actually see them in action.  I restored a 6" Iron City vise, but I have not mounted it to anything yet because I really don't know when it comes into play.  

[Lou L]

Leg vises have nearly limitless uses for a blacksmith.  Because they have a hardened face and the leg transfers force to the ground they can be used for forging while holding pieces tight.  They can be used to hold jigs, to hot rasp work and (this is a big one) to clamp pieces for accurate bending.  Given the choice between an anvil and a very large leg vise, I think many blacksmiths would take the vise.....okay, this may be a stretch....

Just go ahead and mount the vise in your shop.  Once you start using it you will find yourself going to it all the time.

 

[stevomiller]

Lou I’m with you I’d take a GOOD makeshift anvil and a nice big leg vice over a brand new anvil and NO vice if I had to pick. I think I even stated as much in another thread. You can find or make a very serviceable anvil if you know what to look for and what to do. Making a 6” heavy leg vise? That’s the work for an expert fabricator with a lot of time and tools at their disposal.

[Daswulf]

What Lou said. Bending, cutting, filing, holding tooling, twisting, straightning and much more. It's a very useful extra hand in the shop. Also worthy of being the third point in the blacksmiths work triangle. 

Not sure about the hardned face tho. 

Once you Start using it, you will see more uses for it and use it more, so mount it sturdy and try it. 

[killbox21]

Thanks guys. I'll build stand for it.

[Steamboat]

51 minutes ago, Daswulf said:

Not sure about the hardned face tho. 

I can't speak for all post vises, but I believe that my Peter Wright post vise has cast-steel jaws. I haven't tested the jaw hardness yet, but just from cleaning it up, I can tell that the jaws are harder than the rest of the vise (wrought iron), and if you look under the jaws you can see that they are separate pieces of metal. I saw an old advertisement that looks like it was for a Peter Wright vise, and they were advertised as "Wrought iron blacksmiths' vises. Solid boxes, cast steel jaws." And Das, I agree with you about the wide range of uses for a post vise.

Al (Steamboat)

[stevomiller]

My two post vises (4 and 6”) have steel jaws and wrought iron bodies, without a doubt. You can see and feel the difference in materials.

Cant speak to all post vise manufacture tho.

I bet the latter drop forged leg vises are all steel, and they probably flame hardened the jaws, but just a guess.

[Frosty]

Whatever they're  made from the jaws are harder than the rest of the vise. This is pretty typical of all vises, leg vises are no exception. The jaws in both my vises are attached with screws though I've seen the screw heads smeared from view in older vises. Leg vises are designed to take heavy physical abuse as in sledge hammering and heavy bending. I don't know about hitching the pickup truck or tractor to the other end, heavy bending but use a long cheater pipe oh yeah.

The base jaw is anchored directly to the bench, barn post, etc. and the ground through the leg. Do your hammering against the base, static, anvil, ? jaw. I've heard it called many things but the one I'm talking about is the one that doesn't move. The mobile jaw will take a LOT of force applied against it but the screw is taking the outwards forces and vise screws are wear items and the weaker link so take it as easy on them as you can. Your vise will reward you by living longer and working more smoothly. Yes?

They're not the best for fine file work as the jaws move in a circular arc as opposed to a bench vise which moves on ways in a straight line. So leg vise jaws rarely meet in parallel though if a person needed it, say for an every day, bread and butter job, they can be bent to meet as desired in any specific position. If you bend the jaws to meet parallel at say 2" open, that's the ONLY  position they'll be parallel. Make sense?  Leg vises are designed with flex in the jaws so they will grip uneven pieces securely, within reason. They're as robust as the mount, you're going to knock the barn post down or drag the stand before you break a leg vise.

A good good portable stand is a SWEET asset, I like a round base large enough I can stand on. Round lets you tip it up and roll it where you need it, I'm not too in favor of lifting heavy stuff. My 6" vise is mounted to a work table and takes hammering better than the portable.  My current portable is 4" on folding locking tripod legs which sounds better than it works. The legs do NOT provide a solid enough base for heavy work, I can do light hammering and twisting at demos so it's O-K-A-Y but okay isn't good enough for serious work. It'll get the circular stand when I get around to it.

Round Two It vise stand. Hmmmmm 

Oh yeah your vise is a prime player in the work circle! Were I to have to make a choice, I can improvise an anvil pretty easily, a good leg vise? Not, I'd pick a mediocre leg vise so long as it's usable over the anvil. I can make a forge fire anywhere with most anything flammable and a hammer out of almost anything hard and heavy. Yeah, I've used a smooth cobble on a willow stick on a smooth ultra maphic boulder and camp fire coals because I was told I couldn't. Engineers 

Frosty The Lucky. 

[Steamboat]

1 hour ago, Steamboat said:

...if you look under the jaws you can see that they are separate pieces of metal.

I just thought I'd clarify what I said. The jaws on my Peter Wright vise, which I think are cast steel, do appear to be separate pieces of metal but they are permanent parts of the vise, either forge welded on or possibly cast in place. I'll have to take a closer look. 

20 minutes ago, Frosty said:

A good good portable stand is a SWEET asset, I like a round base large enough I can stand on. Round lets you tip it up and roll it where you need it, I'm not too in favor of lifting heavy stuff.

I also think that a portable vise is a very nice thing to have, especially for someone like me with very limited shop space, since I need to move my equipment around a lot. I opted for casters for moving my vise stand around, but a round base would also work. The casters that I installed don't contact the floor until you tip the stand back, so they don't interfere with stability. I also made the base large enough to stand on. Here's my post about it: https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/49549-what-did-you-do-in-the-shop-today/?page=206&tab=comments#comment-616374

Al (Steamboat)

[Frosty]

Yes, and yours stows in a smaller space than a round base will. It's a good solution, I just find casters limits me to pavement and a lot of my demos are in the rough. Unfortunately I still haven't built a good portable stand. The folding tripod stand is one of those that sounds gooder than it is. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

[killbox21]

It's ugly and crooked, but it'll do until I know what I'm doing. 

[Lou L]

Now use it!  Mine is mounted on a rather massive stump but still it wobbles when I use it heavily.  Yours will definitely move on you, but it is good enough to start learning for sure.  Have fun.

[ThomasPowers]

Many of the postvises I have owned had forge welded jaw surfaces on them.  One use I have is that the jaws of mine make a nice set of parallels helping to identify subtle bends in knife blades.   I have also pounded on hot steel with s 4# sledge in a large postvise.  I have also used mine to twist a RR spike---*COLD* and to hold gas cylinders while removing their valve stems.  I use my postvises much more often than my machinist vises.