Hello Guys;

 

Found at an industrial dumping ground (and this was effectivly thrown away as scrap) from the Belgian train companies; a two leg vise. 

I have never seen one like this, it's cast steel, and both legs are marked 70KG; so I assume it's 70 kilos or 140 pounds. Jaw size is 16 cm or about 6 inch.

It's got almost no scars , and looks very good. Taking it apart,the spindle was greased up well and shows no wear at all. The "key" in the back to prevent the box from rotating was missing tough; I made a new one easily.

But that aside ; has anyone ever seen one of these two-leg vises ? any info on them ?

 

Bart, I have never seen one like it, from the mount of the spring and looks of the spring it appears to be a French made vise. the other thing that I have never seen is that the pivot has a limit built in.

Wayne

I've never seen one like it, but it's an awesome find.

I, as well, have never seen one like that and am extremely jealous that you have found it! (and not me)

Now that's a vise.

After a couple hours with a steel brush on an angle grinder; and half an hour sandblasting; then applying the two part epoxy paint for diving bottles; than I assembled it again with a lot of lithium grease. She looks better now.

I'm pondering cutting the legs off; and making it a free-standing vise ... welded to a round heavy plate.

I'd weld an upright to the heavy plate and bolt it to the upright with both legs resting on the heavy plate. You'll get similar functionality without butchering a nice vice.

I’ve seen German and French vises made like that, used for very heavy use.

You have a beautiful tool there, it should last generations!

Heavy plate with two pipe uprights welded to it that the legs drop down in, a couple of "set screws" to hold it against vertical forces.

It would be a shame to cut the legs on that old work horse. Like Thomas said a couple of pipes welded to a stout plate would work very well.

You have a unique vise there, don't destroy it's uniqueness.  

Seems the original colour was yellow. At least in Germany all tools used on railroad tracks are painted yellow. So no tool can be forgotten on the track. May be it was used when building or repairing railroad tracks.

6 hours ago, WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith said:

You have a unique vise there, don't destroy it's uniqueness.  

Please!!

13 hours ago, BartW said:

I'm pondering cutting the legs off; and making it a free-standing vise ... welded to a round heavy plate.

 To bad we are so far apart.......I would trade you a good 6" post vice and a chunk of cash for that vice. Maybe someone near would do the same.                        Dave

I do not intend to hijack the thread, this is other type of two legged vise I saw on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwGlBH7YJPg

 

Well; You guys were right. couple of hours welding 'n cutting; and I've made myself a extremely stable stand.

For those wodering; the disks of Iron (these are soft plain iron; not cast iron. They are not brittle at all) are about 50 pounds each; so the "counterweight" makes it virtually impossible to make the vise fall over in any direction.
Now I got to paint it to cover up my welding ...

Nice job there, Bart.

Steve

Good looking stand, that vise will serve you well no doubt about it.