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How do you keep your post vise stand from walking or spinning?


99ls1ss

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I made a vise stand for my post vise recently.  I don't want to bolt the vise stand to the floor because I like the ability to roll the vise outside to work on something or roll it out of the way if I'm not using it.  Lately, I have been working on trying to twist square bar and making picket baskets.  The problem is that the vise stand will walk a little or rotate if the force being used is anything but straight down.  I worked on removing any raised areas on the bottom and that helped a decent amount but, it still moves too much.  It's frustrating and a little nerve-wracking trying to chasing your vise while working with red hot metal.  

I have attached a couple of images of my vise and stand.  

IMG_3543.JPG

IMG_3539.JPG

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7 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Make the baseplate large enough to stand on and then stand on it when using it.

I have thought about this.  I would need to figure out a good way to increase the size of the base that I have.  I wonder if a fold up/down "standing" plate would be worth a try? 
 

5 minutes ago, Buzzkill said:

I have a section of square tubing which nests into a slightly larger piece of square tubing that I use to attach my vise stand to my anvil stand for a little added stability.

I'm having a hard time visualizing your setup.  Do you have any pictures?  

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You vice will always walk depending on what you work on, unless you tie her to a fixed point. Using your own weight to pin her down by standing on plate works only for some applications. You are not heavy enough and you move around, plus your plate will be in the way.

I have a vice bolted to a tripod and at first tried to steady it by adding weights to the longer leg at the back, but that did not really work. Now I have concreted a tube with a nut welded at the top in the ground. It is leveled and not a trip hazard. if needed I screw an eye bolt in the anchoring point in the floor, and string the tripod down with a steel cable and a turnbuckle.  It still allows me to turn the vice around the same point if I loosen the cable up a bit, and I can move it if needed out of the way. It is rock solid and I can bend and twist with all my force without it ever moving. 

In your case what i would do is to drill the floor in the desired position and glue two anchor points with "Chemset" 101 or similar, flush to the ground and hold the plate in place with two bolts that you can remove when you want to wheel the vice outside. If you leave the bolts in the holes you will avoid the thread filling up with stuff ... although looking at your workshop it seems there is little chance of that :)

I like you vice in a vice you have at the back 

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24 minutes ago, 99ls1ss said:

I'm having a hard time visualizing your setup.  Do you have any pictures?   

I'll try to remember to get some pics when I get a chance.    In the meantime maybe you can visualize a horizontal section of square tubing a few inches long welded to the vise stand and a matching piece to the anvil stand (I use a metal tripod stand).  Then you need a length of square tubing the next size up that can slip over the short pieces on both the vise stand and the anvil stand. You need matching holes drilled through the tubing so you can fasten it in place at each end.   

I planned to do this when I built my stands so I made the square tubing integral parts of the stands, but you could add it on as described above.

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You could make some L shaped brackets bolted to the small walls you have, always easier to fill and hide mortar holes in walls than in nice floors. You could always make them hinged brackets so the fold up out the way.  Could relocate without too much hassle, you would have to possible weld some counter sunk bolts to vice plate and have cut outs on brackets so it will slide in and bolt up. Just an idea.

Idea.jpg

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Dave; I was going to ask someone to demonstrate lifting themselves off the floor by grabbing their own belt and pulling up!

Now heavy hammering can cause a system to walk even while standing on it; but it's pretty much an extreme situation.  (I've had my 469# Fisher walk on it's stand before.  I was able to fix that with a handful of fence staples around the base.)

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Mine is mounted on some very heavy gauge steel angle that has been embedded in a 55 gal drum filled 2/3 of the way with concrete.  Won't say it is extremely portable, but it doesn't move very much at all unless I deliberately shift it with a hand truck.  The drum top edge also doubles as tong storage.  If there is significant interest I will try to get a photo and post it.

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I have a variation of that for a travel set up that I was shown back around 1982:  I have the 55 (US) gallon drum with a bung near the bottom that I fill with water. Over 400 pounds to hold it stable and when it's time to go, remove the bung and drain it.  Site managers also seem comforted that you have so much water handy!  Of course this is pretty much a grass or gravel set up.  The empty barrel is easy to lift and load and I store scrap metal in it in transit.

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Actually, this is the correct answer for any free standing post vice. And "depending"actually means apy more force, more walk. Less force, less walk.

20 hours ago, Marc1 said:

You vice will always walk depending on what you work on, unless you tie her to a fixed point.

 

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Thank you Anvil, was wondering what all the noise was about. 

if you work on light flat bar or 3/8" round bar, any type of stand will always be OK. The problem comes when you are bending big stuff in a jig or a fork and need to use a bit more muscle sideways. 

Your vice is on a stand that brings the jaws about 3' high. You want to stabilise it with your own weight on a platform that has may be 2' leverage or may be less. 

I invite you to stand on the last 2' of a 5' bar, tie a rope to the other end and pull. Now tell me you can not lift yourself. Come on guys, gravity in the US can not be that much different from gravity in Australia. A vice on a platform that small will be ok to work if you only use limited force sideways, Start pulling and rocking the vice to do your work and you will tip it. Sure if you just make pen knifes, forget what I said. You probably don't even need a post vice and a parallel vice will most likely be OK, on a platform or clamped to a dinner table. 

The vice I use the most weights over 80 Kg and the tripod is ~60Kg plus I added 30 Kg of weights to the back leg and I make it walk every time I need to bend something larger unless I tie her down.  If I want to rivet little stuff together, I use a small vice that sits on a table without any anchoring at all. 

 

7 hours ago, Lionel h said:

This is one of mine that is moveable, it works great for me

Lionel I like your vice and how you have made it movable, however I would tip that one in a heartbit because I need to work not only at the front of the vice but all around it. No good for me, great for you. We are all different. 

7 hours ago, Dave51B said:

In my simple mind I'm always interested in seeing something that defies the laws of physics.              Thanks                          Dave

Well Dave ... I hope you try my trick that defies your laws of physics. It is called second class lever :)

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I don't know about you guys, but when I do a vertical twist I tend to walk around the vise (at least part of the way) as I'm twisting.  That makes it pretty hard to stay on a small platform. I could probably change my technique a little and get the job done or switch to horizontal for some of them, but it always seems to take more time for me to get the piece clamped in horizontally than vertically.

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I have a two arm twisting wrench and so tend to stand in place and hand over hand it.  Of course when we were twisting the 1.5" sq stock for the stake anvil shaft Pep welded a cross bar on a section of square tubing for a twister and we ran around the vice chortling...and yes the vise was both large and mounted securely.

Marc I did not say use a lever to raise yourself I said grab your belt and lift yourself off the floor. Still waiting for the pics.

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