Anvil Mounted Vise

[Quenchcrack]

Yesterday the Houston Area Blacksmiths went to the Anson Jones farm for a demo. Anson Jones was the last president of the Republic of Texas and his homestead adjoins a museum at Washington on the Brazos State Park. I brought my little 100# anvil but soon realized I had no vise to use for filing small parts. I had a small 4" vise purchased from Sears about 30 years ago and it was just collecting dust. I decided I needed a way to use it in the field but had no real way to mount it to the anvil stand. So I built this little mounting frame to put it on the anvil using the hardy hole and a close fit around the end of the anvil. The frame is 1" square tubing. The post that goes into the hardy is held in place by a 5" long hex head bolt that goes through through the third mounting flange on the vise into 3.5" long section of square tube with a 1" section mounted cross ways (middle photo). It holds the work piece at a convenient height and is very stable.

Edited October 26, 2008 by Quenchcrack

[J W Bennett]

Thats a good looking rig. I believe Trying it has one similar that he uses too. I have several small machinest vises laying around. Another item to add to the to do list.

[Dave Hammer]

Nice idea.

[John B]

I have a similar arrangement for demos' except that the vice is bolted onto a plate that fits the base, and this plate has a flat piece of bar welded to it that fits into the hardy hole diagonally, it can then just be dropped in when required, and overhangs the heel for lon work, the rest of the time it sits in a holder on the anvil stand,

I can also use it as its intended engineering vise use (Parallel jaws as opposed to swinging jaw of leg vice) by clamping this welded on bar in a leg vice

Will try to get a picture or two posted tomorrow

[yesteryearforge]

Mine is mounted to a plate that is welded to a hardy shank
Just drop it in the hardy hole and go to work / remove it when finished.

Mike Tanner

[John Martin]

Same here mike. I think it's easier. But permanent. :)

[CurlyGeorge]

Me too. That's what I started with before I got my leg vice. Works great. It now sets in a "Hardy hole" on the end of my weld table.

[philip in china]

Curly George, A hardy hole in your welding bench. That is a good idea.

[Quenchcrack]

By mounting it in a frame that hugs the anvil, it does not move when you file. Of course, the whole thing is easily removed by pulling up on the vise. The frame is not permanently attached to the anvil. I was concerned that bolting it to a plate and welding on a hardy shank would not be strong enough to keep the vise steady. Maybe it would have but the frame gave me something to do Sunday. :-)

[John B]

Whatever works safely is the right solution (I seem to have picked that snippet up from somewhere)

[Mark Aspery]

I like your approach to installing a vice for filing.

I have found filing (for the blacksmith application) can be a bit awkward given the angle of the vice jaws.

You might try knocking yourself up a filing vice insert to change the angle a little.

[Quenchcrack]

Mark, yep, that looks pretty handy. Next weekend's project. This effort was actually necessitated by a request from one of the re-enactors at the Farm. He wanted me to make him a tool for his smoke pole. What he wanted was a T-shaped device with a large screw-driver at the left end, a small screw driver on the bottom and a vent pick to the right. It was fairly simple to forge out the rough shape but without a good place to file (or grind) it to a good finish, it was not as nice as I would like to do it. Well, none of us charged anything for all the hooks and hardware we made so I guess it was worth what he paid for it.