I've just seen this on e-bay:Combined Anvil and Vice on eBay, also, Anvils, Metalworking Milling Welding, Business, Office Industrial (end time 05-Nov-08 20:47:15 GMT) Does anyone know anything about it, what were the cogs for?

That sure is a fancy vise. I don't know how useful it would be to crank it closed from the the back and I wouldn't do any heavy forging on it. That anvil is mostly for small stuff. The gearing on the front is not something I have ever seen on a vise but it is interesting. Nice collectors item.:cool:

a looker not a user for smithing; that type vise doesn't like being pounded on with a largish hammer.

Almost all the "combo tools" from the late 19th early 20th century are just not as good as having simple dedicated tools and if a simple tool breaks it doesn't take down your entire set of tools!

Looks like 3 different ways to tighten and loosen the vise. Without touching it, it would be hard to say for certain. Possibly some other attachment that is no longer with it. The 2 pairs of brackets inside the jaws look like another attachment ... thing.

Smoky Rick

Combination vice and anvil units (not all as complicated as that one) were commonitems 100 years ago. As stated above they are usually neither a good anvil nor a good vice! Probably more the sort of thing you might have had in a gun room rather than a workshop. Most of them got damaged through being used as an anvil rather than just light occasional use which is what they were designed for. If I were in UK I would put a bid in on it just for the sake of the novelty but would never use it as a serious tool.

A patent number would answer the question of what the gears are for.

I'm thinking a rotary shear or beading tool, perhaps a small ring roller, etc.

There's also attachment points under the jaws, probably for pipe jaws or similar.

Neat tool, I'd bolt it to my bench.

Frosty

There was a thread on here a couple years ago, no one knew much about them then.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f23/new-here-1874/

BINGO! Patent Number 1196838 Issue date Sept. 1916 and.... are you all ready for this.... the patent is for a device called a "Combination bench lathe and drill press." Apparently, with all of the attachments, this thing was an anvil, a vise, a pipe vise, a grinder, a lathe, a drill press, and maybe something else depending on what was attached and which side was considered to be the "top" or the "base"... human ingenuity at its best... maybe....


Patent from google

-Aaron @ the SCF

P.S. if anyone needs me I will be sitting right here, staring at that patent, and scratching my head for the next few days straight...

-Aaron @ the SCF

Thanks for that... I wonder how many hopeful people were disappointed.

well Aaron i my self will be sratching my head try to figure out the drill press and lathe part of this patent now i have 3 lathes 4 drill presses and several vises and its got me stumped

Check out the google page showing the patent, in the top right hand corner of the page are boxes to click on that will bring up other patent drawings showing the vice set up as a drill / grinder etc.

well now i see after checking the rest of the pages i didn't see before

I bet the guy that invented that didn't have cable TV to watch. Nice little machine when you see it all in the drawings with all of the parts and pieces.