Stationary Post vice stands

[hammerkid]

Hey Y`all.
Saturday my dad is going to pick up a post vice I bought , its an 6 inch post vice. ( I`am not going becasue we are having a small group meeting ,on making scrolling tongs) As many y`all know I have a small 4 inch I built the stand to be portable. But this stand I want it to be STATIONARY. I am wanting to see as MANY stationary stands as possible. My floor where this is going to be is dirt, i dont really wanna use a log , but maybe a chunk of i beam with a Real nice table on top buried in the ground. Just please show me your stands, and give me ideas, and comments.
Chris Jones

[Jack Evers]

i have one set on a concrete post buried in the ground. I can take a picture if you want.

[hammerkid]

Well I suppose. I want to see as many differnt stands, mounts as possible. I`am thinking of using I beam and fab up a table and bury some of the extra I beam and pour some quick crete around it . But i still wanna see many designs and comments.

[Gary]

You might try the link below. I searched for vise in the gallery. I believe there was a thread on "show us your vise" but I couldn't find it.

Search - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

[Ice Czar]

I believe there was a thread on "show us your vice"

was under the impression this was an all ages forum
besides never a good idea to incriminate yourself with photographic evidence

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/show-me-your-vise-1089/

[blksmth]

Hammer Kid, just to give you something to think about I'll give you some of my thoughts. As I am always bending things in my post vise, I do not like a table or anything that could interfere with the iron in the vise. I have been to demo's and used other blacksmiths vises and often ran into a problem when the vise had a table attached. I would rather have a table separate or a swage block on it's stand next to the vise (to be used as a table). Something I can move if necessary. My post vises are mounted on 3" square 1/4" wall tubing. The floor is concrete and has several 3 1/2" tubes in various places that the post vise slips into. Nevertheless, my 6" vise is heavy enough that I do not like to move it. I do have a 4" vise that I move around regularly. I move it to the electric welding area, or next to my gas forge, or out in the open area, all as needed. The 6" vise pretty much stays about 5 ft. from my coal forge. If I didn't have a concrete floor, I'd mount it to the 3" tubing and put a little concrete around it to hold it in place. I like the tubing because it isn't very big around and therefore doesn't interfere with anything I want to do on the vise. I don't have any pictures, but I think it is easy to understand.

[chyancarrek]

Hey HK,

Here's some pics of my 6" Columbian set up kind of like you're describing except mine's bolted to the concrete.

Go with what is most comfortable for how you work. I love having the table on mine because I do a lot of punching, chisel and fine forming work and it puts my tools right on the vice - I also like having my angle grinder and disk sander hanging there where I can swap one for the other quickly. The hand grinder is great for deburring hot stock.

Let us know what you come up with!

Have fun!
Neil

[philip in china]

I just have mine attached to the steel top of my bench. The bench is anchored to the ground

[Dave Leppo]

I have mounted my vices to the posts of the building, which might not be convenient for you. However, you did mention a dirt floor, which I also have. I use a steel plate 1/4 to 3/8 thick, around 12” square, with a hole about 1-1/8" dia. (or whatever fits) in the center, for the vice leg tennon, and four stake holes at the corners. This supports the leg, and keeps it from sinking into the ground. With my big vice, which is mounted lower, the plate is buried about 8" below grade. With my smaller vice, it sits level with the grade - this vice is up higher for lighter work. The plate spreads out the downward pressure from the vice onto the dirt – otherwise the vice leg would be driven into the ground. Hope this is clear enough, and helps.

[David Einhorn]

I made a 2' by 2' angle iron table with a steel plate for the top and mounted two vises on it. It has a plywood shelf for stuff, two racks for hardies or handled tools, and a metal bar between two legs that can be used with a hand-truck to move it if necessary. This setup weighs over 250 pounds so I have not had any problems with it moving while in use. A piece of angle iron extends from table leg with a short piece of pipe welded to the top of the angle iron. The leg sits in the piece of pipe.

Some processes require the use of multiple jigs, or a vise and a jig. Having multiple vises reduces the number of times you may need to change the setup of your vise(s).

A piece of square tubing with nuts welded to it, seen to the left of the table, allows me to use tooling that fits in the tubing.

I personally like the layout of the shop in Williamsburg, for its vises. Every workstation has a vise, so there are vises wherever you might need one. In my humble opinion, a better option than moving a vise around.

Edited December 11, 2008 by UnicornForge