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Recommendation? Leg Vice

W

Way-Barney

Joined
Jun 4, 2023
Messages
773
I have the opportunity to snag a leg vice tomorrow for $35.

Are they worth having and what are the advantages over my several bench vices?
 
Forge a bottle/can holder and clamp it in the post vice to hold your soda/water/beer while forging on a hot day.
They are great for holding billets while mig/tig/stick welding the sides or ends.
Plus - they just look cool sitting there!
 
Now you need to look for one that is smaller and another that is larger. Then you can start filling in-between for a set of five. Then you will need to build a special bench just for the post vises and some other antique tools. Well, then you might as well build a bigger shop ....

Seriously, one great way to utilize a post vise is to make it a semi-portable unit. Take a 36" piece of 4X4" square tube*** and weld a round or square foot plate to the bottom. The plate can be any size around 12" to 18". Weld a 12" piece of 3/4" pipe*** about 6" from the center post. It should stick straight up parallel to the center post.
Put an old car/truck rubber tire on some sandy soil and settle it level so the soil is even with the bottom side rim. Put the post and foot plate in, centered in the tire. Adjust everything so the tire is seated level in the sandy soil and the post is vertical. Pour it full of concrete and let it set. Make sure the post stays vertical.
Once set, cut off the 3/4" pipe about 1/2" above the concrete. This will make the foot spot for the post vise. ***
Place your post vise on that foot and measure where the mounting plate meets the center post. Mark that spot.
Get a piece of 1/2" or heavier plate about 6X6" *** and mark the thickness below the height mark you made.
Double check the fitting of the post vise and cut the post off there and set the 6X6" plate on top. Figure out how much of it needs to stick out to mount the post vise vertical and weld it in place there. A couple 90° welding magnets make this an easy task. You can tack it in with MIG, but weld it up solid with a stick welder.
Drill the top of the plate to fit the mounting holes for the leg vise and bolt it on.

You now have a semi-movable post vise setup with plenty of mass to allow working steel.

***
Do a sketch first using the measurements of your post vise to decide how long the post needs to be. It is best to have extra length and cut it off exactly where needed after the tire is poured. It also can be anything from 2" pipe to a train axle. As long as it is vertical steel that you can cut and weld on.

The 3/4" pipe should fit a post vise leg foot just right. If not, pick whatever size fits your post vise or use a piece of 1" rod and cut it off almost flush with the concrete. Weld a 3/4" nut or whatever fits your post vise foot on the rod.

The top plate can be anything from 1/4" to 1" and any L/W you want to make a top table to set things on. It is positioned to allow the post vise plate to bolt on and the rest is a work area. You can hammer things on the flat table if you use 1/2" or thicker steel.
 
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That's brilliant Stacy, thanks! I will be doing that one day. Hopefully I will get to make a knife over the next 12 months. :)

I have everything apart from inch plate, If only I had bought those forks!, I (WAS, Let it run out) coded up to 30mm HF and 25mm butt weld in mig on structural steel. Lots of 10' 8x6" RSJ went through auction yesterday for peanuts. I thought of building a bench with it. LOL

As an aside, biggest beam I ever built was over 2o tonne and 4" flanges with a 2 inch web must have been 3ft tall, I was also coded on submerged arc up to 60mm fillets (leg). That's now part of a cantilever roof on a hotel in London, so don't stay there. 😂
 
mt_phillip_metal_works on Instagram show a couple images of post-vice and blacksmithing stations built around an old cut-off industrial drill grinder base and table. pretty cool idea, check it out.
 
Way-Barney said:
Hello Mike,

I cant get on there, not got instagram.
Click to expand...
Understand. Hope you can do YouTube. Here's a clip. I only joined Instagram this past year, and do nothing but look at pics and rarely comment. If I could copy the pic I would, but have yet to figure out if that's possible, sorry. The salient fact is they used a large industrial drill press, scavenged the base and a shortened column to attach the table to and they have installations that they've both welded the roller fixed or allow it to move up and down still. On one, they have secured a post vise to the table. Looks pretty handy. I had mine attached to a log and tall enough to put a small blcok of sacrificial wood underneath the peg so it wouldn't damage the concrete it sat on.
 
Brilliant Mike, thanks for taking the time and trouble to share that, for the second time!

That is a work of art!
 
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