Scored a Post Vise for $35 and some other goodies ** Added Pictures**

U

unky_gumbi

Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
7,951
She is a little rusty on the surface but everything works. I was on my bike so I wasn't able to take it home today, but I will be picking it up on Monday. The plan is to give it a good cleaning and mount it to the bench and toss the little Princes Auto one I bought to make due till I had the money to buy a good vise. I also got one side of an old wrought iron hinge, its about 15" long, a little RR anvil, and an old blower minus motor. Some times you just luck out and hit the right place at the right time:D BTW I already have a motor for the old blower
 
Last edited:
Basically the other stuff is just icing on the cake. Even a shitty post vise is worth $35.

Good score, or highway robbery, I can't decide which. ;P
 
I will post some pictures of it when I get it home. I am really excited about the blower, its one more piece for my forge build. I have the ceramic wool and the refractory cement. I have all the parts to put together a burner, I just need to find a suitable frame to put it all in. I just missed out on an old propane tank last week, but I have the word out in the area so it shouldn't be long till I have a couple to choose from. Right now all I am finding and am getting offered to me is old galvanized pipe and that isn't going to work, I like living too much:p

I am trying to build my forge as cheaply as possible, right now I think I have about $50 invested and the one I left in Winnipeg I was right around $100 and didn't have a blower or burner at the time:eek: I did manage to sell it for the $50 I have into this one.
 
I'm not being sarcastic, does your area have/use air-conditioning? I dont know how hot it gets in the great north! If so, any and every HVAC shop,even in rural areas, would have empty freon tanks. They are 9" in diameter and make a great basic forge shell. I'm sure they'd be free.
 
RV parks and service centers are usually a good place to get an old out of date Lp tank, most often free. Get as many as you can carry. They make great slack and scrap buckets as well as forge bodies. Be sure to hand drill your first relief hole slowly, enlarge, fill with water....then you can use a side grinder with cutoff disc to decapitate. If you can unscrew the valve assembly it's better than drilling but most often on old tanks you're not gonna get her out.
 
Brian Ayres said:
I'm not being sarcastic, does your area have/use air-conditioning? I dont know how hot it gets in the great north! If so, any and every HVAC shop,even in rural areas, would have empty freon tanks. They are 9" in diameter and make a great basic forge shell. I'm sure they'd be free.
Click to expand...

Geographically I am not that far north, the town I am in is at Latitude 44°51'3.56"N longitude 75°18'58.64"W, while Portland Oregon is at Latitude 45°31'24.43"N, that would put us about as far north as Salem:p. Unfortunately we don't have the Pacific Ocean to keep up warm in the winter months:( but to answer the question yes wwe do have AC up here, but I am in a dinky little town that doesn't have much around it so pickings are slim

crex said:
RV parks and service centers are usually a good place to get an old out of date Lp tank, most often free. Get as many as you can carry. They make great slack and scrap buckets as well as forge bodies. Be sure to hand drill your first relief hole slowly, enlarge, fill with water....then you can use a side grinder with cutoff disc to decapitate. If you can unscrew the valve assembly it's better than drilling but most often on old tanks you're not gonna get her out.
Click to expand...

No RV parks near here either, just a couple of Provincial Parks so there are no long term campers, just passerby.
 
Ya got well drilling outfits out there? 10" well casing is my favorite thing to make a small forge out of. They may have cutoffs.

Or, if you know anyone who's had a well drilled, they may have a chunk of scrap casing sitting around.

I've used old propane tanks for stuff, but MAN they stink for a while.

Oh, congrats on the score. I love a good post vise.
 
Guess you are just stuck then.......look around, talk it up, and be diligent. There are tons of alternative tube/barrel like objects that can serve as forge bodies. Stove pipe, square tubing, even big mail boxes....you can shape the interior anyway you want, the outside is just a exoskeleton that supports the insulation giving it rigidity. Just stay away from using things that are galvanized.
 
Unky, you make me sick :barf:..........you didn't get a deal you stole it! :eek:

Seriously nice score.:thumbup: I have been looking for a post vice for some time and always seem to be one step behind it. One I got a chance at was good for nothing but scrap. The next one sold a hour before I called on it, and if it's picture done her justice I missed out on a deal!
 
He had another one in pieces, but was missing the spring and looked like the screw. He said he would throw it in for free, if its still there on Monday I may take it if it is the same model and have it for spare parts.
 
The spring on most post vises is simple to make and replace....just a flyweight leaf spring of sorts. The screw, not so much, but with diligent scrounging in a big equipment junkyard a suitable substitute can usually be found to modify and retro fit.
Get the extra parts or you will later regret it....this I know!
 
Well I just got a pair of old propane tanks, a 30 and a 33 pound, free of course. I need to knock off the valves, but that will be tomorrows job.
 
Well I picked up the post vise today, now to try and figure out who the maker was and clean it up a bit.

DSC02748.jpg


DSC02749.jpg


The overall length of the vise is about 45", but the stepped section at the bottom is just over an inch long. The jaws are 5 1/4" wide, not sure how far they open yet that part is a little seized. They move but its very stiff right now, I gave them a good dose of WD40 and will give it some more later today. Tomorrow I will try get the nut off and give the area a scraping with a stiff wire brush. The screw seems fine, it spins in and out with little to no resistance till it butts up against the sticky jaw.

Now for the other little tidbits, The wrought iron hinge came off a barn built in the 1800s and measures out to 28" of usable steel, the blower is huge, with an outlet measuring 4". It even has a base to mount the motor to, so a quick cleaning and some paint and its ready to have a motor installed. The RR anvil is tiny, maybe 15#, but I figure if I make a steel mount for the vise with some I-beams I can mount it to that and it will do the job till I find a real anvil.

DSC02751.jpg


DSC02754.jpg


DSC02752-1.jpg


DSC02753.jpg


All and all I think I did pretty good on this buy:thumbup:
 
Cool man. That blower looks good for a forge. And a 5-1/4" post vice is a good medium size. The first one I got was a 4", there are a LOT of them out there. My first anvil was a piece of track not unlike yours.

I wish you enjoyment in setting up your forge area!
 
You can almost triple the mass and weight of the RxR anvil by welding or bolting some sections of steel to both sides of the "web" or waist section. Couple of cut to shape and ground to fit drops from the local steel fabricator or scrap yard will do the trick. It's not so much the size of the surface or face of the anvil as it is the mass under the hammer. Pretty easy and cheap way to bring RxR track up several notches. Will help with noise and vibration as well.
======
**==**
**==**
**==**
======

* astericks being the additional metal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top