"Mike Spencer" wrote in message
...

Bob La Londe writes:

Do any of you guys use a vise on a pedestal?=20
[snip]
Waaaadaaaayaaathink?

I have five vices -- bench, 2 leg, pattern maker's, cabinet
maker's --
permanently mounted on benches.

The 8" leg vice is firmly bolted, via the usual band & wedge device,
to a piece of heavy-wall 4x4 HSS. The HSS post and the foot of the
vice stand in sockets welded to the center of a 4'x4' piece of 1/4"
plate.

The vice, even without the attached post, is too heavy for me to
lift,
as is the plate. But it's easy to pick up first the vice and then
the
plate with a garden variety rolling engine hoist and prop them in a
corner when the space but not the vice is needed.

The plate and socket are heavy/sturdy enough that hammering,
twisting
and wrenching don't move the vice.


--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

How does a leg vise compare to a machinist's vise for clamping objects
with parallel surfaces such as pipe fittings?

The leg vise I found seems more suited to holding manually ground
weldments than machined parts since the jaws are never really
parallel. I don't do a significant amount of forging or hot bending
because I don't have a good safe place for the fire, or the artistic
talent for ornamental iron work. 1/2" and 3/4" conduit benders are
enough for most of the bending I do for structural parts like solar
panel supports.

This works well for bending angle brackets:
http://www.eastwood.com/4-inch-metal-bender.html
I don't have a bench strong and heavy enough for it so I clamp it to a
log splitter I beam.
-jsw