Thread: Best metal work vice

Originally Posted by BobL

That's the one I asked about in my first post, have you given it a good hiding and if so, how well has it stood up to it?

I would say so..... Used it to hold hyd rams while I undo the nut off the end with the help of a 12ft length of pipe...

I really expected to have broken it by now but haven't...

I would say it is made out of ductile iron and not plain cast iron..

The old Dawn 6" Offset engineers vice are rather heavy, some 55Kg, so not exactly movable. Mine is bolted to a bench next to the Fidax cast iron bench Drill Press. Attached is how the shed use to be, before the new shed took all the turning stuff . . . I don't work metal much, but I know I can cut, bash, grind securely with the Dawn.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Cast iron is generally fine for fitting type work but won't take to be beat upon and will break ,Chinese ones, sometimes even without being beaten upon. Nothing wrong the fabricated vices at all, the kids at school have made fabricated 5"vices and they are very robust.Fabricated stainleess are available for marine and oil rig work.We DIY mortals coudln't afford even the handle as a spare part -very expensive.

Of course you would instil upon your students, as mine did seemingly endlessly, that it's a vice and not an anvil Naturally back then the "advice" was accompanied with a clip across the back of the head for having to remind us seemingly endlessly

Grahame beat me to it, for a welding bench I'd try to have it removable. I have a small bench on wheels and made sure the top is both flat, has accurate 90 degree corners (so I can use it as a jig), and most of all is free from obstructions so I can slide my work around. Even my TIG torch holder is a recycled little C clamp, and I often move that out of the way.

Pete

That Dawn vise looks like the one I got rid of 25 years ago.

Grahame
That is a good design and well built vise. I bet his dad was happy.

Dave

My old farm shed came ready equipped with two (one a 4 inch and one 5) vices on a heavily used hardwood bench.

They are cast and marked "carter semi steel"

What does that mean? Are they cast steel? Cast iron?

Obv Carter is the manufacturer.

There is also a fabricated 6 inch offset vice near the door that is used for welding and low-finesse work. It is not quite parallel but is good at what it does!

Originally Posted by rfurzer

My old farm shed came ready equipped with two (one a 4 inch and one 5) vices on a heavily used hardwood bench.

They are cast and marked "carter semi steel"

What does that mean? Are they cast steel? Cast iron?

Obv Carter is the manufacturer.

There is also a fabricated 6 inch offset vice near the door that is used for welding and low-finesse work. It is not quite parallel but is good at what it does!

Carter was an Aussie maufacturer that started during WW2 to overcome the need to use imported tools. Semi steel I am just about certain would be the treatment the received (or didn't in this case) to make it suitable for casting.Hang on to it ,it will be a good un.

Its definately steel but not fully killed (de-oxidised) - something about the partial deoxidising being better to control mould shrinkage.You won't break it like cast iron and it will take an aful lot of mistreatment to even bend it.

Grahame

Dave J.
The lad had already made his own std vice when dad saw it and said he would like a bigger one as he always had trouble with holding the larger parts from the truck when doing repairs.
The kid made a bloody good job of it using some DAWN vice jaws and painted it a charcoal finish-the type with the pitts and wrinkles in it.

If it was a tad larger he might of got an engine block in it-LOL

Father and son nutted out the dimensions and supplied the materials & parts.I helped with little details like chasing a better grade of steel for the handle and thread as they are both big buggers and I could well imagine a length of 1200L pipe being slipped over the vice tommy bar handle.

Grahame

Just to round this thread out, thanks to Dingo Dog I manage to pick up a free Fabricated Dawn vice. It has no jaws but it has been recommended to me not to use the standard case hardened steel ones anyway but to make some mild steel ones instead. SO this should be easy enough to do.

BTW When I looked up what these Dawn fabricated vices cost new I nearly fell off my chair.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

To paraphrase someone we all know.

Those are not vices this is a VICE.

150mm jaw width
125 x 75 channel slide x 450 long

one of my students made for his dad who drives his own truck.
The vices in the shed were not big enough tohold stuff for repair.

Grahame

Grahame,
Any chance you have the blueprint for that vice just lying around to be posted to us loving caring forum dwellers

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

To paraphrase someone we all know.

Those are not vices this is a VICE.

150mm jaw width
125 x 75 channel slide x 450 long

one of my students made for his dad who drives his own truck.
The vices in the shed were not big enough tohold stuff for repair.

Grahame

Far out that is one serious vice you can never have a big enough vice

I dont like the universal vices myself they have always seemed awkward to use

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Hi BobL

Vice design and mounting
Its good you are giving thought to the vise abefore the table is built.At some stage for sure, on some applicatiions the vice is going to be in the bloody way of your job. For this reason you might give thought to a demountable jobbie as per as per a Hayman Reese towbar type drawbar connection.

I really like the idea of the demountable vice and using a HR connection.

So I scrounged a couple of pieces each of 75 x 75 x 5 and 65 x 65 x 5 SHS and with a bit of ironmongery I reckon I can get the smaller to slide into the large one with a fair fit. Now I have to connect the vice to the smaller piece and have it sit flush on the table.

The plan is to have the 75 x 75 welded into the frame of the table (blue) while the 65 x 65 piece is attached to the vice body (green) via an adapter plate A (grey). The vice on the 65 x 65 is slid into place and will be held in place with a couple of 3/4" or 1/2 locking bolts. Orange patches and strips represent welds.

I have 2 or maybe 3 plans and variants thereof.
Which of the following would be the strongest.
Attachment 165674
Plan A will probably be easier but harder to get a strong weld inside the gap connecting plates A and C.

Plan B has a vertical plate B that forms a T-piece with plate A. Because B is a through piece it can be welded top to Plate A and bottom to the 65 x 65 so should be stronger than Plan A?

The blank is just a blank plate to leave the table top flat - it does not need to be that strong.

Comments, ideas?

Hi Bob
How big is your vice?
If its pretty big I can understand the horizontal tube.
But if its small (i.e. easy enough to lift) why not have the tube vertical?

Stuart

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Hi Bob
How big is your vice?
If its pretty big I can understand the horizontal tube.
But if its small (i.e. easy enough to lift) why not have the tube vertical?

Stuart

It's a 6" Dawn Fabricated offset vice, it weighs 25 kg and whether it likes it on not it's gonna get an occasional beating - but I do like the vertical idea - a lot less phaphphing about, especially If I attach the 75 x 75 direct to extra bench legs.

How about this?
Attachment 165715

Bench is going to be made from 75 x 38 x 1.2 SHS.

Well I like it a lot better, but then, I won't be the one lifting it.
Or are you going to cut the front off the 75mm tube so you can still slide it out forwards? If you aren't cutting the front off the 75mm tube I don't really see the need for the bolt, but I guess it cant hurt.
Just one other thing I would change, the welding of the 65mm tube to the plate under the vice. I'd bevel the top of the tube and the top of the plate so you get a nice big heavy weld around the top and not weld underneath. That way the plate will sit on the tube nicely.

Stuart

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Well I like it a lot better, but then, I won't be the one lifting it.

Well my latest Chainsaw mill weighs 38 kg and this gets lifted on and off the long a dozen times when I mill a log so 30 kg is no big deal

Or are you going to cut the front off the 75mm tube so you can still slide it out forwards? If you aren't cutting the front off the 75mm tube I don't really see the need for the bolt, but I guess it cant hurt.

I thought about cutting the front out - the through bolt is to stop any bounce when I give it a belting

Just one other thing I would change, the welding of the 65mm tube to the plate under the vice. I'd bevel the top of the tube and the top of the plate so you get a nice big heavy weld around the top and not weld underneath. That way the plate will sit on the tube nicely.

Good point - thanks for the tip.