Pexto Anvil Stake Score

[Tarnished]

Picked up an 8ft work bench at an auction some years ago, and it had 2 Pexto (I believe) anvil stake plates in it. Only had one stake with it. I said at the time, if I ever found a set of stakes I could afford I would buy them. Well I finally found a set at a local auction! Set includes 5 tall stakes, 2 plugs of some sort, and a round stake plate on a stand. I don't know much about these stakes and was hoping someone could tell me more. My understanding is that they are used mostly with sheet metal work, is that right? Forming, bending and flattening, that sort of thing? They seem to be popular with blacksmith's and that art from what I can gather. Please someone enlighten me further. The stand looks to be able to mount in various configurations, and it is currently mounted kinda ½ *** welded up 1" couplings with pipe for leg. Anyone tell me how the round plate should be mounted.
Also at the same auction, I picked up this 4" tail vice. Can someone tell/show me the correct way for the tail vice to be mounted?
Per the son-in-law of the original owner, (now 80), the stake set along with the tail vice belonged to his father. and were used in grand pap's blacksmith shop. That would age them at 80+, but they look in too nice shape for that??? Any help anyone?
Thanks!

 

[bgott]

Nice score!

 

[Outlawmws]

Great Score!

For the leg vise you generally need a securely mounted bench and you drill a hole in the floor for the peg on the bottom to go into, and the back plate gets bolted to the bench. It has some vertical adjustment withing reason.

I have also seen them anchored to a vertical beam, and a few guys have made portable stands for them. the leg is supposed to take the brunt of any hammering and transfer it to the floor. This was probably easier done with heavy plank floors, and getting a hole that big in concrete is usually too big for the fun of the mill concrete bits.

If you do mount it into concrete, I'd get a heavy washer that fits the peg leg and use that to spread the load a bit.

If you go to the Roper Whitney site, as they still sell those stakes and you can get a better idea of the official name for each, and an idea what they were for. if nothing else you can then Google the name of each stake for it's use.

The round plate could be mounted as it is, or as yours are in a corner of a bench for ease of access.

 

[Outlawmws]

BTW, "PEXTO" is a trademark for "Peck Stow & Wilcox" and there were two versions:

Text Mark First Use Date Filed Date Issued Registration Notes
Pexto [Oval Logo] 06/05/1914 04/23/1915 11/09/1915 107,001
Pexto [Oval Logo] 06/05/1914 07/05/1935 02/25/1936 332,786
PEXTO 1947 07/13/1956 03/19/1957 642,880

I know this won't line up, but you get the idea: based on this the round plate (at least) is pre 1947.

If you have any tools marked "Peck Stow *& Wilcox", it is probably pre 1914

 

[Tarnished]

Thanks Outlaw,
Was pretty sure the leg vise was meant to mount on the floor also. I think I have also seen them with the tail sunk into a post or log that rested on the concrete. Mounting seems to high if I were to mount it to my existing bench, so I am going to have to think about this one. Don't think I will be drilling my floor, so I will have to come up with something else. Ideas welcome……..
Luckily, I had stumbled across the Roper Whitney site, and found out a little about the stakes just after I posted, but just leads to more questions. Looks like R/W are about the only ones still selling the stakes, and Pexto site seems to be more machinery equipment now. Found some good info at the anvilfire.com web site also. (Good info if your in need of an anvil also.)
Thanks for the dating info. Now I have to do some digging. The bench plate on the bench, (original ones) the trademark is just a P inside a diamond box. Would this still be Pexto do you think??? I don't know of other manufactures, but there must have been.

 

[Outlawmws]

Thanks Outlaw,
Was pretty sure the leg vise was meant to mount on the floor also. I think I have also seen them with the tail sunk into a post or log that rested on the concrete. Mounting seems to high if I were to mount it to my existing bench, so I am going to have to think about this one. Don't think I will be drilling my floor, so I will have to come up with something else. Ideas welcome……..
Luckily, I had stumbled across the Roper Whitney site, and found out a little about the stakes just after I posted, but just leads to more questions. Looks like R/W are about the only ones still selling the stakes, and Pexto site seems to be more machinery equipment now. Found some good info at the anvilfire.com web site also. (Good info if your in need of an anvil also.)
Thanks for the dating info. Now I have to do some digging. The bench plate on the bench, (original ones) the trademark is just a P inside a diamond box. Would this still be Pexto do you think??? I don't know of other manufactures, but there must have been.

Not sure; pics?

 

[Tarnished]

OL. Have attached pics of the stake plate from my workbench. The only mark on it is the P in a diamond that you see. Not sure if this is the Pexto trademark or not. This particular bench came from a high school I believe, and has 2 of these plates mounted to the top. Bench is solid 2" maple strips, 30" wide and 8ft long. It has steel edges on both long sides, and I believe it must have been used as some kind of metal shop work. Overall it had been used very little, with NO abuse. Unusual for this type of bench. As I said, it came with the 2 plates, but I only managed to bring home 1 stake that they had forget. Now it is complete again, but probably wont be used much by me. Just trying to find out more about the sheet metal stakes. Know of any web sites dedicated to this type of metal work?

 

[Outlawmws]

I'd have to guess that sometime after Roper Whitney acquired PEXTO they may have changed the logo to that. I never noticed until just now, than the forming stakes and plates are still marked PEXTO in their catalog.

For the bench, Yep for metal forming work, and the angle in the edge are to give them a place to work with long pieces that have a 90 deg bend and work on it.

Nice bench to have! you need to put it to work!

 

[Tucko]

Ok, here's the lowdown on the stakes in your first photo. From left to right you have a variation on the "Square Stake", the "Hatchet Stake", two "Round Head Stakes", a "Blowhorn", and a "Beakhorn". However, they are virtually worthless. Being the nice guy that I am, I'll come take them off your hands. Just send me your address....LOL. But seriously, that's an awesome find, that I would LOVE to have. Check ebay prices, those stakes aint cheap....

 

[Tarnished]

Thanks OL, but I just don't have time for ANOTHER occupation! The ones I have now keep me covered up. LOL..

Thanks Tucko! Now show me some of your work. Your avatar look's awesome! Your Work? Pro, or hobby? Thanks for the names, now if I could just find someone using them, I would love to set and watch. I have often thought I would like to work more with metal's but it is a whole different set of skills, which would take me another lifetime to acquire!
And your right, per "da-Bay", they are not cheap! But then I didn't get them for a u-**** price either. I though $550 was fair price for my area. What's your opinion? Was hoping for a lot less, but the other bidder knew what they were too....

 

[Tucko]

Thanks OL, but I just don't have time for ANOTHER occupation! The ones I have now keep me covered up. LOL..

Thanks Tucko! Now show me some of your work. Your avatar look's awesome! Your Work? Pro, or hobby? Thanks for the names, now if I could just find someone using them, I would love to set and watch. I have often thought I would like to work more with metal's but it is a whole different set of skills, which would take me another lifetime to acquire!
And your right, per "da-Bay", they are not cheap! But then I didn't get them for a u-**** price either. I though $550 was fair price for my area. What's your opinion? Was hoping for a lot less, but the other bidder knew what they were too....

I've been doing general/ commercial sheet metal for about 23 years, but the last two years, my employment has been spotty. This frees up time to fiddle in the garage. So far I've collected a 6" corner notcher, a 4 foot slip roll, a 4 foot box and pan brake, and a complete soldering setup. I'd still like a stomp shear...but lack of money stands in the way.....550 is a pretty good price..

 

[camarotoolman]

Boy if I would have bought up all those school metal shop tools I'd be a millionere now! Back in the 70s when I started teaching all the school shops had that stuff. most of it was scraped.

 

[zuk123]

...Back in the 70s when I started teaching all the school shops had that stuff. most of it was scraped.

No kidding! My 7th grade shop class had a big stake table. We never did any metal work though. (1978)

Years later, I thought I had imagined the table, and until last month, I'd never seen another IRL. At a school auction, they had some tables with small stake insert panels, about 1 ft x 2 ft. I couldn't afford them.

Still hoping to find the 'big score'

zuk

 

[Tarnished]

Tuck, GREAT SNAKE!!! Hadn't seen that done before, Cool. Sounds like your on your way with equip. Piece at a time, is the only way I am able to do it. Guess it is a good thing it takes so long to find this stuff...
You guys are right. I have been visiting more than one school auction lately. Seems the only place left to find some of the old ARN stuff that I couldn't afford "NEW" back in the day.... Not always reasonable when ya do find it though. But then the hunt is part of the fun... IIRC I have had my bench for about 9-10 years, and I am just now finding the stakes. Until this site, perhaps I just didn't look hard enough.

 

[Tucko]

Also, check out thesheetmetalshop.com. Those guys are a wealth of info.

 

[Engineer61]

Blacksmiths Depot is another website that you can buy various stack tooling

 

[Swilson]

That is a nice score , even old ones can look very good. Some years ago I bought a stake table and some anvils (30 of them) some in very good shape, depends on type of work. I use only copper they look hardly used.