A vise mounting

[partsproduction]

Many years ago I added a quick detach vise mount to my bench, the bench is all steel and the vise is the Wilton 6" Offset vise which we use daily. I'd read long ago that common wisdom for mounting vises is that the top of the jaws should be at or very near the elbow height of the person using it, this being because a standard use of most vises is filing parts with a hand file.
The first photo is of my employee standing next to the vise, you can see that his elbow is at about the right height.

Below see the overview of the installation, I laid towels on areas that would otherwise clutter the main elements, you can see that the vise is bolted to a bracket, which is welded to a length of heavy wall square tubing;

Here is a view of the inner 2" square tube slide which is pulled out of the larger square receiving tube. The receiving tube is stoutly welded to the bench's frame;

More,,,

 

[partsproduction]

Here is a shot of the wedge, which is made of 1/2 X 2" X 4 1/2" mild steel, the wedging angle is less than 10 degrees;

Here is the wedge driven into place, the slots milled through both inner and outer square tubes are so done that the wedge pulls the inner tube into the receiver with great force!

Here is the opening in the receiver that indexes the inner tube so that it cannot move in any direction when wedged tight, in fact, the two are held so tightly together that they are in effect one piece;

And here is the inner tube's 45 degree angles that sets everything together so tight;

More,,,

 

[partsproduction]

And finally, a shot of the bottom where the vise is bolted;

And a shot showing the one side of the inner tube, it had too much slop between it and the outer receiver so I built it up with a bead of weld and milled that off to only barely slide in.

I also have a smaller but very cheap vise mounted the same way in the welding room, as all welding, grinding cutting and anything that throws grit and dirt has a separate room.
The mount shown here is too heavy for one man, but we have an overhead rail crane so it is easy to take it off.
Why take it off? On occasions one want the whole bench table top clear so something can be laid on it without hitting anything.
I hope readers found this interesting.
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[drivesitfar]

PP: nice simple informative thread. well done sir!!

just curious how you cut the holes for the wedge and how hard is it to remove the wedge when you need to.

some of the guys on the vise stand thread over in fabrication weld on nuts and put bolts in them to snug up any gap.

here's a link to that thread if you might want to post your pictures and information over there too.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252799&highlight=vise+stand

thanks

 

[partsproduction]

I should have asked if there was any info out there I guess. But everywhere I go I see vises mounted too high or in a corner where it can't be used much of the time. There should be a set of standards anyone can resort to before setting up a vise.

As far as the slot for the wedge that was done in the milling machine, pretty straightforward stuff. It's been quite a while since doing it and it's murky in my memory but it seems like I recall the inside 45 degree edges insdie the receiver tube were the hardest.
In the fifth photo you can see the taper key sticking out the bottom, a few whacks with a hammer and that free's the wedge and it pops out the top.

I don't know how to transfer it over but can you do it?
Thanks,
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[drivesitfar]

PP: if you want to post your pictures of your vise mounting over on the vise stands feel free to. I did cut and paste the link for this thread on a post over there because I think your words and pictures are great.

not everybody has a mill or the talent to cut that hole, but most of us can tap a hole or weld a nut to screw a bolt in the tubing to tighten the tube with the vise mounted to it if needed.

great tips and thanks for sharing.