Anvil on bench vises

[pdude]

Any great benefit of the vises with an anvil section on it? looking at some Wilton vises.

 

[Jeremy77]

I personally like a "Mechanics" vise with an anvil surface for hammering. A true "machinists" vise is designed strictly to only hold a workpiece and certainly have their place, however, for my uses, the anvil surface is extremely handy. At work, we have several large Columbians without an anvil and a Wilton Bullet with one. I find myself using the Wilton more often than not.

 

[1982fxr]

depends what you work on. Not good for bfh'ing it...

 

[bobcatdan]

While a nice feature, I don't miss it since none of my vises have an anvil back. Nor do I find myself using on any vise at work that has one. For my beating needs, a heavy steel workbench works just fine.

 

[G_P]

I try to use the anvil part for light stuff only. Seems like it would be quite easy to crack the vise body if you start slamming on it hard.

 

[Roberts210]

I have both a large Wilton bullet vice and a 3' long piece of railroad track that I found in the street one day. If I need to really lay into something with a big hammer I'll use the r.r. track.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

We beat the snot out of the Snap-On in the shop, including the anvil... It's made by Wilton for SO (bullet style).

 

[zkling]

Not really, unless you are just so limited on shop space that you can't fit a small bench block or the like.

 

[Dave455]

A small anvil area is useful! If you're bashing stuff, and I always seem to be, then that's the place to do it!

Having said that, I have a regular bench vice, and a separate 'bench sized' anvil, which seems to be a perfect combo!