Mounting vise on Snap On roll cab

[lbpd716]

We are pulling the trigger and purchasing my father three boxes, a KRL120SBPO, a KRL1163APBO and a KRL1023DPB04. He started working out of an old Burgie cardboard box and has since retired, but always said he wanted a set of nice SO boxes.

My question is, the 1023 is spec'd out as the stainless power top unit, which he will use as a workbench for various things. He would also like a vise mounted on that top. Not being able to find anyone who has a similar box in my area, how well will that top hold up to mounting something similar to a Wilton 6.5 in bullet vise or general 6 in shop vise?

Should we proceed with the vise on the stainless top, or make some type of butcher block overlay and mount the vise to that instead?

If anyone with any experience or advise on this could chime in it would be appreciated.

 

[chrismenke]

There are no shortage of vises mounted atop these boxes, but as an owner of a 1023 I wouldn't do it. Deck height of the work surface is pretty damn high, I'm 6'2" and prefer not to use that space as a primary bench.

Second reason is that you'll have to drill through the top to get a good mount, and If the top is at all similar to my non powered stainless top, it will be metal with fiberboard inside. Not super sturdy...now you're drilling though the cabinet to get vise rigidity as well...I don't want to do that. Lastly that box has wheels, and pulling hard enough on a vise will move the box.

I would suggest a more sacrificial workbench or a heavy steel workbench as the location for a vise I wanna honk on.

 

[zkling]

Not a great idea, it will damage the box with heavy use and not allow him to get the most work out of the vise.

Get him one of these...

https://www.votawtool.com/adjustable-vise-stand-23561.html

and these

https://www.milhoffmachine.com/services.html

 

[lbpd716]

Thanks for the input - I kind of felt the same. Hopefully I can convince him to go the stand route.

A ton of money to put out to mess up the top.

 

[zkling]

A properly anchored stand gives much more versatility and access than the standard bench corner mounted vise. The stability cannot be matched via a tool box on wheels mounted vise.

Edit to add, depending on how tall your dad is, the 1023 is already quite tall, putting a big vise on top may put it out of comfort working range for him.

 

[tomwil]

That vice stand seems so expensive, and appears it needs to be mounted to a floor.

Alternatives might be mounting the vice on a Workmate or Jawhorse.

 

[zkling]

Guy is looking at 25k easy in new boxes, I don't think ~$1200 for a top quality vise and stand is out of the question.

 

[lbpd716]

Guy is looking at 25k easy in new boxes, I don't think ~$1200 for a top quality vise and stand is out of the question.

was able to haggle that down quite a bit - but they still made their money.

 

[2oolhound]

I have very little shop space so no plans to move my boxes around so I took the wheels off the boxes and built a steel top on them with uprights on the ends for added support and bayonet mounts for the vises and other equipment built into the steel top.

2" x 1/4" angle iron top frame added about 2 1/2" to the height but taking the wheels off made it lower. 4" Wilton in the foreground is on bayonet mounts as are the 3 1/2" record vise and bench grinder at the other end.

This set up becomes more of a semi permanent bench with really nice drawers.

 

[lbpd716]

Looks like we have come up with the solution he wants to do - and it is without punching holes in the new workbench.

We will be making our own stand off of an old brake drum (Big Rig rear drum). Will try to post up some pictures when we start working on it (in a new thread of course.)

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to answer my questions.