A post vise is an indispensable fixture for a blacksmith shop. Of course, I say this, but I've been doing without one for some time-- I bought my vise from Old World Anvils about a year and a half ago and it's been collecting dust since. It's not as if I haven't needed it, but it's been re-prioritized a few times. The idea behind a post vise (or leg vise as they're sometimes called) is that by design it can take abuse that would destroy a bench vise by transmitting force into the ground instead of into the jaws. It can be used for twisting stock-- a post on that soon-- holding jigs & tooling, etc.
I made the decision to put it together the last time I was out toolmaking at River Bend. I've seen post vises mounted a variety of ways, but the light one at River Bend was mounted on a piece of round plate-- when you don't need it, you can just roll it from place to place. This is huge convenience as post vises (like mine) weigh around 200# mounted.
One trip to Vernon Steel and one trip to Jonak's scrap yard and I had a 1/4" plate tool rest, a 2-1/2"x 2-1/2"x 1/4" upright, and a 30" circle cut from 1/2" plate. The fabrication was straightforward. The upright was squared and tack-welded to the tool rest. I then flipped the entire assembly, made a few calculations so that when mounted the post on the vise would strike center on the plate, and completed another square and tack. Using the vise itself as a template, I marked a few holes, drilled it out, and mounted the whole thing with 3/8" bolts and lock washers.
Unable to resist the temptation to use it right away, I began work on a handle for the hatch portion of the duck coop.
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