Old vise stand
- My main vise I bought new many years ago. It's a Craftsman 5 1/2". I've used the crap out of it. Mounted to a rescued stand-Its where a good bit of my shop time is spent.
Not so much repurposing as reusing, the stand itself I found literally under a bush mid 1985ish. Cleaning an elderly ladies yard it was buried in undergrowth. Took a bit of effort to free. When I was unloading the crap at dump I pulled off to side mostly because there was an extra charge for non green waste. Ended up taking home. It came in handy using an outside work table.
When we moved I actually drug it with us. Needing to mount new vise I visited using the old stand and decided to temporarily use as vise stand. I've go to tell you, I always thought Id cut it up and use for parts. But in my eagerness to use vise I drilled one hole and got vise mounted so I could use it. Make a new stand later. That was 20+ years ago.
Over the years I've scabbed junk to it-primarily some hooks for tools, piece of angle as a pencil/chalk tray. When I had cut up old kitchen chair for arc welder cart, I tacked the chair seat rim around the stand 3 outer legs. Had some old expanded metal and made the shelf.
Old stand works well. Its base is a 21" diameter plow disk. Makes it nice for moving or walking around. Center pole is a 2" pipe and has 3 outside legs so it’s really stable. Enough weight so it stays planted. I couldn't have positioned the top plate any better.
So why would I cut it up for parts?
Well in case you hadn't noticed. It's the way the legs, mostly at the top, were originally welded on. I'm not sure I believe these were added later as welding on center post-well looks like it was welded. No idea why the added 45° ells were used, they are galvanized along with the 3/4" pipe legs. My assumption was these would break at some point, other than just ugly, beyond functional ugly.
But like I said I've been using 20+ years now, plus however old it was when I found it and the time I used as table. I'm sure the person who melted it together would be surprised it's still in use.
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