A Sampson Post for the Shop
                           by Ted Edwards

See also: Sampson1.jpg, Sampson2.jpg and Sampson3.jpg

I have often run into the problem of wanting to apply more force to
something than my workbench will take without tipping.  I don't want to
fasten the bench to the floor in case I want to move it so I thought of
fastening a removeable "Sampson post" onto the concrete floor.  (The
term "Sampson post" is from the old sailing ship days.  It was a heavy
duty post up near the bow.)  I wanted to be able to remove these posts
and leave the floor unobstructed and without holes to accumulate crud
so the posts are fastened down with bolts run into nuts set in the
floor.  The nuts are recesed slightly so a flat head Alan cap screw can
be run in to be flush with the floor.

I have two of these posts set up in my shop.  (Naturaly the second is 
called a Delilah post.)  Sqeezing or pushing is usually fairly easy to 
arrange but pulling is often much less convenient.  My neighbour and 
I wanted to make some crimp on aluminum terminations for 1/8" steel 
cable.  By having two posts, we could test a couple to destruction. 
i.e. If the cable broke with out damaging the fitting or showing signs 
of the cable pulling out, we could be confident of our design and 
crimping method.

Normally my pipe vise is on one post and and the big Record on the
other but the tops are drilled to fit a variety of vises and fittings.
I have never had a problem with these posts even when attacking a
rusted pipe fitting or removing the valve from an old propane tank with
a 36" pipe wrench and a 4' length of "cheater" pipe.  You can see how 
the tank was held in
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/_2000_retired_files/ANCHOR2.JPG

The base of the post is 7/16" steel plate 1' square.  The top is 3/8" 
thick, approx. 8"x10".  The column is approx. 39" of 3x3x3/16" square 
steel tube.  These dimensions were based on what I had on hand plus a 
convenient working height.

If I should want to remove one or both posts, I simply undo the four 
bolts, move the post and run in the flat head Alan screws flush with 
the floor.

I set four 1/2" 'long nuts' into the concrete floor with epoxy.
According to the literature, this is stronger than expansion type
fittings.  These nuts are intended for joining lengths of threaded rod.
They are about 2" long and a little smaller in wrench size than the
standard 3/4" nut.  I turned three grooves in the long nuts to improve
the grip on the epoxy.  I'm not sure this is neccessary but it
certainly won't hurt.  See Sampson3.jpg.  These nuts are a bit more
than 3/4" across the points so I drill a 2 1/2" deep, 3/4" diameter
hole into the concrete floor for each nut.  The concrete drills tend to
drill a little oversize so I had no problem inserting the nuts.  The
hex head bolts were greased on the threads and end and screwed into the
long nuts so the bottom was just shy of flush with the end of the long
nuts.  This is to keep the epoxy from getting into the threads but be
sure to keep the outside of the nuts clean and free of any grease.  I
then poured a few milliliters of slightly thickend epoxy into each
hole, smeared some on the nuts and pushed in the prepared nuts and
bolts until they bottomed.  Don't use 5 minute epoxy for this, it just
doesn't have the strength of the slower curing versions.  I happen to
use Industrial Formulators "Cold Cure" with a little thickener powder
for this but I imagine any good quality slow cure epoxy would do the
job.

After the epoxy has set overnight, I remove the bolts and install the 
post(s).