Multi Purpose Gun Vise

[daboone]

Most gun vises like MTM or Tiptons take up space and they are not as stable as a real vise with appropriate soft jaws. I made soft jaws for gun work from wood padded with leather.

I found this vise at Hf. It's multi-purpose vise handles round or square stock. It swivels both horizontally or vertically and can be use for more than just gun maintenance or smithing. The vise pictured is not a high end machinist vice but is great for home shop work, although I really torqued mine removing barrels from some mil surps without any issues or problems.



I just removed it from a bench to pack it for moving. As I did I thought I share this "gun vise" idea with you folks and get away from packing for awhile. It's time for coffee anyway!

[Ranch Dog]

I'm in the market to replace two vises; one in my garage and the other in my barn so I think I will look at these from Harbor Freight.

In a lot of my pictures from my shop you will see a Shop Fox Gunsmith Vice that I bought from MidwayUSA on sale but what I wanted to point out is the Tilting Vise Jaws that are used with it to hold guns. I have this vice out in the middle of my floor on a heavy pedestal stand I bought at Sears (on sale as well). Not only do I use these tilting jaws on the Fox but on my vices in my shops. For instance, I don't like some of the bore cleaners to be used in my reloading room as it is a sealed room so I will clean my guns with these jaws in my garage. Slip right into the 50 year old+ vice. You can lock down any firearm without damaging it and I suspect use them with any vice. I will measure the openings that slip over the worm drive.

Heck, just looked and might use the Fox Smith as a replacement for both shop vises. They are $10 less than the HF 5". What I like about the Fox is that it doesn't use a separate tension lock for the rotation (that is what has failed on both). The Fox rotates 360° and then as you tighten the vice the rotation locks in place as well.

RR_03.jpg

You can see the front half of a levergun, I think my R92 480 Ruger locked down in the vice in the center of the picture.

Each time you mention the move I find it a bit nerve racking! About like getting a vasectomy!

[daboone]

I've got a Shop Fox Gunsmith Vice as well. And it is an ingenious tool. I also found some tilting jaws inserts for it. These accommodate various shapes that aren't happy with the long jaw faces of the Shop Fox.. I also poured a flat slab of soft lead for other jobs I don't want marred. I cut the slab in half and cut out a slot for them to fit over bottom part that connect the 2 jaw faces together. That way they stay in place while opening and closing. Vises are an important of my shop and I'm glad I've got them because they get used!.

[Ranch Dog]

Great Idea on the lead blocks!

[Fyodor]

Have you also checked for the "Bisley vice"? Nearly every gunsmith I know has at least one on his bench.

[daboone]

I had not heard of the Bisley. I had to google it to see what it looked like. It looks like it would be an excellent gunsmith vise with so many nice features. I really like the cork(?) jaw pads. Those feature allow positioning your rifle in so many positions and that make it so much easier to whatever job needs done without bending or stooping (something I don't do very well anymore).

I'm going to look for some cork and see if I can add it to pipe grips on my cheapo HF. I have been using a lead sheet hammered into a cup that fit over the jaws of the HF vice.

Thanks for posting and feeding my future projects list.

[GasGuzzler]

I use 2X4's and clamps on a bench leg.

Not elegant.