Where do you locate your vise?

[Tommy Bruce]

On my bench at home and my father's workbench my vise is located at one end or the other of the bench.  I was thinking of moving it to the center of the bench and was curious about where you guys put yours and the pros and cons of where it's at. 

[eagle24]

Good Question.  I only have room for one bench where I work right now.  I have 7 different vices that I use.  Where they are located (or need to be located) depends on what I am doing, so I have several sets of holes drilled in my bench and move them around depending on the job at hand.  It's not an ideal situation, but it works for me in my "limited" work space.

[keweenaw]

The advantage of having a vise at the end of the bench is that it allows you to rotate your rifle around quite a bit without having to have the bench surface clean for clearance.  If you're like me that bench surface is almost never clear of stuff sitting on it.

Tom

[brokenflint]

center of bench w/ supports at about 30" from the vise on each side.  supports are vertically adjustable and allow for the rifle to be rotated 180 to work from either direction with end support.  Ron Wood has a neat portable setup that he brings to Bowling Green which is where I stole the idea from.  Tallbear also has something similiar he has posted here on the site.  I've got some photos but I've not gotten an account to put them online atm.

Broke

[Bill of the 45th]

I use a freestanding vise, which allows me to work all the way around.  I was originally a grinder stand that has a 20" truck rim as a base, filled with 100lbs of concrete.

I can drag it outside, or from shop to shop.   I have a small tool shelf below, which helps minimize clutter.  It works for me, but may not be everyones cup of bourbon.  My bench to the right of this has a post vise, and a small swivel, and I move to what job I'm doing.

Bill

[KLMoors]

I've got two vices. A 6 inch that is bolted to a bench that is bolted to the wall. It is mounted at the end of the bench and I use that one for heavy stuff like breech plugs.

This is the vice that I hold a gun in when I'm working on it. It is a 6X6 that sticks out from the bench and this allows me to get all the way around the gun. I drilled a bunch of holes in the 6X6 to hold my most commonly used tools depending on what I'm doing.   

[tallbear]

This is a pic of mine with the adjustable arms.I also have a machinests vice on the corner if I really need to hold something tight.

Mitch

[bdixon]

Very smart set-ups guys.

[Pete Allan]

My bench is an old (HEAVY) wooden office desk. On the left end I mounted an alum. plate sticking out about a foot from the front. I drilled holes to match my rather large vice so I can face it to any of the three sides of the plate. Works well for all of the strange things I do

[holzwurm]

Mine is bolted to the floor. I can unbolt it and carry it to Friendship. It's a pipe within a pipe so I can raise or lower it if I want to sit and work.  Vise will rotate and tilt.

[Tommy Bruce]

Thanks for the info and the pictures.  You guys have some really nice shops.  I think I just need to add another vise.

[jwh1947]

My favorite vise for longrifle work is a 125-year-old leg vise, still nice and tight, that I obtained at a farm auction for a few bucks years ago. I have built cradles on both sides with jaws and have a functional set-up.  Incidentally, for engraving smaller pieces off the rifle, I cut about 1/4 off of an old bowling ball, applied a wooden slab over the cut and built a wooden cradle to hold the ball.  I added a handle in one of the holes.  The contraption is heavy enough to conduct my work and can be moved to any angle. Cost=a few hours of labor at the bench.  My bench is hand-built, heavy enough to use to rip apart a big block V8, and well bolted to concrete and brick.  Functional, but not pretty.

[Artificer]

For over 30 years, I always put my large machinist vice on the left end of the bench and some kind of wood vise in the middle, when needed, like others have shown.

I mounted a medium 4" vice onto a grinder stand like others have shown to take to gun shows, but I don't like it for most other work.  I do a lot of work with a large commercial "handy grinder" and like to get my elbows well anchored to control the carbide bits I use.  I also prefer to do that when using hand chisels.  I find I can't do that well in that type of mount, but maybe that's just me.  Grin.

Something I never thought to try, until circumstances dictated it, worked out extremely well.   When I moved to the new house, I just couldn't take my behemoth bench I hard mounted into the wall and floor of the old workshop.  I had an "L" shaped bench that I originally only intended to be used until I could build another behemoth bench. I had to put the vice on the short leg of the "L" as there wasn't room on the rest of the bench with all the tool boxes I own.   This proved to be something I really like.  The vice is on the edge of the short leg of the "L" and is about  2 feet from the edge of the rest of the bench.  There is about a foot on each side to lay tools and other "stuff."  I have no problems getting close to the vice from the front or sides.   After using this feature, I'll never go back to the vice on the end of a straight bench.  The only thing I don't like about it is there wasn't more long bench on the left side of the vice.  So I'm planning on extending the bench to the left of the "vice protrusion" part of the bench, just to be able to lay a long gun resting on that side of the bench as well.