Rifle Making Stands/Vises

[Jacob_S_P]

I had never see such am array of the stands as when I went to take the Foxfire class. I saw so many variations, I was wondering if there was a resource or guide for making your own flavor? Seemed like most of these were homemade, I meant to take some pictures but failed to.

[Woodpecker]

An 1878 copy of the Gunsmiths Manual is an interesting read on the vise and bench setup including making jaws and simple gun braces. Interesting is the mention that the vise jaws should be at the elbow height. It is available from the Library of Congress.

https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/gunsmithsmanualc00stel/gunsmithsmanualc00stel.pdf

In the spirit of "use what you have", I use a hand screw clamp on a pipe fixture as my main vise. The easily rotates and swivels, works well as a carvers vise, and a brace can be placed in the floor or on the bench as needed.

[J Shingler]

Make you some kind of a stand and put one of the ball vices on top. Works really well. Trey makes a really nice one. 

https://tssteelworks.com/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2VfyRaFJ-dQkf1QpDMiOm1NX7wc-QqFCMImOR5oqSRD1Nz61LKwjKflfc_aem_GKI9SScX3vmtxzvZ9dU3kQ

[bluenoser]

I have three bench vises in my shop.  Four if I include the woodworking vise.  One is a ball mounted vise very similar to that one.  Although it is very handy for light work, it is, in my opinion, nowhere near rigid enough for gun building. 

[J Shingler]

Blue nose,
Yours must not clamp on the ball very tight. I know Jim Kibler and Ian Pratt have a similar set up. Mine is suitable for everything except heavy rasping in the very beginning stage building from a blank. For that I simply remove it off the post and use the vice behind it. Once roughed to shape set it back on the post for the remander 90% of the build. I put mine on an adjustable height column and it works great. Only four vices on this bench but 6 total in shop. 😉  But neither actually answers the original posters question. There was a guy at Friendship selling a stand a while back. I don't have a picture but it was basically a saw horse looking arangement. A wood clamp was raised up on one end and a leather covered support on the opposite end. Made it portable but as bluenose melted as well it would not stand to heavy work as it is to light. Always a trade off. Rigid or movable??