Recently, my vise of many years finally gave up vise-ing.
I really can’t blame it. I bought it at a garage sale about ten years ago for $5 and have used it for things that such a small vise shouldn’t have to endure, like hammering bends into brackets. That’s finally what killed it - hammering a bend in some mild steel.
Oh well - I was really overdue for a more suitably-sized vise anyway. I present… MONSTER VISE!
I bought this thing on sale at Princess Auto for $60. The overall quality of the casting is okay, and the paint is absolutely terrible (already flaking off), but it was cheap and it is crazy functional.
I really like how the jaws can be turned any direction, and the reverse side of the jaws is really nice for clamping tubular stuff. It has already come in handy for a project that will be featured here soon.
On to mounting the vise. But first, I have a confession. I don’t have a real workbench. I have a workbench-like area made out of an old set of cabinets, but usually it is too messy to use (covered in ongoing projects) and it’s definitely not beefy enough for a vise like this. Actually, most of my vise-related work I prefer to do outside in the alleyway. I don’t like to do anything like grinding metal in my garage, as I prefer to keep the dust and metal shavings away from my parked vehicles.
With that in mind, I like to mount my vises on sturdy chunks of wood so they can be moved outside and inside as need arises. It can be clamped to a bench if needed, or moved to the floor and stood upon for extra leverage.
I made this one out of three chunks of 2x4 and some 1x4s screwed to the underside to hold it all together, then attached the vise with some lag screws. Due to the weight of it I also screwed on some webbing to act as carrying handles. I’ll probably end up accidentally melting the webbing off with grinding sparks at some point, but it’s easy to replace.
I’m quite pleased to finally have a proper vise in my garage.
Cost:
$60 - vise (Princess Auto)
Incidental supplies:
wood from my pile o’ scrap wood
screws from my bucket o’ screws
webbing from my stash o’ random junk
I really can’t blame it. I bought it at a garage sale about ten years ago for $5 and have used it for things that such a small vise shouldn’t have to endure, like hammering bends into brackets. That’s finally what killed it - hammering a bend in some mild steel.
Oh well - I was really overdue for a more suitably-sized vise anyway. I present… MONSTER VISE!
I bought this thing on sale at Princess Auto for $60. The overall quality of the casting is okay, and the paint is absolutely terrible (already flaking off), but it was cheap and it is crazy functional.
I really like how the jaws can be turned any direction, and the reverse side of the jaws is really nice for clamping tubular stuff. It has already come in handy for a project that will be featured here soon.
On to mounting the vise. But first, I have a confession. I don’t have a real workbench. I have a workbench-like area made out of an old set of cabinets, but usually it is too messy to use (covered in ongoing projects) and it’s definitely not beefy enough for a vise like this. Actually, most of my vise-related work I prefer to do outside in the alleyway. I don’t like to do anything like grinding metal in my garage, as I prefer to keep the dust and metal shavings away from my parked vehicles.
With that in mind, I like to mount my vises on sturdy chunks of wood so they can be moved outside and inside as need arises. It can be clamped to a bench if needed, or moved to the floor and stood upon for extra leverage.
I made this one out of three chunks of 2x4 and some 1x4s screwed to the underside to hold it all together, then attached the vise with some lag screws. Due to the weight of it I also screwed on some webbing to act as carrying handles. I’ll probably end up accidentally melting the webbing off with grinding sparks at some point, but it’s easy to replace.
I’m quite pleased to finally have a proper vise in my garage.
Cost:
$60 - vise (Princess Auto)
Incidental supplies:
wood from my pile o’ scrap wood
screws from my bucket o’ screws
webbing from my stash o’ random junk
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