Vice in Reloading Room.

[cabezaverde]

How many of you keep a vise in your reloading - gun cleaning room? Is it worthy of the space it takes up?

I have a nice condition used one (extra) that I am thinking about mounting there, and am wondering if it would be worthwhile.

Thought this was a thread about fooling around in the gun room, didn't you?

[arkypete]

My vices usually come and go with me.
Jim

[454PB]

I have a Sears 4" vice mounted on my casting bench. I use it a lot, especially for holding guns while they are cleaned.

[grumpy one]

I use my all-purpose workbench for reloading, so my bench features a 5/8" steel top and a 6" metalworking vice. I use the vice to hold the 4" hot-rolled channel on which my Rockchucker is mounted. Everything else I clamp down to the bench top. I can clear away all trace of reloading activities in a couple of minutes. In case you were wondering, the heavy Rockchucker mounting is to provide rigidity, and it does that in spades.

Aside from holding the press I don't use the vice for any reloading purpose, but of course I use it constantly for setting up, adjusting, modifying or altering reloading tools, and for various amateur gunsmithing activities. My opinion is that you won't find much use for a vice in actual reloading, but you'll find plenty in shooting-related activities.

[imashooter2]

I also have a 4 inch vise on my bench. Very handy. I use it far more often than I thought I would.

[ron brooks]

Gee, I read teh topic and was all set to write about how I don't smoke, but a little dippin' or chewin' is okay and maybe a beer once in a while, a bottle of soada a lot of the time.

No really big vices though. :-)

Ron

(Hey, someone had to do it)

[ktw]

I have my case trimmers and lube-sizers mounted on chunks of 2x4 and hanging on the wall. When I want to use one of them I simply clamp the 2x4 base in the vise and go to work.

I also like it for holding guns while mounting scopes and cleaning.

-ktw

[1hole]

I also have a 4 inch vise on my bench. Very handy. I use it far more often than I thought I would.

Ditto. Don't quite know why it took me so many years to mount mine. It's on the left end of the bench, out of the way but VERY useful.

Mine gets padded with a towel to safely but securely hold a gunstock or barrel while cleaning, mounting/bore sighting scopes or drilling for sling swivels. I mounted a case trimmer, a small bench grinder (Harbor Freight's handy 3" variable speed model with a 2' extender shaft for Dremel type tools), a Dremel "Drill Press" and a powder dispenser on wooden blocks with a section of 2x2 stock underneath so they can be clamped in the vise as need arises. The vise itself serves as a small anvil or holds the various small metal objects I sometimes need to polish or file or bend or peen or stamp numers on, etc. I just couldn't do without my swiveling 3 1/2" mechanist's vise on the loading bench!

[schutzen]

I have 6”X4” wood workers vice with rubber jaw faces mounted on the end of my reloading bench. It receives as much use as the presses. Hold a gun upright or horizontal for cleaning, hold choke tubes for cleaning, it is the third hand you always need. As the old saying goes, "It's a handy as a pocket on a shirt!" I'll never have another bench without one.

[grumpy one]

Gee, I read teh topic and was all set to write about how I don't smoke, but a little dippin' or chewin' is okay and maybe a beer once in a while, a bottle of soada a lot of the time.

No really big vices though. :-)

Ron

(Hey, someone had to do it)

Thanks Ron, you're a big help. In case you care, vise is the US spelling of the name of an appliance that is called a vice in English. Here in Australia we speak English.

[1hole]

Grumpy, yawl a good bunch of boys but ya talk funny! ;)

[grumpy one]

We do, we do.

[BudRow]

I, like "ktw", mount my Lyman case trimmer, a RCBS powder measure and a bank of Lee Challanger presses on 2x4s then clamp them in the vise as needed. One press is solely for depriming. I think every room in the house should have a vise in it. I buy them at yard sales & flea markets - I'm a ***** for a good vise or visegrips. At least the nephews will all get a vise when I go.

[Char-Gar]

I can't imagine a loading room or shop without a vise or two. I have a 2.5" Palmgren on a swivel base mounted on the loading bench and a larger 5.5" Wilton on the workbench nearby.

The smaller Palmgren will do just about anything needed for handloading, but falls short for gun work.

[dmftoy1]

I have one and use the bejesus out of it for cleaning guns and other tinkering tasks. I just bought a standard steel one with teeth in the jaws and then made a couple of inserts out of 1/4 inch plywood and mounted it with 1/4 inch thick vegetable tanned leather. It's really nice because you can clamp down on something pretty good without ruining the finish. If you decide to you want to make up a set of the vice inserts let me know and I'll try to take a picture of mine . .it's pretty simple stuff to make a pattern with cardboard. Just leave two little legs that straddle the part of the vice that slides in and out.

Have a good one,
Dave

[NVcurmudgeon]

I have a lot of bench space but there is never too much. My shp is a long narrow room. A bench ab out 14' long runs down one side, and a short bench, mostly used for cleaning, occupies one end of the room. My vise is mounted on the corner of the short bench closest to the long bench. When cleaning a rifle or shotgun a cleaning cradle is mounted in the vise. The vise also holds the following tools, each mounted on a wooden block for vise mounting; Forster case trimmer, either of two Lyman 450 lube/sizers, and a bullet tray shelf reaching close to the Dillon Square Deal which is near one end of the long bench. As I said above, I have lots of bench space but the vise easily doubles it. My vise is a 3.5" which cost me three books of Blue Chip stamps in 1960, a better bargain than buying Manhattan for $24 worth of beads!

[454PB]

Not to hijack the thread, but I just read an article by John Barsness in the latest Handloader magazine wherein he claims you only need to clean your rifle every 500 rounds or so. Jeez, I've really been wasting my time.....

[Jim]

Yeah, I read that article, too. I thought "You ignore your rifles, I'm gonna clean mine after every shoot."

[smokemjoe]

I am like ATW, and you others. Got things hanging from the ceiling, But put most things in the vise,I wear a vise out in 4 -5 years. I figured I was the only to do this, Glade to hear others do it also. Smokemjoe

[imashooter2]

I am like ATW, and you others. Got things hanging from the ceiling, But put most things in the vise,I wear a vise out in 4 -5 years. I figured I was the only to do this, Glade to hear others do it also. Smokemjoe

"Wear a vise out"? How the heck do you do that? I've got big iron that's older than I am.

[VTDW]

Every shop needs at least one vise. I have a nice 6" that swivels. I use it for everything from pipe wrenching to holding metal for heating and bending. I picked up a pair of magnetic/thick rubber inserts for it from Harbor Freight for using it on barrels and wood etc. I also have a neat little swivel/angle vice with phrenolic that I use when I want to hold something small for the Dremel etc.

Dave8-)

[3sixbits]

Well, to answer your question. If you had one mounted on your bench, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it!

[MT Gianni]

A couple of slices out of 4" pvc pipe make a great soft shim in a vise. Gianni

[Bret4207]

Mount it on a portable stand. Very useful.

[grumpy one]

"Wear a vise out"? How the heck do you do that? I've got big iron that's older than I am.

I have four seriously heavy industrial metalworking vices - three 6 inch and one 5 inch - and the 5 inch could be described as worn out. Mind you, all of them are older than I am, and I'm past 60, but I wore that massive high-quality 5" vice out myself. I did it by using it as a press for years, before I got a real one. The nut is now loose - it's replaceable of course, but I'm too cheap to buy one, if they even sell them any more. I also used part of the vice as an anvil along the way, cold-forging spring steel, and that made a lasting impression. At this point it is a very loose old vice. All I did was retire it from active service, and mount up a 6" of the same brand and style instead. If I wear that one out, I have two more the same in stock. Yes, the 5" vice could easily be restored by about 45 minutes on the milling machine plus a new nut, but who'd bother in this throwaway age?

[cabezaverde]

Mount it on a portable stand. Very useful.

Right now, I have more bench space than floor space.

[beemer]

I made a gun cradle with two wood V-blocks and padded them with felt .I clamp it in the vice to clean and work on my guns. It is also used to hold trimmers and whatever else I can cram in it. After you set it up you will wonder what took you so long.

beemer

[cabezaverde]

I made a gun cradle with two wood V-blocks and padded them with felt .I clamp it in the vice to clean and work on my guns. It is also used to hold trimmers and whatever else I can cram in it. After you set it up you will wonder what took you so long.

beemer

I did set it up tonight.

[montana_charlie]

I have three vises out in the shop, different sizes and styles for different kinds of work. But I don't have one on my reloading bench.
Mine is a very compact bench which sits in a corner of my den. If tools, loading blocks, etc, are not stored immediately after use, I instantly run out of room to work.

I have a spot available, and I frequently wish I had a small vise mounted.

I have been considering one like the Wheeler Engineering model at Midway (which is currently below half price), but just noticed (yesterday) that it's a bit larger than I had in mind.
Among other possible jobs, it looks perfect for holding a rifle muzzle down to make a chamber cast...or muzzle up to use an Outer's Foul Out.

Because of it's flexible design, I may try to rearrange my loading bench to accomodate it.
CM

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

You wear it out by using it a lot. I've gone through a couple doing gunsmithing work. Lotsa work, lotsa pound of red hot iron and steel for some doo dad or another I'm making equates to a worn out vice over time.

Regards,

Dave

[Sundogg1911]

I have a very small vise that I use for filing a flat spot on a boolit or alloy sample
for testing lead hardness. it's also easier with the Lee hardness tester to have a boolit held stable in a vise

[Patrick L]

My bench uses the removable insert boards to hold most of the things that get used only occasionally. I mounted my vise to one of those. It slides into place all sturdy when I need it, and goes down on a shelf underneath when not in use.

[cabezaverde]

Hey patrick, where are you at in Upstate NY?

[dromia]

I use a cheap Netto £9.99 workmate type bench as a gun vise for cleaning etc. I also have a sheet of timber 4' x 2' with a piece of 2" x 2" screwed into the centre, I grip this the work mate if I need temporary bench space. All packs away against a wall.

[montana_charlie]

I also have a sheet of timber 4' x 2' with a piece of 2" x 2" screwed into the centre, I grip this the work mate if I need temporary bench space.
That almost describes my portable bench rest...
CM

[dromia]

Figured that it wasn't worth copywriting or patenting as an idea.[smilie=1:

Great minds etc............

[creekwalker]

I’ve always had a vise in whatever basement or garage I was working out of when reloading or working on firearms and fishing equipment, just never mounted a vise on my loading bench until lately. Now I have a small clamp on vise on my small bench and a larger 6”vise mounted on a portable tool stand that I have a scrap piece of ¾ “ plywood bolted to the base. Put your feet on the wood and its very solid for mounting bullet sizing or reloading presses into temporarily.

creekwalker

[BluesBear]

I have been considering one like the Wheeler Engineering model at Midway (which is currently below half price), but just noticed (yesterday) that it's a bit larger than I had in mind.

You can buy that same vice for $39.95 from Grizzly. (catalogue page 237)
They also have a couple of smaller ones as well as a nice 2½" clamp on model for $23.95

Their free catalogue is certainly worth having.

[montana_charlie]

You can buy that same vice for $39.95 from Grizzly. (catalogue page 237)
Yeah...the one at Brownell's was the first I found of that design, but they want $250. Midway's usually runs $70, so I always thought I would get the one from Grizzly for $40.
But Midway's is reduced (until late June) to $30...
CM

[Old Ironsights]

How many of you keep a vise in your reloading - gun cleaning room? Is it worthy of the space it takes up?

I have a nice condition used one (extra) that I am thinking about mounting there, and am wondering if it would be worthwhile.

Thought this was a thread about fooling around in the gun room, didn't you?

Here's my bench.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/MrMisanthrope/IMG_5834.jpg

Note the 6" vise bolted behind the 2 presses.

Don't take up much room and is awful handy...