Thread: DIY El Cheapo Gun Vise

Bottom line up front:
1 x functional gun vise- Total cost - one afternoon of scribbling on a notepad and cutting wood in the garage. This was built from scrap timber and some wood clamps I had sitting around and most importantly, does the job.



I've seen a couple of gun vises around (storebought and DIY) and thought that they would probably be handy for cleaning and doing light rifle modification.
I haven't seen it done quite this way so thought I would put this up so you can a) you could admire the shoddy workmanship b) marvel at how I didn't die using a power drill and c) improve on this very basic design for your own afternoon projects.

As it was my day off I decided that I would do something semi-productive (and didn't feel like weeding the garden) so rather than forking out for one of the plastic fantastic vises, I did a little bit of homework on what other people have done.

There were a lot of awesome handmade vises people have put together but they tended to require a higher level of skill, specialized tools and/or expensive materials, all of which I lack.

for example this work of art that someone else made:



So I decided to create my own bastardised gun vise to do what I needed it to do:
-be simple and convenient to use
-hold firearms securely enough to work on/ clean them
-hold each type of firearm I own
-be non-marking
-be cheap - free
-not be permanently bench mounted
-be relatively lightweight/ easily stored/ not a giant monstrosity

So what I came up with was the idea to incorporate a couple of spare irwin quick grip clamps that I had lying around (2 for $10 at mitre ten bargain bin)
One-Handed Mini Bar Clamps - Tools - IRWIN TOOLS with some scrap timber I had sitting in the shed. These are the second smallest in their range but are still rated to 140lbs. If you wanted to go really hard out they make 300 and 600lb versions

I decided to use these clamps at both the barrel and stock ends, as I thought an unsecured barrel end might allow too much wiggle room if trying to do anything significant.

From there I attached two timber support structures, one taller than the other, to a 750mm base. The taller support structure only has the one hole for mounting the clamp, while the lower, longer support has two holes to allow the clamp to be mounted in different positions to accommodate different length weapons/ provide different angles.



All I had to do to install the clamps was drill holes in the timber to fit nice and snug and remove the roll pin from the clamp so that it can be disassembled.

To use, I just put it on my work bench and hold it there with a g clamp at either end, providing a nice stable work platform.

When I'm not using it, it is a 2 second job to remove the quick grips if I want to use them for other jobs. The rod on the clamps themselves are quite long (they can open up to over 30cm) so if I decide it really annoys me I might cut them to a more manageable length

The next steps with this are to add cutouts to hold cleaning rods and bottles etc and add a protective coating to the wood that can handle common firearm cleaning solvents.

Any suggestions on a good coating would be appreciated as would any other bright ideas for improving this beast.

Cheers

a very productive afternoon in the mancave -well done on the enginuity.

Cool

Anyone know where you can get those plastic knob things shown in the second picture above?

Comac in palmy has all the nobs you could ever need



Sent from the swamp

+1 on comac , they have everything you could ever need ,,,, their catalog is freaking huge

good for you, looks well made.

Originally Posted by Beetroot

Anyone know where you can get those plastic knob things shown in the second picture above?

try the beehive they aren't plastic tho

Cheers for the feedback guys. I was cunning enough to tuck the empties out of sight - so I didn't kick off the great tui vs speights vs lion red war of 2015. The next iteration will have to have a bottle holder built into it, just because.

I have used it a fair bit over the last couple of days and it has massively exceeded expectations. I don't now how I ever got by without it.

I have used it with a half dozen weapons, in various states of dis-assembly ranging from full rifle, to barreled action to barrel only, and it has accommodated them all perfectly. My absolute favourite thing about it is that I can now easily work on weapons in any orientation at all - muzzle up, muzzle down, action rotated through 360 degrees. It is also solid enough to use to hammer out pins with a punch, which is ideal. I found myself turning a rifle on it's side to hammer out pins with a punch and that made life 100% easier.

Now I'm planning to make a rack of sorts for cleaning kit and probably finish the whole thing in a polyurethane wood finish to protect it, as it is already accumulating a few oil spots

I've now decided not to bother with a rack/cutouts for cleaning equipment, as it is just more stuff to get in way and fall off when I hang the vise up. I've also settled on a black truck bed spray, tough, scratch proof and chemical resistant. And best of all, I already have a can lying around. I'll put photos up today or tomorrow when it has dried

Here's a photo of the completed gun vise. Painting is complete and the truck bed coat is nice and grippy and seems pretty robust. I also added a SWR loop to help hold it in place when I hang it up on the wall. The more I use this thing, the more useful I find it.

This thing is definitely the best weekends work I have ever done. I find myself using it for everything I do, both with the guns and for other tinkering. This thing has just about replaced my bench vise for anything light- medium duty.

It's just awesome how it can hold anything in any orientation for me to work on
-my 10/22, stripped to bits for fitting a new charging handle