Mobile Boat Vice

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gregcope

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Hi All,

So, problem trying to solve was the need to pin things down when working on bits of the boat. For example removing/sawing anchor chain links. I decided to make a mobile boat vice. The vice was a spare, inherited from I have no idea where. The chopping board was 2nd hand from my wife. The feet were standard rubber feet from ebay (£3.79). Machine screws, nuts/washers I had lying around. I had to order another, thicker, chopping board (£19) as my recycled one was too flexible.

So whilst it was blowing a F8, son and I created this;

boatViceZoomed.png

Slightly over engineered. Some bits of wood and some molegrips might have been simple and easy. Now also has a dyneema carrying handle.
 
Definitely handy to have a vise on board. Mine clamps onto the companionway steps together with a benchtop to protect the woodwork.

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Pete
 
I usually find that a Mole wrench clamped to the pontoon suffices, but I'm not in the habit of reconstructing my boat.
 
For serious bodgery, we have an old mechanic's vice bolted to a length of scaffold board. We use it in the bottom of the GRP tender, keeps the swarf out of the yacht.
I also have a market-stall clamp-on swivel vice which lives on board, it can clamp on the companion way steps, or various other places like locker tops. Useful for small work and holding cables while soldering or even ropes while splicing.
 
My boat vice is a small clamp on one which fits to the cockpit table with a piece of 19mm plywood on the table filling the gap betreen the two fiddles, and a small scrap of thin ply protecting the underside of the table
 
October 14th

ghostlymoron said:
Like your archaic spelling vise/vice. Mines a Parkinson's Perfect Vise
Click to expand...

Ghostly, really! Which part of the United States is Shropshire, these days? Take care to note the highlighted words...

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JohnGC said:
I use a pair of players with an elastic band to hold them closed.
Click to expand...

Footballers, thespians or cigarettes? :confused:

I'm tired of using mole-grips and clamps, especially when trying to induce bends into stainless sheet, but isn't a handy compact clamp-on vice far less beneficial for ease of doing the actual job of work, than a wide-jawed vice which isn't so convenient to store?
 
Last edited:
Cripes, you're right!

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I bought a 6" Magnussen today. Seriously cheap, and it doesn't feel like a precision instrument, but I hope it's okay for what I need.
 
I'm thinking I'd need a bigger boat to make that mobile. I wonder what the cartoon means..."the perfect vise for live men."

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I have a 6 inch bench vice which bolts onto my fender board. I use it four or five times a year for cutting and finishing wood or metal, most recently cutting stainless bolts and tubing to size.

I've also learned the importance of not cutting or drilling steel on the boat. Even though I did the work over a large tarpaulin and then brushed up afterwards, scores of little bits of swarf and dust must have escaped and are now disfiguring my foredeck and cockpit with rust spots. Stainless my arse!
 
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