yeah, in spite of owning a magnablock, there are times i resort to the dumb old bowling ball vise i made years ago. it's powerful ugly, but for certain jobs, it's my go to vise !Great tools Monk!
My best friend wanted a chasing hammer once and I said that we could cast the hammerhead I had in bronze. When we were finished I gave him my steel hammer and kept the bronze one myself. Although I had to solder a few cracks once I still use that hammer with a lot of pleasure and back to memorylane stuff.
I just love making tools myself!
Greetings,
Daniel
THE bowling ball center is drilled about .5" x 4" deep. the top is milled flat. most anything that suits your fancy can be affixed onto these things. very easy to drill and tap.also shown is a tripod roll around with locking casters for the ball. the ball socket is a 6" dia. pvc fitting for large industrial piping. the lovely red thingy is a dead flat .5" nylon plate with a.5" x 4" shaft attatched. it rides in the hole in the ball. the plate is drilled/tapped when needed to hold flat stuff. all the junk except the casters was obtained free at my local junkyard. ugly, yes cheap, yesDoes anyone have a photo of a bowling ball vise? I kind of have one pictured in my mind on how I would build one..... Just wondering what others would look like.
Thanks,
Dennis
thanks for the note about the balls. ther'es one of those treatment plants not 3 miles from that junkyard. ooh, you would have to clean that bugger good with some alcyhol !Monk
Don,t forget about my first vise [ three wood screws ] it,s really cheap to make...[PS] I did use 3 wood screws for a while, but i don,t recommend them to anyone..It was in a time when we had to make do with what we had, i didn,t have a computer when i started carving coins and never heard of a engraving vise, graver, etc..