Receiver Mounted Vise

Ulma Doctor

Infinitely Curious
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Feb 2, 2013
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For years i have done some of my work in the field the hard way!:nuts: The worst part is i have mastered repair under the most unfavorable of conditions. It seems that i'm the only lifeline between life and death for the equipment i work on. Not many are learned of my profession, as i have specialized into food processing and packaging machines of all types and sizes, from the most basic to complex interfaced systems.
Some of pieces of equipment are literally as old as i am, some are just so problematic others have given up due to sheer insanity or lack of understanding. I give myself a 99.98% success rating as there has been only 2 machines in my career that i haven't been able to raise from the dead. I get called in when nobody else would or could touch the deceased, or they have messed it up so bad trying to fix it themselves .
I like those ones the best, they usually require lots of hours of repairs and are just down right amusing sometimes.
I digress...Back to the original point.

I never had a vise on my pickup. What have i been thinking??? :dunno:

Well, boys and girls all that has changed......

I have a class 3 hitch receiver on my Toyota Tundra . Up until today it was only used for mounting a 3way ball hitch, or my shop made 7500# tow/choker hook. I'll detail the process as follows:

I bought piece of fence tubing .070" from Home Depot. conveniently the foot was already welded on the bottom. I made a 45* miter.

miter cut.JPG
I had a piece of .125" thick plate, and rendered a 4"x 4" piece, then set to mitering at 45*

gussets.JPG

I broke out the new HF 90 amp Flux Core Mig w/Lincoln innershield 211, .030" to put her to the test...

visemountwelded.JPG

The foot that came on the fencepost was useless as a vise mount, it was too thin and too narrow
I had a chunk of cold rolled .375". I laid out the vise footprint.
Drilled in the drillpress size W clearance holes for 3/8-16 x 2" mounting bolts.
The vise footing was also clearance drilled to size W as well, because the original holes were M10.
vise plate.JPG

I then inverted the mount ,welded the new vise footing on , redrilled clearance size W through holes that were partially blocked
viseplatewelded.JPG

I mounted the vise with the 3/8-16x2 Grade 5 capscrews,dry,
torqued to 31 ft lbs, using grade 8 nuts
mounted&installed.JPG

I put a feedscrew into the vise to test, it passed with flying colors!!!!!

mounted&installed2.JPG

Another look with the tailgate closed.

mountedtaigateclosed.JPG
A good mount dirt cheap. Start to finish 3hrs.
I should have done it years ago.....
Thanks for looking.
Mike:))

miter cut.JPG gussets.JPG visemountwelded.JPG vise plate.JPG viseplatewelded.JPG mounted&installed.JPG mounted&installed2.JPG mountedtaigateclosed.JPG
 
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Yet, another good idea for mobile welding and fab.
Thank you!

Daryl
MN
 
Another really great idea is to weld 4 reciever boxes under each corner of you work bench and make a holder for a vise, chop saw, Clamp plate and whatever else you find that you commonly use like a grinder. Then you can interchange the tool to suit your needs while preserving 100% of the table top for the project, fixtures or jigs. If you install several around the perimeter you can also nake a backxplash/chip catcher and table extensions as well as a sacrificial cutting grate for Oxy/Acet or plasma torch too. TSC sells the box material cheap and any metal or welding shop will have the thick walled material to mount the plate onto. Install a shelf on the table or build a rack to hang on the wall and you can store all of you mounted tools ready to use and easilly accesable. Enjoy the idea!!!
Bob
 
Great idea!

I might be tempted to make some kind of a removable jack foot to the ground. So that if you realy need to beat on something it's not bouncing with the truck suspension or bending your mount...
 
Another really great idea is to weld 4 reciever boxes under each corner of you work bench and make a holder for a vise, chop saw, Clamp plate and whatever else you find that you commonly use like a grinder. Then you can interchange the tool to suit your needs while preserving 100% of the table top for the project, fixtures or jigs. If you install several around the perimeter you can also nake a backxplash/chip catcher and table extensions as well as a sacrificial cutting grate for Oxy/Acet or plasma torch too. TSC sells the box material cheap and any metal or welding shop will have the thick walled material to mount the plate onto. Install a shelf on the table or build a rack to hang on the wall and you can store all of you mounted tools ready to use and easilly accesable. Enjoy the idea!!!
Bob

that's the best idea since sliced bread. Thanks a million! Bob.
the more i get into this site, the better it gets.
mike:))
 
Great idea!

I might be tempted to make some kind of a removable jack foot to the ground. So that if you realy need to beat on something it's not bouncing with the truck suspension or bending your mount...
Thanks,Dave!
funny you said that, i had considered putting a 6" hunk of 1" pipe welded to the side of the unit and taking some 3/4" cold rolled round and making a floating/adjustable leg drill a couple holes in the pipe put a couple weldnuts on,add some setscrews...baddabing!
thanks for the reply!
mike:))
 
Thanks,Dave!
funny you said that, i had considered putting a 6" hunk of 1" pipe welded to the side of the unit and taking some 3/4" cold rolled round and making a floating/adjustable leg drill a couple holes in the pipe put a couple weldnuts on,add some setscrews...baddabing!
thanks for the reply!
mike:))

Since you wouldn't need the foot all the time. You might utilize a pole and an ok'd screw jack, or even an old auto scissor jack. Doesn't have to be pretty... Right?
Just throwing out ideas...
 
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