I’ve always found a bench vise to be a very useful tool. Its uses on a sailboat are every bit as great as in a home workshop. For a long time however, I couldn’t get past a couple nagging problems when using a bench vise on our boat. First, it’s big and awkwardly shaped making it difficult to conveniently store on the boat. Second, it really needs to be held down firmly to get the best use out of it and I could not find anywhere on the boat to accommodate a permanent mounting (without raising the ire of the 1st mate!). I tried just using a smaller vise that was easier to store, but it wasn’t beefy enough to do a number of the jobs I needed done. Plus, I still had the mounting problem.
One thing we decided to do once we moved aboard the boat was to turn the aft cabin into a storage area instead of a sleeping area. It is very useful for storing our rolled up inflatable kayaks when they aren’t on deck or in the water. We also wanted easier access to the rear of the engine compartment without having to take all the bedding out every time and also to be able to get at all the storage compartments lying under the mattress.
I got permission from the 1st mate to commandeer one of these storage compartments for my vise arrangement. The compartment I chose had a just large enough opening and depth to fit a good size vise. That solved the storage problem. The lids to all these compartments sit in recessed “lips” of the berth base so their surfaces are flush with the rest of the base.
I turned my compartment lid upside down in its recess and bolted the vise to the underside of the lid. This made for a nice firm mount that is prevented from shifting around by the recessed part of the base. It worked so well, I was able to fit the base of my dremel tool drill press on the same lid just behind the vise. This picture shows the vise with the jaws completely closed and overhanging the drill press base, which is necessary for it to fit through the opening when stowed.
The vise can be swung out of the way on its own built-in pivot whenever I want to use the drill press. I can also orient the lid in the other direction (back-to-front) if I need more space to work with larger material on the drill press or the vise. The drill press itself, another awkwardly shaped item, conveniently stores in the bottom of the same compartment so it’s always at the ready. This setup makes for a nice “workshop” when needed.
All I need to do to stow the vise is carefully (it’s heavy) turn the lid right side up again and set it back in place, and the vise simply hangs from the underside of the lid in the compartment. The vise in these pictures is large enough to easily crimp a terminal onto the end of 4/0 AWG battery cable, which was one of the first things I used it for.
2 Responses
Tom- A good use of the space along with the addition of a very useful tool. Your reference to the dremel drill press was interesting. I did find that the dremel was a very useful tool aboard. I particularly liked the fibreglass cut-off wheels which I used to cut open stuck padlocks, metal bars I used to make parts etc. I don’t, however like the dremel prices. Harbor freight makes dremel like tools every bit as good, and oftem 1/3 of the cost. They also make a 12 v rotary tool which I found to be worthless.
Yes – I agree the dremel prices are very high. I got mine a while ago before all the copycats emerged. I now have a Milwaukee tool version of the same thing (far cheaper and uses the same battery as all my other tools ) and it fits perfectly into the older dremel drill press. The cheapest way I’ve found to get the cutters is to buy a whole mixed set of them from Harbor Freight. The set includes a lot of bits I’ll never use, but overall it’s still the best value for the ones I do use.