Vise (vice) on ballast/counterweight?

[inpo44]

I want to add a vise to the counterweight I built a few years ago.

I can't work out if it is best to have it on the right, left or in the middle.

I'll mount it with the fixed jaw a few mm (a-something of an inch ) behind the rear face of the block.

Where would you mount it, and why there?

Thanks
Ken

View attachment 786736

Here is how I did mine

 

[Jstpssng]

Love the idea of a vise on the counter weight. Now I have to do it. My vise bolted to a stump is rotting anyway.

It's also a lot harder to move around than your tractor is.

 

[kenlip]

Here is how I did mineView attachment 792784View attachment 792785

That's a great looking ballast block. I should have bevelled the corners on mine.

I am a bit puzzled by the vise position. It seems that one has to be standing on the tractor side of the block to use the vise. How can you do that if the ballast is attached to the tractor? I understand that the vice swivels, but then one would be stretching over the side or back of the block. That would also preclude putting anything vertical into the vise when it is swivelled away from the position in photo.

Clearly, I am not understanding the situation properly.

 

[inpo44]

That's a great looking ballast block. I should have bevelled the corners on mine.

I am a bit puzzled by the vise position. It seems that one has to be standing on the tractor side of the block to use the vise. How can you do that if the ballast is attached to the tractor? I understand that the vice swivels, but then one would be stretching over the side or back of the block. That would also preclude putting anything vertical into the vise when it is swivelled away from the position in photo.

Clearly, I am not understanding the situation properly.

That pic shows it in the” I need a big vice in the back corner of the barn mode”. For wood cutting, I spin the mount 180 in the top receiver hitch. Or one can go in any of the 3 receivers on the back side of the block.

 

[kenlip]

That pic shows it in the” I need a big vice in the back corner of the barn mode”. For wood cutting, I spin the mount 180 in the top receiver hitch. Or one can go in any of the 3 receivers on the back side of the block.View attachment 792910View attachment 792911View attachment 792911

Now it makes more sense to me. I am super-impressed with the thought that you put into the ballast. I wish had I had seen it before I built mine. I definitely would have 'stolen' some your great ideas.

 

[inpo44]

Now it makes more sense to me. I am super-impressed with the thought that you put into the ballast. I wish had I had seen it before I built mine. I definitely would have 'stolen' some your great ideas.

Well, that would make them “double stolen”, because I came up with that design after reading a bunch of ballast block builds on this fine forum. I did a thread on the build called “3pt Concrete ballast build for logging/ firewood” in the Build it Yourself section. Good luck with your project.