a tilt-a-whirl positioning fixture

[Bob Blarney]

Hello, I wandered in through a space/time portalrfrom from another artisans' universe, but here's something that might be useful to shipbuilders

 

(I'm sorry, you'll need to tilt your head to the left; I can't get the pics to cooperate clockwise.)

 

I'm getting to an age where I like to position a workpiece so that is comfortable to work, for my eyes, hands, neck, and spine (It's Hell getting older!) So I made this Plumbers' Special positioning fixture from ~$25 of 1/2" pipe fittings and some scraps. It allows me to position a workpiece at a comfortable height and attitude. There are two floor flanges, two unions, and a few nipples. The captured service wrenches are made of baltic birch. I haven't decided how and where I will permanently mount this fixture, and so for now it's just screwed and clamped to the corner of my bench. Also, I suppose 3/4" or 1" pipe & fittings might be heftier, but I'm not chopping wood here.  -- I'm doing fine work.    >>>For model building, 3/8" pipe & fittings might be more suitable.<<<

 

Obviously, your hull should be fixed to a mounting plate to prevent a shipwreck tragedy.  I hope this is useful to you.

 

[Bob Blarney]

I forgot to mention, that you could mount a small bench vise on this too.  This might be even more useful to model builders.

[HSM]

That's quite an ingenious device. Thanks for posting it!

[AON]

Now that is thinking outside of the box!

Pipe unions!

Who would-a thunk, eh?

[druxey]

Elegant but simple. Well done, Bill!

[Bob Blarney]

Hello, someone alerted me to this 'better mousetrap.  This might be much more suitable:

 

http://www.jerryhartzell.com/wood-carving-on-a-budget/jerrys-wood-carving-vise/