[Smitty151]

I need to hold two parts in an exact position, steady, long enough to get some measurements. Two more arms/hands would be fine, but I’m not going to trouble the wife or a neighbor, besides humans have a tendency to slip out of position. The two pieces are not an ideal fit, actually I need both pieces suspended next to each other, not necessarily touching, yet inter-connected so I can take both over to the welding bench and not disturb their relative positions, so I can have enough time to both measure and fabricate/weld a custom bracket which will ultimately connect the two parts thus preserving the positioning. In summary, I need to devise a way to prop two parts next to each other where the position/angle of the parts are precise yet not ideal. Furthermore, the two parts must be propped from each other – cannot prop part A from the table, and prop part B independently off the table too.

Sorry for those constraints but to help shed more light on my project, I am repositioning an ignition switch on a motorcycle triple tree. Position of this switch is critical due to the mechanism which allows the steering to lock when the key is turned to lock. Therefore, I’d like to suspend this switch in mid-air right next to the triple clamp while mocked on the bike to achieve the alignment I need. Then remove the triple clamp from the bike, and take it over to the welding table to complete the job, all while maintaining the relative positioning between the clamp and ignition switch assembly.

I open to suggestions .... but I was thinking about making my own “extra hands” tool, aka welding two vice-grips together facing opposite directions with some simple metal arms/joints/bolts linking them. Take one vice-grip and bite the triple tree, take the other vice-grip and bite the ignition switch. Use the bolts/arms to align and lock the two pieces to each other.

[weldin mike 27]

Hey, go to you tube, and find the CHANNEL called " the at home welder" he has videos of easy cheap fixtures to make. He has lots of videos so it might take a bit of searching.

Mick

[RichardH]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008BJECYC/

A couple of these at different angles (so they don't pivot) should do the trick.