Thread: machine vise advice

I have this Chinese 4" one. This is a convenient size for an RF30, so should be fine on an RF25. It is heavy, reasonably accurate, and came with a graduated base which allows 360 degree rotation. The vyce suffers from fairly bad jaw lift. The base has sat in the cupboard from new twelve years ago because:
1. It makes the vise very heavy to handle
2. It reduces the headroom under the spindle and
3. In 12 years I have never yet found a job where it was needed.

Because of the jaw lift I probably would not buy this design again, nor would I bother with a base which allows the vyce to rotate if I bought another one.

Frank.

I would look for a vice like this

Manual Vise, 4" - Kurt Workholding

There are chinese clones of the 6" version..

reasons why I like this style is the jaws can be removed and placed at the back to increase the opening width, plus there are other jaw styles available you can just bolt on..

One of my books says that the heavy mill vices are needed more for horizontal milling. It recommends using a cheap drill vice, skimming all the important surfaces and making a longer moving jaw to stop jaw lift. Would certainly be cheap enough to try.
Stuart

G'Day.
I recently purchased a used RF 31 which came with a god awfull 3" tilting vise and was in the market for something a bit more solid, around Melbourne I was quoted $240-250 for 5" imports. I ended up purchasing on line from Ozme for $147 delivered. arrived in 48hours.
The not so good:
Out of the box the gib strips were loose, tightening them locked the slide solid, this required fitting .005" shims to get a smooth action with no play. The handle as supplied is rude crude lump of cast iron that is too long to clear the X axis handle, this was turned down, parted and mounted at right angles which makes for a convenient crank handle.
The good:
The lower working surface is within .00025" front to back and side to side, this is much better than I expected . All up quite reasonable value for money.
Regards,
Martin

[quote]The base has sat in the cupboard from new twelve years ago because[quote]Thats pretty much where mine sits these days.Unfortunately I dont have the time to buy a tool and muck around with it to reduce jaw lift etc.. maybe one day.For many of us I recon spending a bit more here will save a lotta hassles. No need to go as far as a Kurt, theres plenty of cheaper stuff that will work fine for HSM.

I bought a Glacern 5" Kurt clone a few months ago, but it is coming via a freight consolidator, apparently I might see it by Christmas. Total price will be around $400 shipped. Reviews suggest they are Kurt quality 40-50% cheaper.

Greg

gregoryq can you let us all know how it performs.

"The not so good:
Out of the box the gib strips were loose, tightening them locked the slide solid, this required fitting .005" shims to get a smooth action with no play. The handle as supplied is rude crude lump of cast iron that is too long to clear the X axis handle, this was turned down, parted and mounted at right angles which makes for a convenient crank handle.
The good:
The lower working surface is within .00025" front to back and side to side, this is much better than I expected . All up quite reasonable value for money."

I have the same vice and agree with this completely, only I didnt have to shim mine to get it smooth (just tightened the loose gibs). Im going to get another one so I have matching vices for working on long stuff.

well looks like i will have to keep looking maybe father xmas will make a decision

I sent Eskimo a link to the Asset vises a while back, but I see they have shot up in price now.
The one he bought looked very nice and he is happy with it.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/milling-vice-113165/

They have a lot of others as well as some new Southbend vises? I wonder if these are coming from Papa Grizzly in the US?

Dave