Do I need a swivel base for a mill vise?

It never occurred to me that one would want to use the swivel base to make a curved cut. That seems dangerous beyond belief. Until I have proved to myself that the numbers on a swivel bezel represent actual angles (put the stock in the vice, turn it to 47º, mount a sine bar and tram the work to verify that it is 47º) I would not trust the numbers within probably 5. I can clamp my vice itself on the table with that accuracy using angles or protractors.
 
I have never wished for a swivel base for my Bridgeport 6" vise. If I had one, it would live in a dark corner of the shop, just in case... For the few rare times a swivel base is actually useful, rigidity and headroom are given up on every project in between. By the time I could have the swivel base installed and set up for a job, the job would already be done using other more rigid and more accurate methods. For my smaller bench vise on the workbench, I would not be without a swivel base, I use it constantly. For making arced cuts and slots, use a rotary table, not a swivel base!

Edit: A swivel base also makes the vise heavier, and vises are heavy enough already. I remove and replace my vise often for table access and for installing other workholding tooling, and would not appreciate the additional weight.
 
cathead said:
Jeff,

I built a little indexing jig from wood that clamps in the vise with repeatability. The pin is located at the center of the
axis of rotation and used to have it centered if that is needed. Clamp down the workpiece or many times I have clamped the
work with wood screws. Then loosen the bolts on the vice so it will rotate and cut with an end mill. I used this method to make
discs or rings of various sizes. I have a rotary table as well but for small and simple jobs, it works just fine. The metal strip with
the two screws makes the jig indexable to center the pin every time. The screws go into a short
piece of 2x6 clamped in the vise and the 2x6 is also affixed to the top plate.
Click to expand...

Got it. A poor mans rotary table. For the occasional use I see the value in that. If I had to do it a lot I would move to a rotary table.
 
T Bredehoft said:
It never occurred to me that one would want to use the swivel base to make a curved cut. That seems dangerous beyond belief. Until I have proved to myself that the numbers on a swivel bezel represent actual angles (put the stock in the vice, turn it to 47º, mount a sine bar and tram the work to verify that it is 47º) I would not trust the numbers within probably 5. I can clamp my vice itself on the table with that accuracy using angles or protractors.
Click to expand...

But if you used layout lines and locked the vise down repeatedly and just used it to remove the major waste. Then remove the waste between, you could actually do it. Just a lot more work

My question is just about cutting an angle across a work piece. I also see an advantage of the swivel. I can't see under my vise to the dial. I had to add 2 new marks for zeroing the dial off about 30 degrees to be able to zero to something. This would give me a better view of the dial and give me a little more room under. I wouldn't need that much if I had a DRO.. but one step at a time. Learn to use the dials accurately.
 
Just for the record, when using the rotating base with the vise, the material used mostly was thin aluminum .032 (2024T3)
and you have to feed the cutting manually by rotating the swivel base. This must be done somewhat carefully with thin
material but it doesn't seem to grab significantly. Thicker metal sheets is somewhat easier as one can just apply an even
pressure on the vise to rotate it. Do this at your own comfort level. If reasonable care is used, it works pretty well.

Also, the work needs to be fairly well affixed to the wood plate to do a nice job.
 
For me when I had my shop the swivel base on my Bridgeport meant speed doing set ups not to mention just plain old indicating the vice in . Back in the day a lot of my jobs were aircraft air frame parts with not one flat or square edge , I made a tooling plate that clamped in the vice I could then bolt down the part on the plate and produce any angle required . . But that was production and I was trying to make money , because most of us here are hobby machinist I think a swivel base would be nice but not a requirement .
 
I'm very happy with my CNC vise. Ground all sides. With a Starrett protractor it sets to any angle I need.
 
I have a 4" swivel based vise on my mill/drill, the extra height has not been a problem. I seldom use the swivel but was happy it was there a couple of times, no experience with a sine bar and clamps usually get in the way. Most of my work is just straight lines and grooves. Haven't noticed any problems with rigidity nor head space, I do have to run my work to one side to change some tools but that is due to avoid retraming when raising the rotary head on the round column mill. Maybe that is a height problem! The 4" vise is lighter than my 6" but I prefer it due to having additional space on the table.
As has been said earlier it is a convenience when needed and in extremely precise work other angle setting procedures are required.
Have a good day
Ray
 
Hi Jeff,
I have a small swivel vice, useful on small work, anything big I plan in advance to bolt / clamp to the table* and "indicate the protractor"; on the new (to me) mill I'll probably mount the work square to the X axis and then swivel the table and cut in Y... For arcs I have a 6" rotary table close by to bolt either direct to the table or on a sturdy angle plate as a (manual) 4th axis. No tailstock for that yet, but when I make/buy one it'll also be alignable (is that a word?) on the mill table with the lathe spindle for work outside my lathe's 30" between-centres capability - although there'll still be a gap in the range from 30" to about 48" and I'll have to make things longer and cut them down, it'll give me a lot more space to work on the first 30" or so of long workpieces. But I digress :)

Dave H. (the other one)

* a sheet of MDF or Al under it as a sacrificial so I don't put Shameful Grooves in the table, e.g. N(TM) Mill has a total of 6 off 4mm drill marks, that's plenty for me!
 
I had one that came with the mill I bought 3 years ago and thought I never needed it. Yesterday I used it for the first time and it came in really handy. I had to mill Symmetric angles on a bar along with chamfers. It made it super easy because there was only one setup. Mill one side, flip the part over, and do the other side, and it is concentric. Then I set the head to 45º and did the chamfers. I bet others will tell me a better way, but this worked well for me.

Chris
 
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