picking a mill vise hellppp

As far as vises are concerned, my personal philosophy is to use one that commensurate with the mill and the expectations of manual machining. The really cheap ones for 50-60 bucks aren't worth a darn as they lack a sliding jaw pull-down mechanism to help keep the part from rising when it's tightened. Also, the really cheap ones are out of square/parallel by 5-10 thou.

I get along just fine with the basic ones we sell through PM. I just cleaned all my shop vises (5 of them) and trammed all my mills last week. Incidentally, my mills haven't been trammed in about 18 months and they were no more than 1 thou out and I got them all back well within a half thou over a 6.5" circle. After re-mounting the vises, I checked their surfaces (bed rails and horizontal rear jaws) and they ranged from almost dead-on up to a couple thou. This could easily corrected by using aluminum foil to shim the jaws or, just make new ones (which I often do). The bed rails themselves are very flat, even and parallel. I have no problems cranking-out parts "perfectly" square with mid-range quality vises. I like keeping $300 in my wallet too...

FWIW, I see a lot of folks damage their vises by putting offset pressure on them. This happens when you clamp a piece only using half the jaw surface. This puts a twist in the rear jaw that could forever damage a vise. Always try to hold a piece in the center of the jaws or, if you must put off to the far left or right side, use a parallel, piece of dummy stock or hard oak wood of the correct thickness on the empty side. Your pieces will come out better this way and you won't twist/break the rear jaw.


Ray
 
Marco Bernardini said:
Did you use them as a shim?
:roflmao:

I wasn't aware of PM vises, they look nice and have reasonable prices.
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Yes, I shimmed my wallet a little bit. I like sitting a little lopsided.

Anyhow, the pictures of the vises shown on Matt's page are not up to date and I've been bugging him to take that portion down. We carry a different brand now. The Homge units are very hard to obtain and we can only get limited supplies. I have two of those and they're very good. The one now available is a clone of the Homge but at a much better price. I have three of those and they function just as well. No doubt they have appeared in many of my photos posted here over the years.

... As for what's wrong with a 5" vise on a 9x32 table, the rear jaw sits too far back and limits the use of Y travel. I've posted threads about this.

Ray
 
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CNC type vises offer the versatility of having a larger vise AND maintaining full travel.

Because you're not limited by fixed bolt holes on the vise, the rear jaw can be flush with the rear of the table if you wish.

Or anywhere else you may want it for that matter.

Get a bigger vise, still keep all your travel.
 
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Senna said:
Ray points out another huge advantage for the CNC type vises.

Because you're not limited by fixed bolt holes on the vise, the rear jaw can be flush with the rear of the table if you wish.

Or anywhere else you may want it for that matter.

Get a bigger vise, still keep all your travel.
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Generally speaking, I politely ask that people not reference me directly (by name) when making recommendations. If someone has an idea or opinion of their own, state it with your own name and reputation behind it.

The fact is, I dislike CNC type vices for general milling purposes. Using pinch clamps is a total time consuming pain and many work-holding accidents happen because of them. Do I own/use them? Yes. Do I think they're appropriate for most general milling purposes? -No.


Ray
 
umahunter said:
Ok I've been pondering this for awhile and I'm confused. I've got a old jet mill drill and I'm thinking a 5 inch vise is the best size not to heavy not to big my choices are limited my biggest quandary is how great a vise I need. the top for me is a glacern or next any of the other chi vises at less then half the price I've been going back and fourth and I'm lost I mean I'm not gonna build a space shuttle but I might lol thanks for any help
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Whatever larger vise you decide on don't limit yourself to just one vise, seriously you can never have enough vises kicking around, I have 2" and 3" toolmakers vises and I use them as much or more than the bigger vises, it's very convenient to size the vise to the work by times, I like the toolmakers vises because they can be clapped in dam near any orientation conceivable and be used in conjunction with each other to produce angles, I've also seen plan sets around for building your own vise if your up for a project.
 
Don B said:
Whatever larger vise you decide on don't limit yourself to just one vise, seriously you can never have enough vises kicking around, I have 2" and 3" toolmakers vises and I use them as much or more than the bigger vises, it's very convenient to size the vise to the work by times, I like the toolmakers vises because they can be clapped in dam near any orientation conceivable and be used in conjunction with each other to produce angles, I've also seen plan sets around for building your own vise if your up for a project.
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I like to use toolmaker's vises on tilting angle plates like these:

http://www.shars.com/products/view/376/5x6quot_Swivel_Angle_Plate

There are all kinds of ways to hold stock with this combination. You can even drop a piece though the vise and clamp it on the angle plate to work on the ends.
 
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