Pm-932 Vise

abrace

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All,

Looks like I will be buying a PM-932 from Matt after all. Unfortunately, he is all out of HOMGE 4" vises and won't have one for quite a while. I am looking for recommendations on a decent affordable vice for the 932 in lieu of the HOMGE.

Yes, I know, Kurt D40...but they are scarce on CL and EBAY. I want something affordable and attainable.

Decent precision and quality would be great, but I am not doing machining for nuclear power plants. This is all basic stuff.
 
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I had to look up Homge but this low profile one looks very much like my (no longer made) Bison. Smallest one, 100mm = 3.94". There is another name that looks conspicuously similar, GS maybe? Anyway I'm every happy with this style on my RF-45 mill. Low profile, very precise, excellent clamping & nil part movement when clamping. Not sure how it compares to your more conventional mill vise style $ wise. I know when I compared height vs. Kurt & clones I gained something like 2" headroom which was a good thing on my mill. It doesn't have the angle swivel base but when I had one on another vise a) I didn't use it much b) it removed even more headroom c) the angle is just a guideline anyway, its not precise, it wasn't ground that great, it tilted the vise a bit at different angles. Another nice feature is the continuous slot along the whole vise base which gives much more flexibility to clamp to T-slots of different widths & configurations. This can be a headache when casting lugs or slots are mismatched & you cant set the vise where you ideally want it. Food for thought anyway, good luck.

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Unfortunately, he is all out of HOMGE 4" vises
If Matt has any 5" HOMGE vises in stock, you might want to go up an inch. I have the 5" on my 932, and it fits just fine. Been using it for just over a year now and I love it. Happy New Year, JR49
 
I have a 4" vise that Matt gave me with my PM45 & I have a 5" Glacern. I prefer the 5" much more. I only keep the 4" around cause it has the swivel base but I rarely need the swivel.
 
I just bought a PM-932. I'm running a 5" vise and I think that the mill handles the size well. The only problem I have with it is that my vise uses a cast in boss for the hold down bolts. This limits the mounting options as they have to line up with the table slots. I think a 5" vise with the mounting side slots (no boss) would be just about perfect. That way you can slide the vise forward or backward as needed.
 
I have a glacern 6" its excellent quality. I highly recommend the glacern vise.

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I priced out Glacern, unless there is some special coupon codes I don't know about they seem almost as expensive as a Kurt D40...especially after you factor in Glacern's ridiculous shipping.
 
I have the 4" vise that came with my mill, but I often needed more clamping capacity. I wanted at least 6" between jaws, so I opted for a 6" vise. I picked up a super cheap 6" import from an auction then modified it for my application.

By re-machining the fixed jaw mounting holes and keyways, I was able to relocate the fixed jaw and gain full cutter access to the edge of the piece. It also gave me more travel towards the movable jaw, as the bed of the vise now fits beautifully under my column ways. I still have ~6.5" of clamping capacity as well.

While likely an unpopular solution, it has been a huge win for me and only cost me 50 bucks. If I need more accuracy, I can just bolt on some soft jaws, take a clean up cut, and the vise is then as accurate to the machine as possible.

All of this being said, if there were a 5" vise with a 6"+ clamping capacity, I would consider getting one. This 6" vise is pretty big/heavy.

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Not sure if the gallery images will work for everyone so here's a couple embedded pics.

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