Which size of vise should I get for a bench mill with a 840x210mm table ?

[verbotenwhisky]

I've been looking at swivel vises, it seems that when you remove the base, you can install it on the table, and it becomes a "normal" (non swivel) base.

In other words, is there a downside to having a swivel, can you get it out of the way when you don't need it ?

It isn't about the size of your table as much as your vertical clearance. I have a PM940 and a 5" vice which came with the swivel base, under normal use I take the base off of it. In your case the swivel adds about 1.5" of height and that is 1.5" vertical height you cannot use for tooling or work piece. Just a thought.

 

[rodm1]

6"

 

[RaisedByWolves]

The size (4 or 6) refers to the jaw width not how wide it can open.
I have that mill and I bought a 4" vise.
At ~17" long a 6" is too big IMHO as it overhangs the front of the table by a large amount.

You could mount a 4" in both axis but holding it down in the non-standard orientation will require some strap clamps.

It will only hang out 1" more than on a full size mill.

The amount it hangs out from center (Weight? Really?) is not the issue, rather, can you work the handwheel and locks under it. There is also the issue/advantage of some vises giving you more usable room towards the column. I prefer my 3" vise on my minimill, but the 4" has that extra usable clamping space letting me shift the work a little for more usable travel.

Mounting it transverse really might not be feasible with either size depending on the vise and mill table, no guaranty's there save for a vise with hold down slots meant for this.

Something like this, either in 5 or 6" may be the best of both worlds.

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With toe clamps you could put this wherever and however you like.

 

[DavidR8]

A 6” Glacern vise is 17” long.
From the Glacen site:

The ears to clamp it down are 5.69” from the back of the vise.
This is a picture of my mill table (the same mill as the OP). It is 8.25" deep. The 5.75” mark of the tape is over the middle table slot.
The front of the tape measure is at the 17” mark.

I would not want my vise overhanging the front of the table by that much nor would I want to loose that much Y axis travel on the column side.

 

[Aaron_W]

You are allowed to have more than one vise.

I have a Clausing 8520 which has a 6x24" (152x610mm) table. I got the mill with a 5" vise, which in my opinion is too big, as you lose about 2" of the already small 6" of Y travel due to over hang on the column side of the table. I ended up buying a more reasonably sized 4" Glacern vise.

It just happens that on my projects using the mill so far I have mostly used the larger 5" vise... The 4" vise really is better suited to the mill, and long term I'm sure it will see more use, but a "too big" vise can be nice option to have available.

5" no name on the left, 4" Glacern on the right, 1" more vise is a lot more vise than it sounds like. When mounted in the rear T slot the 4" sits flush with the front edge of the table, the 5" has a significant overhang even in the rear slot.

 

[matthewsx]

I have two 6” Kurts and a 4” Shars vise for my 9x35 knee mill.

I haven‘t mounted the 4” yet but have used both 6” Kurts at the same time. If I was starting out fresh I’d probably go with a 5” but I don’t mind having a bigger vise, it adds mass in a useful place I think.

John

 

[OCJohn]

Auction market perspective... I've been going to a lot of machine tool auctions over the last few months and have seen almost nothing but 6" vises. The few 4 and 5" mill vises I've come across have been of lower quality (in the same shop!) as the big vises, yet they typically sold in the same price range. 6" is clearly the industry standard. As are 6" jaws, parallels and handles... Supply and demand for 4 and 5" stuff is just not in the hobbyist's favor.

After 3-4 months looking, one auction had so many good, 70/80s vintage Taiwanese 6" Kurt clones that I finally succumbed. The 6-inch is definitely big on my Rong Fu 31, though not as oversized as I'd feared. The deal was too good to pass up, so it won't be the end of the world if I need to pick up a 4" import down the road.

I'm still new, with very little milling and tool buying experience. But the 6-inch vise, R8 spindle and 5C collet standards seem to be where the bargains are. Baby-boomer and Gen-X small shop owners are retiring in droves.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

A 6” Glacern vise is 17” long.
From the Glacen site:

The ears to clamp it down are 5.69” from the back of the vise.
This is a picture of my mill table (the same mill as the OP). It is 8.25" deep. The 5.75” mark of the tape is over the middle table slot.
The front of the tape measure is at the 17” mark.

I would not want my vise overhanging the front of the table by that much nor would I want to loose that much Y axis travel on the column side.

I have a 5" that I bought when I purchased My Mill from Precision Mathews and it is 14" total length with 3.5" hang off on the crank side and 1.5" on the column side which isn't an issue for me.

I never thought about this until this discussion....

 

[mickri]

I have a 4" Shars that came with a swivel base. I removed the swivel base and made a backing plate to fit the swivel base with the same 1 1/2 x 8 tpi threads as on my lathe spindle. This allows me to swap a chuck back and forth between the lathe and mill without loosing concentricity on the lathe. Not as good as a rotary table but useful for drilling bolt circles and machining angles.





The swivel base and the vise live on the table. With nothing on the swivel base but the backing plate it is below the level of the vise so it doesn't interfere with using the vise. With a chuck on the swivel base the chuck is higher than the vise so the vise doesn't interfere with whatever is on the swivel base. I have the center of the swivel base dialed in with the coordinates written down so I can quickly center the swivel base under the quill.

 

[durableoreo]

The size (4 or 6) refers to the jaw width not how wide it can open.
I have that mill and I bought a 4" vise.
At ~17" long a 6" is too big IMHO as it overhangs the front of the table by a large amount.

You could mount a 4" in both axis but holding it down in the non-standard orientation will require some strap clamps.

I have a 6" Kurt vise on an RF-45 (a little bigger than you mill) and it's too big. The stationary jaw is deep enough that it consumes a large amount of table travel in Y. I think you'll be happy with a 4" vise. Everything for you mill should be in the right scale in order to do the best work.