# Mods to $40 Chinese Cross Slide Vise



## Tmate (Oct 31, 2020)

I bought a cheap Chinese compound vise off eBay the other day.  This thing was terrible!  Ways were too rough to permit any movement, jaws were jagged, lead screws were sloppy, with maybe 1/4" backlash.  It looked like it just came off the mold, or whatever, and was painted.

Today I took it apart and de-burred the jaws, smoothed out the ways, gibs and other surfaces, cleaned it all up and reassembled it.  I didn't' take pictures while I was doing it as I had no idea how it might turn out.  I was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as they say.

While it still has plenty of backlash in the lead screws, all axes slide smoothly with no slop.  I think it is a usable piece of equipment for drilling holes in a straight line, drilling to the exact center of objects, etc.  Now worth the $40.  All it took was a fair sized three sided file, some medium grit emory cloth, and a lot of elbow grease.  I used a block of 3/4" cold roll plate with emory cloth to smooth out the the jaw slide surface.


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## MrWhoopee (Oct 31, 2020)

Well, maybe not silk, burlap perhaps.

Some nice work and, no doubt, educational.


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## DavidR8 (Oct 31, 2020)

Thanks @Tmate I got the same type of vise with a floor mount drill press. It’s pretty sloppy in all respects and is currently living on a shelf under my lathe. 
If I get ambitious I will definitely refer back to your post for reference. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## hotrats (Oct 31, 2020)

I bought one years ago at a flea mkt. for the reasons you list, it's been pretty much unused. When I get things sorted, I'll have to follow your lead. Thanks for the tip!


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## Packard V8 (Oct 31, 2020)

Waaaay back when, my high school band director, Joe Perkins, (may he rest in peace)  gave us some advice which has served me well;

*You can't polish a turd.*

jack vines


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## Larry$ (Nov 2, 2020)

I've had one for a long time. After some similar cleanup work I put handles on the center gibb screws to use as locks. Bolted to the table, I could use the movements to get the part accurately located & with a stop mounted I could do repetitive drilling. Mine had Vs in the jaws. Before i had a mill I tried using the drill press and this vice, Didn't work. Not because of the vice.


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## ThinWoodsman (Nov 3, 2020)

hotrats said:


> I bought one years ago at a flea mkt. for the reasons you list, it's been pretty much unused.



I think we need a support group for people who have bought one of these for their drill press.


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## Winegrower (Nov 3, 2020)

I bought a $49 vise with the 90 degree tilt feature, thinking I would dedicate it to my shop made tilt table, and have compound capability.    As noted above, the thing was terrible.   From 5 feet away, it certainly LOOKED like vise, but did not measure like one.    I ended up reworking the lock feature on the tilting function, cleaning and tuning up the movable jaw threads and clamping it in a setup on the mill and flycutting the base square to the bed and fixed jaw of the vise.

And now, it's more or less functional.   I have to think of these as "vise kits".


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## FanMan (Nov 3, 2020)

I too bought one of those cheap cross slide vises years ago, it was at some kind of job lot store.  I had an idea that I could use it to mill small parts on my drill press (before I bought a real mill).  I managed to make a couple of simple parts, but the vise was real junk... I think the axes  were about 85°, not 90, and it had no rigidity at all.  I've occasionally used it since when drilling, but unless there's a setup I don't want to break I'm more likely to do my drilling  on the mill, I use the drill press mostly  for wood nowadays.


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## Alcap (Nov 4, 2020)

Also bought one and tried modifying it by attaching it to and angle plate on my small lathe before I had a mill .  The slides not machined and yea not 90*   never finished it  And like those above  I saved it and most likely  never use the parts but because I spent about $75


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