# New (to Me) Kurt Vise



## Surprman (Apr 17, 2015)

View media item 94674View media item 94673
Finished the refurbishment of my new D40 Kurt vise.  I know, Kurt vises are supposed to be blue, but I had lots of left over nice (and expensive) Sherwin Williams alkyl enamel paint from my lathe refurbishment, so it was going to be light green and match my other tooling.  Have not used it on anything, but it seems awesome- a huge upgrade from the puny 2 inch vise I bought with the mill from Grizzly.


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## 4GSR (Apr 17, 2015)

Looks really nice.  I bought a new/used D60 vise like yours a couple years ago.  Cleaned it up, didn't paint it though, and use it everytime I use the mill!  Bought a new set of harden & ground jaws from Kurt, too.


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## Surprman (Apr 17, 2015)

Thanks.  I bought it at the cabinfever expo last weekend.  It was good to actually see the vise in person- I was thinking I would want a D60, but realized that a 4 inch is much more appropriate for my size mill. I will need to get another set of jaws too.  The ones that came with it have a step in it.  That might be an issue if I need to make something smaller than the gap between the top edges.


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## hman (Apr 18, 2015)

Yup ... that step looks like it's for a very specialized machining job. 

As for stepped jaws in general ... if you ever go to soft (ie, aluminum) jaws, you might want to machine in some small steps, ala Rick Sparber:
http://rick.sparber.org/Articles/sj/sj6.pdf

PS - your vise looks absolutely great in its new paint!


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## pineyfolks (Apr 18, 2015)

Nice vise. The jaws may be counterbored for the screws on both sides so you can turn them around.  If not they look thick enough for you to do.


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## kd4gij (Apr 18, 2015)

Nice vice collor is just wrong. But to each his own. It does look kind of big for that mill.  It also looks like you have lost alot of Y travel on the back of the table. I mounted an Igaging scale on the back of my G0704 table but after alot of frustration with loss of travel I moved it to the front and cut thelip off the back of my vise. With these small mills you need all the travel you can get.


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## Surprman (Apr 18, 2015)

The vise is not too big- I think it is the best size for the mill. (The picture makes it look bigger than it does in real life) Neither the vise or having my igaging scale on the back impact my travel in the slightest.  As for the color, it matches my other tooling and blue would not.  (Actually I don't think this vise ever had any paint on it (even new). There were no signs of paint (even around the small riveted name plate).  The paint I used is great, high quality stuff.  It makes it look neater and will also make clean-up easier.  I'm not concerned that it is not the original factory color because 1) my shop is not a Kurt factory museum and 2) it's a vise.


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## kd4gij (Apr 18, 2015)

I did not mean to offend you ,was just joking about the color.  And as far as travel My G0704 table will go all the way to the column Mabe yours dont.
 It is all good chears man.


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## itsme_Bernie (Apr 18, 2015)

I love Kurt vises, and that looks awesome!! 
What else did you need to do to refurb?  
Did you use that trick putting it in a press to tighten the stationary jaw down?  
I just ordered three rebuild kits from Kurt for my vises here
Bernie


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## Surprman (Apr 18, 2015)

No offense taken, I knew upfront that the color was not the usual thing for a Kurt vise  I'm looking forward to actually cutting something in it.  It holds really well.  I just trammed it in this evening.  It is within. 0.001 all the way across in Y and also within 0.001 in Z ( I was more concerned about that, because that is harder to remedy Z if it is out)


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## Surprman (Apr 19, 2015)

Bernie,
I just cleaned everything up, painted and installed the rebuild kit items (well, most of them).  My vise has a threaded section with a ring and grub screw to hold the lead screw in place.  Newer models look to have some sort of groove with a split ring in it.  There was also an O- ring that was supposed to fit forward of the thrust washer/bearing assembly, but it's diameter was too big for the flange on my leadsrew.  Those items stayed in the bag.  I had read about the press trick.  I didn't do it and my vise came out fine in Z as I mentioned above.  Maybe on bigger vises that is more of an issue.
Rick


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## Mark in Indiana (Apr 19, 2015)

Excelled restoration job!


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