# CME Mill Vice?



## Justmillingaround (Apr 20, 2021)

I did a thread search and was not able to turn up any info on one of these vises.  Does/has anyone own/owned on of these CME 6" Mill vises?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164636573954?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&fromMakeTrack=true

Being that I am on limited budget, and really just starting to dabble, I would like to gather the thoughts of others wiser than I.  TIA


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## Shootymacshootface (Apr 20, 2021)

I have not bought a vise from CME, but I have bought many other things. Some of the items are a chuck, several L00 backplates, and various tooling. All items seem to be CME branded imports, and I have been more than satisfied with everything. 
On import Kurt clone vises, which are very ubiquitous in the hobby community, they seem to be within advertised tolerances. The only thing to be careful of with them would be when clamping on only one side of the jaw. Always use a machinist jack on the other side. I have a Shars 6" Kurt clone at work that my gorilla assistant tweaked the body of the vise by unevenly loading the jaws.
That is a really good price for that one. I would say to get it.


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## macardoso (Apr 20, 2021)

I bought a Shars 4" Kurt clone in 2013 for about $140. Finally, 8 years later, I did a full analysis of the accuracy and found it atrocious.

If you go this route, I'd make sure you have the capability to evaluate the accuracy of the vise to see if it meets specifications, and have recourse to return if it does not.









						Scraping my Shars 4" Milling Vise
					

Been working on a steam engine and really been having a hard time holding parallelism on parts where one side is machined and then flipped onto parallels in my milling vise. I finally stuck an indicator in the spindle and tested the vise and found it to be almost 4 thou out of flat with the...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


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## pacifica (Apr 20, 2021)

My concern, besides accuracy, is how strong the iron castings and lead screw nut are. Sometimes I really crank on my Kurt vise but feel confident it can take it. Also the nut on a Kurt is 4 to 5" long.


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## benmychree (Apr 20, 2021)

Cheap enough for sure, I had an old friend who had a saying about cheap tools "the only way you could get hurt is if you try to use it"


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## Justmillingaround (Apr 20, 2021)

Thanks for your inputs.  My thought was that I can buy this and replace it 3 times for what a Kurt costs.  As long as I don’t go 600 lb gorilla on it, being that I would likely be the only user, it may survive a while.  

I like the suggestion of using jacks to keep the jaws squared up.

Any more advice or first hand experience is always welcome!


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## ErichKeane (Apr 20, 2021)

Justmillingaround said:


> Thanks for your inputs.  My thought was that I can buy this and replace it 3 times for what a Kurt costs.  As long as I don’t go 600 lb gorilla on it, being that I would likely be the only user, it may survive a while.
> 
> I like the suggestion of using jacks to keep the jaws squared up.
> 
> Any more advice or first hand experience is always welcome!


As someone who typically doesn't mind buying 'cheap' tools under that attitude, the vise is the one thing I wouldn't skimp on.  The problem isn't durability (though that is a problem as well!) it is poor construction quality that ends up making you screw up 'easy' things because your vise flexed, was inconsistent, fell out of tram, etc.

 That 6" vise is the same one that Precision Matthews and numerous others sell to various levels of quality control.  Macardoso's recent adventure with one shows the quality you get out of them.  Additionally, someone recently had a problem with jaw lift on them on this same forum.

FWIW, having owned both, i would never again own one that wasn't Kurt, Orange, Glacern, or one of the similar ones.

That said, what size mill are you going to use this on?  That 6" might be too large for your machine (a mistake many of us have made), and you  might be better off with a 4" screwless vise (tend to be better made, even the 'cheap' ones), or the Glacern 4": https://www.glacern.com/gsv_440


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## Justmillingaround (Apr 20, 2021)

ErichKeane said:


> As someone who typically doesn't mind buying 'cheap' tools under that attitude, the vise is the one thing I wouldn't skimp on.  The problem isn't durability (though that is a problem as well!) it is poor construction quality that ends up making you screw up 'easy' things because your vise flexed, was inconsistent, fell out of tram, etc.
> 
> That 6" vise is the same one that Precision Matthews and numerous others sell to various levels of quality control.  Macardoso's recent adventure with one shows the quality you get out of them.  Additionally, someone recently had a problem with jaw lift on them on this same forum.
> 
> ...


Erich, thank you for your insight.  Having a 6” vise being too large was actually something that hadn’t crossed my mind, I was thinking the bigger, the better.  The machine has a smaller table I believe, I haven’t gotten it home yet, and haven’t measured the table yet.  I posted here some pictures and what info I have on the mill.  I have plenty of time to shop for accessories since I am going to have to go through this thing thoroughly, I will keep eyes open for a good deal on a used Kurt maybe or the like.


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## ErichKeane (Apr 20, 2021)

I don't have a good idea of the scale there, but it appears to be a full-size clone or so?  So a 5 or 6" vise would fit just right.  I think your plan to keep an eye out for a used Kurt/etc is likely the best idea.  A new Kurt 6" is about $550, the Glacern is about $350-$450 (depending on size), but used Kurts show up often-enough in the $200 range on ebay or craigslist.  Its worth the wait!


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## Manual Mac (Apr 20, 2021)

I have the 5” version of the CME vise for my 9-1/2 X 32-1/2 mill table.
It is amazingly accurate for a “budget” vise. Maybe I just got lucky.
I did disassemble it and smooth the half ball and the socket it rides in & I have no jaw lift.
I have no problem with the CME tools I have purchased.
Cheers


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## WobblyHand (Apr 20, 2021)

ErichKeane said:


> Additionally, someone recently had a problem with jaw lift on them on this same forum.


That was me.  Spent a bit of time trying to make the vise a little better.  (Jaw lift wise.)  My conclusion is to either buy a good vise, like a Kurt, Orange or Glacern, or to buy a toolmaker's vise.  I have a 3" toolmakers vise.  It is amazingly better than my lower cost PM vise.  My next vise will be either a 5" toolmakers vise, or a 4" Kurt, or Glacern.  A decent vise makes one's life so much easier.  I had to learn this the hard way.


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## pacifica (Apr 21, 2021)

WobblyHand said:


> That was me.  Spent a bit of time trying to make the vise a little better.  (Jaw lift wise.)  My conclusion is to either buy a good vise, like a Kurt, Orange or Glacern, or to buy a toolmaker's vise.  I have a 3" toolmakers vise.  It is amazingly better than my lower cost PM vise.  My next vise will be either a 5" toolmakers vise, or a 4" Kurt, or Glacern.  A decent vise makes one's life so much easier.  I had to learn this the hard way.


I had a 5" mainland China made bench vise I was giving to a friend. I disassembled it, buffed the lead screw , secured the nut, milled the bottom of the slide, installed ball detents to hold the slide tight, greased everything, milled jaws parallel. It worked for him but no matter what I tried I could never get it satisfactory or accurate for me. The iron it was cast from was terrible quality under the coat of thick blue paint.


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