# Mystery Kurt 3" vise -- hydraulic? pneumatic? Can anyone ID this thing?



## Meta Key (Aug 4, 2018)

I was searching the shop for something else and stumbled on this vise. It's been sitting in the back of a cabinet for years.

I'm thinking of throwing it on ebay but I don't really know how to describe it.  The shaft is not threaded and there is no mount for a handle.  It appears it was built for a pneumatic or hydraulic actuator but I don't know that for sure.  The movable jaw just slides; no manual way to put pressure on a work piece.  Must have attached to something else..

It's a 3" vise and the serial number indicates a "D" series.  But, the rest of it is a mystery to me.

Can anyone ID this thing?








Thanks!
MetaKey


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## 9t8z28 (Aug 7, 2018)

I have a D30 and it appears that someone had at once converted it to hydraulic.  It appears as though 2 holes were drilled and tapped on the end by where the handle would go.  Very cool find.  D30’s bring good money in stock form.  I dont know what its worth in this condition.  I can twll you that you wont be able to get spair parts for it from Kurt.  I bought all the last D30 components they had in stock except for the bearing.


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## 9t8z28 (Aug 7, 2018)

I’d be interested in the swivel base if you decide to sell it separate from the vise


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## Meta Key (Aug 7, 2018)

9t8z28 said:


> I bought all the last D30 components they had in stock except for the bearing.



So, it was YOU!  ;-)  

I did check with Kurt and you're right, no parts left except the bearing.  That's when I decided I didn't have time to restore it to original.  Would have fit nicely on my Clausing mill but, hey, so would the new Kurt DX4!

Anyway, I've put the thing on eBay with an opening bid of 99 cents -- we'll see what the market place decides it's worth.  Should be interesting..

MetaKey's shop cleanup auctions

Thanks for the info,
MetaKey


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## Meta Key (Aug 7, 2018)

9t8z28 said:


> I’d be interested in the swivel base if you decide to sell it separate from the vise



I suspect the swivel base is worth more than the vise!  I've put the thing on eBay and there are a few guys bidding on it but it's only up to about $10 last I checked.

MetaKey's shop cleanup auctions

Thanks,
MetaKey


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## wlburton (Aug 7, 2018)

Meta Key said:


> I suspect the swivel base is worth more than the vise!  I've put the thing on eBay and there are a few guys bidding on it but it's only up to about $10 last I checked.
> 
> MetaKey's shop cleanup auctions
> 
> ...


I had to replace one of the vise jaws on mine (it was missing when I got the vise with my 8520 mill).  The only place that I could get a stock hardened Kurt 3" jaw was MSC and it cost $60.  I expect the auction will go a little higher before it's over--there are a lot of good parts on that vise.


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## 9t8z28 (Aug 7, 2018)

Yup, you caught me!  I found my D30 in Texas and I’m in PA.   Thankfully a girl I went to school with moved to Texas right down the street from the seller because he was unwilling to ship it.  What are the odds!  I paid $350 for it and it was and still is in excellent condition.  It was every bit worth $350 to me since the 3” Kurt clones (which I also have one of) are not built like the real Kurts and my Kurt D40 was just to big for my X2 mill.  There was a guy a few months ago selling a few NOS 3” swivel bases on Ebay.  He was asking $500 each!  That was too rich for my blood.  I think you will get at least $300 for the setup but its Ebay and anything can happen.  I dont want to jinx you either so take that with a grain of salt.  I’ve been watching Ebay now for quite some time for Kurt D30’s and I have seen the vises alone go for $550 easy.  Good luck with the sale !
Heres my D30.  Same darker blue as well.  Its hard to find the correct darker blue to restore these.  Thats why I havent painted it yet.  





Meta Key said:


> So, it was YOU!  ;-)
> 
> I did check with Kurt and you're right, no parts left except the bearing.  That's when I decided I didn't have time to restore it to original.  Would have fit nicely on my Clausing mill but, hey, so would the new Kurt DX4!
> 
> ...


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## Meta Key (Aug 7, 2018)

wlburton said:


> I had to replace one of the vise jaws on mine (it was missing when I got the vise with my 8520 mill).



I'm wondering if the new Kurt DX4 will fit a Clausing 8520 -- gotta go look at the dimensions and figure it out.  If I had the time I'd attempt to rebuild this D3 because it would be perfect on mine.  I'm not unhappy with the 4" Wilton I have on there but, hey, a Kurt would be nice!

MetaKey


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## Meta Key (Aug 7, 2018)

9t8z28 said:


> I think you will get at least $300 for the setup but its Ebay and anything can happen. I dont want to jinx you either so take that with a grain of salt. I’ve been watching Ebay now for quite some time for Kurt D30’s and I have seen the vises alone go for $550 easy. Good luck with the sale !



Yup, that's a good looking vise ya got there. Gotta love those Kurts..

The ebay marketplace is weird. You never know what's going to happen.  I've developed a philosophy of putting stuff up for auction with a low opening bid and let the market place decide what it's worth.  I see lots of items with huge opening bids that never seem to sell and wonder what the thinking is behind that. Seems pointless to me..

Anyway, I expect whoever wants it the most will get it and I hope that person can put it to good use.  It's been sitting on a shelf here for a bazillion years so I'm obviously not the right guy to own it.

(If you bid and win the Kurt, let me know and I'll make an appropriate contribution to this forum.)

MetaKey


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## 9t8z28 (Aug 11, 2018)

I use the same phisophy when selling on Ebay because to begin with, when I am buying, I naturally look for products that are priced low on Ebay.
What is unique about the new Kurt DX4?  Does it open wider or is it because you can choose a model with the handle on the opposite end?  On Kurts website they state that the DX Series is the ultimate in flatness and parallelism.  I would have thought that they would have tried to get all of their vises as perfectly true as possible but I guess there is more they do with the platform of the DX series than they could with the D Series.  Maybe I’m completely wrong.  Also, it looks like all they did with the stationary jaw was to move the fasteners from being inserted from the bottom to the top and the key is now a part of the fixed jaw as apposed to the separate key that the D series uses.  The import knock-off Kurts have the fasteners coming down from the top instead of the bottom.  I always thought this was a cheap way the Chinese took a shorcut in cloning the Kurt,  
I guess what I am doing is trying to notice the differences.  Actually maybe I just noticed one major difference.  It looks like the bed slide way is now separate from the base.  It appears as though there are 2 holes for countersunk SHCS in the middle of the slideway.   Sorry for getting off topic. Maybe I should just do my own in depth research, haha



Meta Key said:


> Yup, that's a good looking vise ya got there. Gotta love those Kurts..
> 
> The ebay marketplace is weird. You never know what's going to happen.  I've developed a philosophy of putting stuff up for auction with a low opening bid and let the market place decide what it's worth.  I see lots of items with huge opening bids that never seem to sell and wonder what the thinking is behind that. Seems pointless to me..
> 
> ...


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## Meta Key (Aug 11, 2018)

9t8z28 said:


> What is unique about the new Kurt DX4? Does it open wider



That's what caught my eye -- the opening is about twice that of the D4.  A 4" vise that opens to about 8" would be a good thing. Sometimes ya just can't quite fit a workpiece into a 4" opening..

MetaKey


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## 9t8z28 (Aug 11, 2018)

I agree.  For the size of the Kurt D40, I was disappointed that it did not open wider.  My 3” toolmakers vise opens over 4” and that was the main reason I got rid of the D40.   It’s obviously more robust than my toolmakers vise but I don’t need to hold anything that secure with a mini mill


Meta Key said:


> That's what caught my eye -- the opening is about twice that of the D4.  A 4" vise that opens to about 8" would be a good thing. Sometimes ya just can't quite fit a workpiece into a 4" opening..
> 
> MetaKey


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