[How-To] Advise for a Vise

[matthewsx]

This seems a perineal question. I have a 9x35 baby Bridgeport clone and I own two 6” Kurts and a 4” Shars vise. One of the Kurts lives on the table and I have needed both on occasion.

If I was buying from new I would probably get a 5” vise, best I could afford. But, I really haven’t had a problem with the 6” and it does add mass.

Of course I got a great deal on the Kurt that I did buy, the other came with the mill.

Yes, it does look big, but I’ve yet to have a situation where that matters.

John

 

[Charles scozzari]

Thats the same set up I have. It hangs off the side but the work in is where it should be on the table.There was some talk about the swivel base, all I see was a loss of Z travel so I removed mine. Thanks.

 

[SouthernChap]

I like your choice and also have what I feel are one of these generic vises that are popular because of the price. They mate well but I found they do not hold evenly under load. Lock up on a Parallel to make sure they hold the work correctly / squarely. Had to shim the stationary jaw to get it to hold correctly.

I recently picked up a Vevor 4" vice.

I had previously managed to pick up a couple of 6" Abwood vices and one 4" Abwood vice (got all three for a song from Charter Auctions in the UK. It seems that the other bidders were put off by a bit of grime and some worn paint; they're all smooth as you like and nary a bit of movement of the workpiece at the moment the vices are tightened) and found that even the 4" caused me restriction with Y axis movement (mind you, my table's only 8 x 26") because of the design.

So I took a look at some YouTube 'reviews', wasn't entirely convinced by them but thought it's worth a punt at that price and bought it.

When it arrived, I stripped it down, cleaned it good (there was a fair bit of dirt under the jaw faces) and put it back together again noting that the counterbored clearance holes for the SHCS in the jaw faces were probably a little more generous than they should be.

I checked the squareness and parallelism of the faces, and I found that providing the surfaces behind and below the jaw faces were clean and the SHCS were screwed in carefully and tight, all was good.

I've checked jaw lift with a tenths DTI, and there's virtually none; most I've seen is between 1 and 2 tenths. Guess Vevor ripped off that accu-lock (or whatever it's called) real good!

Maybe I've been lucky but for the price, I reckon mine's a pretty good vice.

All the above said, if someone can afford (either or both the money and space on their table) a vice from a more reputable manufacturer; I reckon used or new would be a better idea. If I had a deeper table, I'd not be selling the Abwood vices I think.

 

[kenart]

A friend loaned me this older Kurt D675 6" vise to try out on my Drill/Mill. I got everything cleaned up and mounted, and I will make some test cuts with it today. A very substantial vise and doesn't seem to be taking up too much room on the table. We are going to make new jaws for it. He picked it up om Marketplace years ago and has never used it.
Let me know what you guys think...

 

[SouthernChap]

A friend loaned me this older Kurt D675 6" vise to try out on my Drill/Mill. I got everything cleaned up and mounted, and I will make some test cuts with it today. A very substantial vise and doesn't seem to be taking up too much room on the table. We are going to make new jaws for it. He picked it up om Marketplace years ago and has never used it.
Let me know what you guys think...

Yeah, looks better on your larger table than my 6" Abwood looked on my mill-drill. The dog-leg handle on the Abwood 6" vices fouled on the Y handwheel handle, which was a serious irritation as I'd have had to have found or made a shorter handle for the vice.

Hard to tell from the angle of the pictures, so you may have more space than it seems between the column base and the rear of the vice but it looks a bit like the situation with my Abwood 4" which was just about a quarter of an inch too long so it hit the column base just before the end of travel of the Y axis.

If that doesn't bother you, or you can get full Y travel then why not? Especially if it's free or permanent loan, why not?

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I like where you have mounted your hold-down tooling. I believe that I will do that with mine when it arrives. Thanx

I suggest away or above the mill as these are chip catchers/magnets.

That just means you’re one of the “not most”

Never in my 40yrs in this sport have I used one, and I actually despise them.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Thank you for that. I will visit Shars site.

Precision Mathews has some nice vises at reasonable prices.

 

[dabear3428]

Greetings! New member here, and new to the hobby of home machining. I have acquired a Logan lathe Model 1920, and a Jet JMD-18 Drill / Mill. I am beginning to acquire some tooling so I thought I would ask some advise regarding a Vise for my Drill/Mill. I know that Kurt Vises are some of the best, but my budget does not allow for that. I am looking at a Vevor

VEVOR High Precision Milling Vice 6 Inch,Bench Clamp Vise Nodular Cast Iron Material,Flat Clamp Vise Mill Vise for Milling Drilling Machine and Precision Parts Finishing​

Would this vise be a good one to use on my Jet JMD-18 Mill?
Appreciate your thoughts

I have one of those on my Grizzly g0758 (6X20 table) and it is to large, I modified my z slide to give me 4 additional inches of Z clearance and it works but a 4" would be better. the Vevor quality is what it is, keep in mind that you are the QC team for Vevor, inspect and return immediately if defective. at the end of the day it is a lot of vice for little money, getting started with it worked fine for me, I also have the 4" Vevor with swivel base and it works. is it a Kurt quality vice? no not even close, are you at the skill level where the limitations of this vice are the limiting factor of turning out good parts? will you make mistakes and run the end mill into your $800 Kurt vice multiple times before the vice becomes the limit of the quality of your work? for me the answer is most likely yes.

 

[Manual Mac]

Kenart,I have never had a problem with chips on my hold down tooling in all the years they’ve been mounted there.
And I use the mill often.
What I really want to see are photos of the old blue H.D i see in the background of one of photos.

EDIT: I apologize if I sounded a bit harsh on Vevor products in a previous post.
And although I think it’s a crapshoot with some of their products, they are inexpensive and sometimes we (me included) have to make do on a limited budget for our hobbies.

 

[kenart]

Kenart,I have never had a problem with chips on my hold down tooling in all the years they’ve been mounted there.
And I use the mill often.
What I really want to see are photos of the old blue H.D i see in the background of one of photos.

EDIT: I apologize if I sounded a bit harsh on Vevor products in a previous post.
And although I think it’s a crapshoot with some of their products, they are inexpensive and sometimes we (me included) have to make do on a limited budget for our hobbies.

Thanx for the advice. That will be a convenient place for the tooling in my small area.

This is a 1956 Panhead. I work on the vintage bikes, own a few. The Drill/Mill and the Lathe are going to help in keeping this old Iron on the road.