Evaluating a vise?

[Aaron_W]

I just picked up a 2 axis, 2"Wilton vise (this one) which Mikey recommended to me sometime ago for my mini-mill. Production has shifted to India so ebay is flooded with copies around $100.
I found a real Wilton on Amazon sold by Wilton for $108 (the only one, now they are showing out of stock at $252). At that price I figured I had nothing to lose, it had to be at least as good as the no name imports and was a similar price, Amazon Prime so free shipping.

It showed up today, I was hoping it might be an older made in USA, but as expected it is made in India "to Wilton specs". It does have a good quality of fit and finish and it will hold a piece of paper in the jaws tight enough to prevent any slippage, the paper tears before it will move.

Other than making sure the jaws align tightly and the vise moves smoothly is there anything else to check?

 

[mikey]

Check for jaw lift as you tighten the vise. Get something flat, put it on parallels and lightly tighten the jaws. Put a dial indicator on top of the work piece close to the dynamic jaw and tighten the vise to see how much lift there is. These vises have adjustment screws under each side of the dynamic jaw; adjust them to minimize lift. You cannot eliminate lift but you can get it pretty close.

 

[pontiac428]

Also check the bed for parallel to the mill table. I was staring at an otherwise nice Kurt 6" vise on Saturday that was twisted .003 across the bed on the x axis, which was sad to see, but illuminates another inspection point.

 

[Aaron_W]

There is no documentation for this vise except for a sheet with the parts breakdown. How will adjusting the gibs change any lift? There are 4 bolts per gib, it isn't clear to me how this would work. To put it another way, if I did find it lifting it is unclear how I would reduce that by adjusting the gibs, tighten, loosen, selectively tighten / loosen some of the nuts? It seems like a different issue that adjusting the gibs on a lathe.

As far as checking that the bed is parallel, I could do this by placing a parallel taller than the jaw height into the vise and indicate across the top?

 

[pontiac428]

Indicating across the bed would be a direct measurement and very accurate, but it may not give you a clear picture of how it would affect your work. Using a parallel will give you the total X variance, and although it may be affected by clamping, gives you a real-world indication of precision. There are probably a bunch of ways to do it. I know that Glacern and Kurt include QC spec sheets with each vise, I'd probably follow their tests to see if I was in spec or out for the sake of comparability.

 

[mikey]

There is no documentation for this vise except for a sheet with the parts breakdown. How will adjusting the gibs change any lift? There are 4 bolts per gib, it isn't clear to me how this would work. To put it another way, if I did find it lifting it is unclear how I would reduce that by adjusting the gibs, tighten, loosen, selectively tighten / loosen some of the nuts? It seems like a different issue that adjusting the gibs on a lathe.

There are no gibs on this vise. The dynamic jaw slides on the bed and the bed has a projecting rail on each side. The jaw has a square U-shaped side with screws on the bottom of the U. As you tighten the screws it pulls the jaw down on the bed and takes up play, thereby reducing lift. Look at it and you'll figure it out.

 

[Janderso]

Is this for the Clausing mill Aaron?
Surface grinder?
If rigid enough I can see how it would come in handy on a mill. The price was right

 

[Aaron_W]

Indicating across the bed would be a direct measurement and very accurate, but it may not give you a clear picture of how it would affect your work. Using a parallel will give you the total X variance, and although it may be affected by clamping, gives you a real-world indication of precision. There are probably a bunch of ways to do it. I know that Glacern and Kurt include QC spec sheets with each vise, I'd probably follow their tests to see if I was in spec or out for the sake of comparability.

Since it is a tilting vise I would assume that any error in the bed could be dealt with unless the jaws themselves are out of whack (I believe that is the technical term ).

There are no gibs on this vise. The dynamic jaw slides on the bed and the bed has a projecting rail on each side. The jaw has a square U-shaped side with screws on the bottom of the U. As you tighten the screws it pulls the jaw down on the bed and takes up play, thereby reducing lift. Look at it and you'll figure it out.

Ok that makes sense then, I wasn't seeing how they did anything but adjust how easily the jaws moved.

Is this for the Clausing mill Aaron?
Surface grinder?
If rigid enough I can see how it would come in handy on a mill. The price was right

It was suggested for my Sherline, but I see no reason I couldn't also use it for small projects on the Clausing or Diamond mill as well. I have no idea why it was so cheap, there is no indication that it was a return or blemished example.