How do you rate a Kurt vise compared to a chinese knockoff...

Last year I bought a new Chinese 3" Kurt clone for my minimill. I used it a bit, seemed OK. Then a teardown posted on another site made me curious, so I took mine apart and checked everything. It was mostly OK except for one very important area.
Cast into the base is an angled face that is the base portion of the angle-lock mechanism. This is the part that faces the table at about a 45-deg angel. The sliding part mates with it at the same angle, with a half-ball between them to even out the forces left/right.
That half-ball sits in a small curved cavity in the base, in the center of that angled face.
On my vise, that angled face was poorly cast with no real angled face. It was basically a big misshapen cavity. There was some sort of socket for the half-ball, but it was rough cast (not machined) and fit poorly, and in fact the half-ball had fallen out and was buried in a glob of grease on one side.
I was able to mill out that pocket and grind a new socket, so now it works OK. But as-shipped it was junk.
So at the least, tear down a Chinese vise before you start using it. Or before you buy it, if possible. They are simple to take apart and reassemble.
 
I have used both. for light duty an import vice is probably ok. But I have never used my equiptment LIGHTLY, so I recomend buying a known quality Kurt, sure they are expensive but I've had mine 25years , it still has more accuracy than an import! Do yourself a favor, buy a KURT!

John
 
On the advice of those I respected, I bought a Kurt D60 and the accessory swivel base in 1985. The base casting bottom is/was ground flat. The bed is/was ground parallel within .0001 in both length & width with the base. Both fixed and moveable jaws are perpendicular to the bed and the moveable has .0005 pos. tilt when free & zero with some clamp pressure. This old Kurt is as good today as it was when brand spankin new.

These old D60's do not have the nice ground area 3/4" wide, the length of & square to the bed & fixed jaw. The old swivel bases were not marked at each degree, but only have markings each 5 deg. Fixed that by adding 4 more deg. marks from Zero on the edge of the bed base. Plus, the newer (6")D675's open wider than the older (6")D60's.

Point being, the new Kurts are even a better value over the older.

If'n a feller wud really druther cut shim stock then mill...well I s'pose he could save a hunert with a cheap vise & turn round spend it on shim stock to shim either vise base or shim the work the resta yer life, in order to get two opposing faces half way parallel let alone square. Unless o'course, a guy is jus lookin fer an excuse to use a surface grinder, that is, if'n he has one. ;)
 
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Frank, that was a good example of a key difference in material. Good cast can look just like poor cast, under the paint. That would be one argument on favor of a Kurt. You did well repairing that vise, and I have to believe that in the back of your mind, all other import vises are at risk of the same failure.
 
I've had both vises a Kurt which I had to disassemble and grind the bottom flat it had a .002" hump on the bottom when you tightened the work the vise would flatten out but left the jaw track with a bow in it, then I got a present from ENCO it was a $1,000.00 spending spree so I replaced everything that I sold with my BRPT clone, collet set, hold down set, 3" boring head with R8 shank, 3/4" boring bar set, and ended up with a Parlec vise the one that opens to about 9" do not regret it one bit, bought a 3 handle spider wrench for it. Its the only vise that I've seen with a serial # and an 800 number, for what its worth Parlec is now owned by Teco.
 
I have a chinese kurt knockoff, at the time I couldn't justify paying for a kurt. My chinese vise lifts when I tighten it; more than .005, but it will work for the time being I suppose. If I see a good deal on a kurt I'll probably jump on it.
 
I may not be up on RECENT imports. In the 80's,I bought a 6" Taiwan vise and used it for years. Just a few years ago,I got a real Kurt. I can tell you that the Kurt still lifts up the part some when you tighten it down. You still have to smack the part down with a dead blow hammer.

I think a MAJOR problem with imports is the swivel base is too THIN. You can see the base lifting and falling when taking a heavier cut. And,that heavy cut isn't really that heavy when using a Bridgy clone(or a real one).

The worst import vises I have seen are those that have a crackle finish.
 
I've owned two 5" Kurts, and the last vise I bought was a 4" import (J&L). The import was immediately disassembled, swivel base and vise bed ground, jaws ground, new pilot for swivel base, along with some other minor fitting. So, access to a large enough surface grinder, and about a days work, and you can have a vise every bit as accurate as a Kurt. Swivel base grads suck, but who relies on them anyway. I don't "gorilla" the handle on this vise, it's for small, light work, and I'm more than satisfied. IIRC, I paid about 90 bucks for it--my time is free cuz I'm most happily retired!

Bob
 
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