Milling vice: swivel or fixed?

My opinion, get a vise that has a lip around perimeter. normally that is used for the coolant to spill toward the hold down clevis. Though that work well for holding clamps in any orientation on the table. The money on the swivel base would be better spent on a vernier protractor, sine bar and blocks, or angle blocks. any of these can be rested on the flat square surface of the vise and lay along the lip of the vice jaw. then sweep a test indicator left to right to tram the vise to the exact angle. the protractor on the swivel base in near useless on its own.

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There has been several threads over the years I’ve been here and I remember the consensus being that most took off the swivel and many have never taken if off the shelf where it got dumped. I decided to bypass the whole thing and go with a CNC style vise with no swivel because it can be laid on its side. I’ve used it that way several times and not needed a swivel base yet. But I also have the swivel for the vise on my Atlas shaper if I absolutely need a swivel. I took if off and have it in a drawer. I have one project that I might mount it back up on the shaper vise to cut some cross hatching for some soft vise jaws.
 
mmcmdl said:
Buy the swivel and take it off until you need it . :)
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My vote is with Dave. The swivel does indeed make it easier to tram, although I don't much worry about tram since the vise is keyed to the table slot.
 
great white said:
I’m just wondering what makes the most sense for a home shop on an import benchtop mill?

Brand differences aside, which is the better option?

Swivel has the obvious ability to mill on an angle, but is there any other advantages?

Or is it a better option to go with a fixed vice and possibly remove the potential of one more moveable joint messing up your part?

I’m looking at maybe picking up an “import” 4 inch mill vice and some have a swivel, some don’t. And some are like a fixed vice bolted to a swivel section, where you coukd remove the fixed part and bolt that to the mill table.

Budget is around 150-200 cdn….
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Before you buy make a cardboard mock-up of the vise footprint, making the location inside faces of the jaws in the open position and make sure the vise actually fits the table and you can mill the edge of something clamped against the fixed jaw. I have mini mill (not what most call a bench mill) and the largest vise that makes sense is a 3”; if I need to clamp something larger in “Y” than 3” I move one or both jaws to the outside position.
 
I have a combo horizontal/vertical machine and the swivel vise comes in really handy
-M
 
My Shars 4" vise came with a swivel base. I took the swivel base off. The vise is mounted on the table. I then made a backing plate for the swivel base that has the same threads as the spindle on my lathe. It is also mounted on the table. I took the time to find the exact center and have the coordinates written down. Not a substitute for a rotary table. I can take a chuck off the lathe and mount it on the swivel. Do what I want to do on my mill/drill and then go back to the lathe without losing concentricity. Comes in handy for drilling precise bolt hole circles and milling at an angle.

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The picture also shows how I use a DI to bring the head back to position if I have to move the head.
 
Keep a piece of scrap handy for drilling holes for locating pins. When working with angles it can be difficult to know where some features are and how to measure them.
Draw the part at an angle - draw two holes tangential to the long angled edge and one for the end - these will be for pins to locate the part. With the features of the part on the drawing all the required co-ordinates for holes and edges can be found on the DRO.
Here is a link that will explain the method better. -
 
great white said:
Saved a couple bucks and went for the fixed base model.

Well, more like 50 bucks.....
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A 3" vise is supposed to be the right size for mini mills but I ended up buying a 4", now the 3" is collecting dust.
 
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