Mods to $40 Chinese Cross Slide Vise

[Tmate]

I bought a cheap Chinese compound vise off eBay the other day. This thing was terrible! Ways were too rough to permit any movement, jaws were jagged, lead screws were sloppy, with maybe 1/4" backlash. It looked like it just came off the mold, or whatever, and was painted.

Today I took it apart and de-burred the jaws, smoothed out the ways, gibs and other surfaces, cleaned it all up and reassembled it. I didn't' take pictures while I was doing it as I had no idea how it might turn out. I was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as they say.

While it still has plenty of backlash in the lead screws, all axes slide smoothly with no slop. I think it is a usable piece of equipment for drilling holes in a straight line, drilling to the exact center of objects, etc. Now worth the $40. All it took was a fair sized three sided file, some medium grit emory cloth, and a lot of elbow grease. I used a block of 3/4" cold roll plate with emory cloth to smooth out the the jaw slide surface.

 

[MrWhoopee]

Well, maybe not silk, burlap perhaps.

Some nice work and, no doubt, educational.

 

[DavidR8]

Thanks @Tmate I got the same type of vise with a floor mount drill press. It’s pretty sloppy in all respects and is currently living on a shelf under my lathe.
If I get ambitious I will definitely refer back to your post for reference.


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[hotrats]

I bought one years ago at a flea mkt. for the reasons you list, it's been pretty much unused. When I get things sorted, I'll have to follow your lead. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Packard V8]

Waaaay back when, my high school band director, Joe Perkins, (may he rest in peace) gave us some advice which has served me well;

You can't polish a turd.

jack vines

 

[Larry$]

I've had one for a long time. After some similar cleanup work I put handles on the center gibb screws to use as locks. Bolted to the table, I could use the movements to get the part accurately located & with a stop mounted I could do repetitive drilling. Mine had Vs in the jaws. Before i had a mill I tried using the drill press and this vice, Didn't work. Not because of the vice.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

I bought one years ago at a flea mkt. for the reasons you list, it's been pretty much unused.

I think we need a support group for people who have bought one of these for their drill press.

 

[Winegrower]

I bought a $49 vise with the 90 degree tilt feature, thinking I would dedicate it to my shop made tilt table, and have compound capability. As noted above, the thing was terrible. From 5 feet away, it certainly LOOKED like vise, but did not measure like one. I ended up reworking the lock feature on the tilting function, cleaning and tuning up the movable jaw threads and clamping it in a setup on the mill and flycutting the base square to the bed and fixed jaw of the vise.

And now, it's more or less functional. I have to think of these as "vise kits".

 

[FanMan]

I too bought one of those cheap cross slide vises years ago, it was at some kind of job lot store. I had an idea that I could use it to mill small parts on my drill press (before I bought a real mill). I managed to make a couple of simple parts, but the vise was real junk... I think the axes were about 85°, not 90, and it had no rigidity at all. I've occasionally used it since when drilling, but unless there's a setup I don't want to break I'm more likely to do my drilling on the mill, I use the drill press mostly for wood nowadays.

 

[Alcap]

Also bought one and tried modifying it by attaching it to and angle plate on my small lathe before I had a mill . The slides not machined and yea not 90* never finished it And like those above I saved it and most likely never use the parts but because I spent about $75