New vise recommendation

[DavidR8]

I love my Glacern 4". Agree that a 5" is too big for that mill.

 

[mickri]

Keep the swivel base. My Shars vise came with a swivel base. I made a backing plate with the same threads as the spindle on my lathe. I can move the chuck from the lathe to the mill and back to the lathe without losing concentricity. Comes in handy for drilling precise bolt hole circles and to mill slots and angles.

 

[7milesup]

Watch for Kurt scratch, and dent sales, they seem to be extremely QI conscious, any minor cosmetic flaw, and it will be sold there at a discount.

Their "scratch and dent" sale direct from Kurt is more than you would spend for an A-grade from a distributor. Kurt's price on a DX6 Crossover scratch and dent is $623, whereas Shars sells an A-grade for $587.

 

[wachuko]

Their "scratch and dent" sale direct from Kurt is more than you would spend for an A-grade from a distributor. Kurt's price on a DX6 Crossover scratch and dent is $623, whereas Shars sells an A-grade for $587.

He is looking for a 4” vise this time around…US$582.40 from Kurt

Kurt CrossOver Vise - DX4-SD

The evolutionary DX4™ CrossOver® Vise combines all the great features of the world-renowned KURT D40 and 3400V vises, along with new state-of-the-art workholding features.

www.kurtworkholding.com

US$579.00 for A-Grade with Shars...

Kurt DX4 CrossOver 4" Vise with 6.5" Opening

www.shars.com

 

[ddickey]

Their "scratch and dent" sale direct from Kurt is more than you would spend for an A-grade from a distributor. Kurt's price on a DX6 Crossover scratch and dent is $623, whereas Shars sells an A-grade for $587.

Kurt scratch and dent prices have gone up over 20% the last year. When you add shipping the Kurt is $15 cheaper but yeah its a scratch and dent.

 

[Dabbler]

I have 5 6" vises: a Kurt, an Autowell Kurt clone, a Eurovise, a pretty typical offshore clone and an old beat up early model Kurt. I've had a chance to compare them to Glacern and Orange.... The best quality for the price seems to be Autowell. It is probably sold under other brand names as well, but is a very high quality Taiwanese Kurt DX6 clone. It is about 1/3 cheaper than a Kurt and less than 1/2 when on sale.

I know some have had good experience with Glacern, but I have seen one stripped down, and wasn't impressed with the internals. When indicated, it seemed to be rigid, but not quite as good as Kurt or Autowell. This was 5-6 years ago, so I hope things have improved since then. Orange vise seems to be a pretty typical offshore vise rebranded. I was appalled by the poor quality internals and the indicator readings showed that this particular vise was pretty flimsy.

I bought the Kurt, Autowell and the Offshore clone all brand new. I paid CDN$ 700 fo the Kurt, 500 for the Autowell, and 200 for the offshore one. the other vises came with machines. I wouldn't recommend the generic offshore clones any more. 30 years ago they were quite good, but now - not so much.

 

[Lee250]

So I was looking at the glacern but shipping to me was going to be $190 which is way to much, I live in Hawaii and companys love to rip us off for shipping, so that's out. I'm thinking of going with the shars/ tegara 440v. 4" wide Jaws with 6" opening. As much as I would love to have a Kurt I can't justify that for my silly home projects I use the mill for. One question I do have about the tegara 440v are the contact surfaces under the bed where the carriage rides machined? My cheap vise is rough cast under the ways, pointer in the pic, and the carriage is kinda machined but not finished nice so I can't really use the adjustment for the angle lock since underneath isn't flat I get loose spots then tight spots when tightening. Wondering if the tegara is actually machined under there.

 

[Aukai]

I don't remember my 2 4" Glacern vises being that much for shipping. Did you ask if there was any other shipping options?
I wonder if anyone here has tried the Ultra precision PM brands? You have to call them for shipping prices

Milling Vises – Precision Matthews Machinery Co.

www.precisionmatthews.com

 

[Lee250]

I don't remember my 2 4" Glacern vises being that much for shipping. Did you ask if there was any other shipping options?
I wonder if anyone here has tried the Ultra precision PM brands? You have to call them for shipping prices

Milling Vises – Precision Matthews Machinery Co.

www.precisionmatthews.com

I didn't call them but I went through like I was going to buy one and the cheapest option was $190 and went up from there. They only want to ship UPS which is a rip off to get here.

 

[Aukai]

I have had luck calling places to get better shipping prices. I THINK I got mine USPS from them, it's been awhile.