Is a self centering vise on a mill worth the cost ?
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Self centering vise
- Thread starter shotgun choker
- Start date
A self centering vise is more for a 3 or 5 axis CNC mill than a manual machine.....
Handy for making bullet molds 
I have not used a self centering vise but I have some concerns about the repeatability of position. When I zero my work reference using the vise, I would never reference the movable jaw.
That's what I was wondering about, I always use the fixed jaw. It would be handy if it would repeat, a person could set the dro to zero/ zero and forget about it.
It can be indicated to center on a manual machine very easily, just clamp down on a gauge block, use an edge finder and then move in half the gauge block thickness..... Might be a good Idea to have one to make drilling cross holes and milling keyways a quick simple job if you were doing them all the time.... They are very small compared to a Kurt 6" you could leave it screwed to the table all the time if you have a large 42" table like mine...
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I’ve had one for about 15-20 years, I’ve used it exactly 3 times, once when I got it, once when I thought I would need it (I did not) and once where it was a slight benefit, but nothing I couldn’t have done without it. So $400 divided by 3 is $133, each time I used it. I would have been better off buying more end mills.
I think I would do that with all 3 dimensions of a 1-2-3 block to see if centered exactly the same at different jaw widths before I would trust it. But then, I'm not a very trusting soul when it comes to mechanical repeatability. ymmv
Tom