Tramming the milling vise

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DeanB

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Is it too much to expect that a milling vise sit level on the table? I bought a new to me Rong-Fu 30 from someone that bought it and never used it from someone else that bought it and never used it. It's 20+ years old and looks like new. It came with an Enco 5" rotating milling vise. I took my time and got the head square to the table within 0.001" both X and Y. Next step was the vise. Thought I had it with about 0.003" shim. Putting a groove in an aluminum bar and it was about 0.010" off in 10" length. Dig into it and the jaw insert isn't parallel to the body. Get that sorted out and now it took ~ 0.012" of shim to get the vise square to the head. Re made the grooved bar and it's within 0.001" across the 10" length. Just a big stack of shims to get the vise s
 
Asm109 said:
Dump the rotating part of the vise, you won't need it for most of your work, it just adds error and steels headroom you can use for tooling.
Break down and buy a good milling vise, like a Glacern.
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Glacern or a Kurt. I did a lot of digging, narrowed it down to those two, and bought a Kurt DX4 for my Grizzly g0704, and the only regret I have is the time I spent trying to make a "premium" import vise not suck.
 
I second removing the swivel base. But don't toss it in some hidden corner never to be seen again. I made a backing plate for mine that fits my lathe chucks. Very handy at times to take the chuck over to the mill to drill some holes with the work still held in the chuck. I don't have a rotary table. So far it has met my needs. It permanently lives on the table. One thing that makes it very useful is that I spent the time to get it dialed in and have the coordinates on a sticky. To center it on the spindle all I have to do is move the table to the coordinates.

IMG_3922.JPG
 
+1 on removing the swivel base. If you have access to a surface grinder, it's time to grind the vise. Might even be worth stripping the vise down and taking it to a shop to have it ground.
 
dewbane said:
Glacern or a Kurt. I did a lot of digging, narrowed it down to those two, and bought a Kurt DX4 for my Grizzly g0704, and the only regret I have is the time I spent trying to make a "premium" import vise not suck.
Click to expand...
You are going to love the Kurt.
 
Janderso said:
You are going to love the Kurt.
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I already do! After experiencing the difference even briefly, I didn't even think about keeping the old vise to use elsewhere.
 
Janderso said:
You are going to love the Kurt.
Click to expand...
I already do! After experiencing the difference even briefly, I didn't even think about keeping the old vise to use elsewhere.
 
I noticed it got a little bit stiff when I was cranking the handle. You can add a little bit of oil at the two holes in the back to oil the ways (way oil) and drop a few drops on the front and rear of the lead screw from time to time. It will work like new.
 
+2 on removing the rotating base.
I put my 4" vise on a 10" rotary table (more or less permanently) makes tramming a breeze.

Also note, When my vise showed up it was out of parallel by several thou. A complete disassembly, wash with WD-40, and reassembly got this done to sub thou in all dimensions. All that machining/grinding crap can get into strange places.
 
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