Vise size - 4" or 6"

[MontanaLon]

Although you want to be careful when reaching around them, they are sharp and will slice and dice like they were meant to be filet knives.

 

[francist]

LMS sells parallels in 3", 4", and 5" long if you really want shorter ones.

 

[mikey]

Dave, I should elaborate. The 4" vise, at least a Kurt, will bolt up to the second T-slot from the front of an RF table. This puts the rear of the vise just shy from the back edge of the table so you do not lose any travel in Y. There will be times when this matters. A larger vise will project beyond the table in back or extend way out in front.

I own a Kurt D40. It is of a known quality with a lifetime warranty. Glacern is said to also be very good; I suspect it is comparable to a Kurt. I would not go for a cheap vise if I were you.

 

[darkzero]

Just echoing here. 4" is the right size vise for that mill as well as my PM-45. 6" is way too big IMO. I went with a 5" & I'm happy. Went with a Glacern cause Kurt no longer makes 5" anymore & I did not feel like searching for a used one.

I use 6" wide parallels. If using longer parallels really bothers you HHIP sells 4" & 5" wide parallels. LMS carries the same ones but sell them for cheaper. I picked up 4" parallels for my 4" screwless vise as well as the 5" set last year. I didn't really want the 5" set but I was at LMS so I thought what the heck. Haven't used them yet though.

 

[darkzero]

David, look at Mike's (Aukai) pic of the 6" & 4" vises. Anytime you have to bolt a vise on the outer most table slot in order for your spindle to reach the fixed jaw, that vise is too big IMO. Lots of overhang & you probably don't have enough Y travel to make use of the full capacity of the vise anyway. I prefer my vise to be able to mount on the middle slot (or slots, some RFs have 4 slots instead of 3).

Plus a smaller vise is easier to lug around. I never thought about this until my body started telling me I'm getting older. I take my vise off the table quite often to use other accessories. But some people rarely need to remove the vise & I have seen 6" vises on smaller mills than ours. I'm not knocking those guys. I suppose they have more use for the wider jaws. Just my preference.

Kurt does have a 6" vise that is shorter in length now. Maybe one day I'll try one if I come across one used. It's fairly new so not sure if they come up used. Too expensive for me to purchase new.

 

[DavidR8]

This is my RF table.
It’s 9.5” x 23.75”

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[darkzero]

My table is something like 9"x32". It's not just about table size though. Depends on your Y travel in relation to where the vise would mount on the table. On my mill I don't have enough Y travel to make full use of my 5" vise (outer jaw capacity).

 

[Aukai]

My table is 9.5 x 31.5, and 17.5 Y travel. The Kurt works, but I like the 4" better, and I have had needs for 2 to hold 2 ends to profile the middle of a project. For that one bolting to the table was real sketchy.

 

[DavidR8]

Gotcha, that makes sense.
I just measured 6” of Y travel. The spindle centre is right on the inside edge of the innermost t-slot.

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[darkzero]

My table is 9.5 x 31.5, and 17.5 Y travel

Holy crap, how big is your mill!?!