Budget Mill Vises

[Crosche]

For all of you who own a "budget" mill vise like I do, please see the attached video for a design flaw repair that can be made relatively easily and may save you some troubles down the road. After watching the video I pulled my vise apart and the bearings fell out. Here is a photo of on of the races:

Check out the video and hopefully you can prevent damage to your thrust bearing before it's too late:

 

[Dabbler]

boy, that's crappy! I'll check my vises tonight...

 

[Bofobo]

Ok @Dabbler its been 2 whole days, how’s them vices?

 

[Dabbler]

I got distracted. Went into the shop this morning and both 5" vises are fine. Wont be able to check the 6" ones until the pile moves. perhaps next week.

 

[Dabbler]

-checked my 6"ers and they are fully engaged, too. I wonder if he bought an extra-cheap vise - In the showroom they all look the same anyway, so you don't know until you mess with it...

 

[Crosche]

Another factor is that you have multiple vises, where he and I only have a single vise, so more wear and tear. I purchased mine from Busy Bee a number of years ago.

 

[Dabbler]

My first mill vise (a 6 incher) was from Busy Bee, in the days when they were still sourcing in Taiwan.

Actually one of my vises is a 5 incher that was used daily in a production shop for 40 years and is just fine. Bert never had another vise.

 

[Chicken lights]

My first mill vise (a 6 incher) was from Busy Bee, in the days when they were still sourcing in Taiwan.

Actually one of my vises is a 5 incher that was used daily in a production shop for 40 years and is just fine. Bert never had another vise.

How is Bert doing these days? Last I heard he was going into self quarantine

 

[Dabbler]

He's sort of breaking quarantine by having people from his church over socially. He's insisting I get moving on the last bits of the move, so I'm going over there - with appropriate precautions - and setting up for a final push of the move.

At his age with his health particulars, he's at extreme risk. I'm not on board with his new liberal attitude toward the virus. I've arranged to be there with 'no contact' and 'leaving no traces'. The best I can do.