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Milling vice

Tomc938

Tomc938

Ultra Member
I am looking to add a milling vice To my new milling machine.

I was looking at the Craftex 4 inch milling vase on sale for 135 or the 5 inch for 145.

If I went with the 5 inch I would take it off the rotating base and bolted directly to the table.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with either of these devices. They’re currently offering free shipping, which is a nice bonus!

As far as level of accuracy I am looking for 0.002 over 5”.

Oh wait, I see that I put the decimal in the wrong place. As a newbi I am looking for 0.2 over 5”. Shoot, if I’m honest, I’m hoping to get all the features on the piece they belong on.
 
With the inexpensive vises, get the biggest you can afford - the littler ones flex, (perhaps a lot) and that leads to all kinds of work holding problems. I just sold my BB 6", from the time when they were getinng them only from Taiwan. Not a s good as Kurt, but works well.

After 40 years doing this i spurged on a 6" Kurt 633 clone Taiwanese, and a real Kurt DX6. Thye are a joy to use. If you can afford it, buy a European vise or a Kurt. you won't regret it (but once, at purchase).
 
I went with a 4" Glacern for my RF30 clone. It's the perfect size for me. Not too much overhang off the front of the table and excellent quality.
 
Dabbler said:
With the inexpensive vises, get the biggest you can afford - the littler ones flex, (perhaps a lot) and that leads to all kinds of work holding problems. I just sold my BB 6", from the time when they were getinng them only from Taiwan. Not a s good as Kurt, but works well.

After 40 years doing this i spurged on a 6" Kurt 633 clone Taiwanese, and a real Kurt DX6. Thye are a joy to use. If you can afford it, buy a European vise or a Kurt. you won't regret it (but once, at purchase).
Click to expand...

And that would be this one...

VISE.JPG


Probably a little over kill for my RF30 and the swivel base was a no-go.:p

@David_R8 are you sure you went 4" and not 5"?
 
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I would just like to thank everyone again for the information! It is awesome to have such a great group of people to help navigate the tooling up process so I don't make (hopefully) too many expensive mistaken purchases.

I REALLY appreciate the help!
 
I just want to offer perspective here on inexpensive vises.
I was very tempted to got with a sub-$200 vise. I did a bunch of research and found they can be really hit and miss on quality.
This Old Tony did a video recently where here examined an inexpensive angle lock vise and it was much less than accurate.
My Glacern was some dollars to be sure but the jaws are dead on parallel, the bottom is parallel to the top and there’s imperceptible jaw lift.
I know that I’m not making rocket parts but I do want something that doesn’t add inaccuracies. I’ve got that part well in hand.
 
Interesting. I did a search for the brand of your voice and that's where it pointed me. Guess you really do have to read the fine print.

I could see exchange, shipping and duty could certainly make this
a lot more expensive.

The search goes on.
 
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Tomc938 said:
Interesting. I did a search for the brand of your voice and that's where it pointed me. Guess you really do have to read the fine print.

I could see exchange, shipping and duty could certainly make there's a lot more expensive.

The search goes on.
Click to expand...

All in it was 400 USD.
 
My 6" X 8" opening clone vise made in Taiwan was 500$ - Janger bought one as well. We have both found it to be a superb vise, if a little big. My problem with my little 8X32 mill was that my 6" X 5 3/4 opening was always a little too small for the work I do.

I went with a much larger opening size. with externally mounted jaws, I can hold over 14" wide. That is now big enough...
 
Don’t buy a “cheap” vise for a milling machine. Get the best you can afford. A quality 4” is way better than a cheap 5”.
You will never regret a quality vise as you will have peace of mind in that you can trust it.

Other brands to keep an eye out for are GS (SOWA house brand), Gerardi, Almatic, HOMGE, etc, & plus the ones that have already been mentioned.

You will be able to make good parts with quality tools on your mill. If/when you grow out of that machine, you can keep the tooling and just get a better mill - should that ever even become a topic...
 
@Dusty You have to post a pic of that machine with some chips on it LOL:p It's just too clean for the rest of us to get our heads around....
 
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