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What sort of vise for a mini-mill?

The general consensus I find is no swivel, it takes up precious vertical room and can reduce rigidity HOWEVER I say get a vice that has a swivel as most (maybe all?) the swivel is removable. Install it without the swivel and keep it just in case you need it.
4" vise will probably be a bit large I think on a mini mill and likely a 3 inch vise is more appropriate.
 
@Tom Kitta & @DPittman - thanks for the quick responses. I have a milling attachment (with vise) for my mini-lathe. I thought that the vise on it was 3", but I just checked and it is 2". So yes, absolutely, 3" would be appropriate; 4" too big. I also checked the drill press vises I have - they are only 3.5" and seem very large (and tall).
I'll be on the lookout for something 3" and low profile; the 2" would probably work OK for a while anyway, when a mill gets added to the collection of tools..
 
I have 5 vises for the mill as follows:

1. Swivel 6 inch vise (first Purchase from BB)
2. 6" Kurt Clone from Accusize. Solid and better than the 6"BB
3. 4" Tilt Swivel Vise from BB for specific application
4&5. 4" Precision Vises from BB I have made a set of custom jaws for these so I don't need to use Parallels. Both are generally now mounted for Milling applications as they allow for 2 parts to clamped in at a time, one set up two parts....CNC
 
terry_g said:
What size did you go with?
Click to expand...
The replacement is 'the same' as the 3" Vevor I bought first, except that this one' HFS ('Harbor Factory Store') seems to have had better QC as all the holes I see are aligned. Even at 3", the standard vise types are too big for the mini mill (Sieg X2) table, but the extra mass is welcome ....... anything to add a bit of 'gravitas' to the mill is a plus.
 
My 3” mill vise is not huge, but, it suits my KING Canada mill just right.
The castings are good and the swivel is very handy.
 

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I can see production rates going thru the roof !!

We utilized custom parrallels with registration points on the 602 mills at Ex-Cell-O back in my Tool and Die days, especially when we were producing identical components for assemblies.
 
@Degen posted, I could add a third vise and maximize setup, but it does make the initial install significantly more difficult to align all the vises, two are difficult, three:oops:


I put 1-2-3 blocks between my vice separation's for an easier Y alignment . For your set -up, I would use 1" between each vise.
( provided the vices have a ground or nicely milled side faces... ) Clamp a squared bar up the length of the vises. Tighten vises down to 20ft/lb arm strong torque.
The dial indicator would take less than a few minutes at that point, tighten vices down the rest of the way, remove the side set blocks and your solid.
I hope your set-up works well Degen!
 
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With the common fix jaw liner its like having one vise and 3 jaws, my set up and alignment time is about 10-15min. As to the tight spacing this is a work table and travel issue 4" per vise plus 1/2" spacing is 13" to travel is 14" and I want to stay at full cutter size to spare at either end (general max size for cutters that I use is 1/2") so I have a bit if wiggle room.

I have done the bar method it works but this is faster and more accurate.

Additionally the vises are numbered and the fixed step (acts like a parallel) is machined in place which zero height to table and give a straight edge for this set up. A lot of thought went into decided the easiest and fastest with the best repeatability set up.
 
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