Precision Lockdown Milling Machine Vise for Securing Workpieces

Dean Gullbury: As others have stated, this vise is rough around the edges as shipped. I invested a couple of hours disassembling and cleaning things up with a diamond file and stone. In doing so, I have managed to address all of the issues I observed with the exception of vertical squareness of the fixed jaw. It is still out approximately. 004" over the 1.25" jaw height. I think this is due to some residual high spots I observed on the under side of the fixed jaw block, and more time with a stone will will get it closer to right. It's best to creep up on right rather than overshoot. Additionally, I was reading .005" jaw lift when clamping at the top as received, after working over the extremely rough cast surface that interfaces with the half sphere inside the moving jaw with a series of files, I got it down to effectively zero. The ground top surfaces of the base showed no more than .0005" out on my indicator (I'm not using the swivel base). Overall I'm pleased for the price.

A few more observations: threads are not acme, but move smoothly. There is a nice thrust bearing at the base of the screw. The included hardware is close to garbage quality. And you should plan on dedicating a 12mm...

United States on Aug 27, 2019

charles w.charles w.: For the price, this vise is unbeatable. As has been noted, packaging isn't so hot, but Amazon put the box in another box, and nothing arrived damaged. The T-head bolts that came with mine are all 9/16", which is perfect for my Smithy CB-1220XL. I left the included keys off, since I'm mounting the rotating base at an angle to center it better over my 6" cross slide. If I decide to use them later, I'll have to mill them down a bit, since they are 0.550" wide and the tops of my 9/16" slots are 0.500". I debated for weeks over what size to buy, but the 4" appears to be my best choice. Without the rotating base, the vise is almost the width of my cross slide— the 5" would have been too big. When I first mounted it to the Smithy, tramming off the fixed jaw showed it was 'way out of spec, but it turned out that the jaw had been mounted crooked, easily readjusted to square. Tramming off the base (where it really counts), there's less than a thousandth variation, x and y. Ground surfaces are smooth enough and the action, after some cleaning and lube, is fine. The pin holding the handle to the socket is completely loose, so I will have to add a roll pin to keep it together. The screw head...

United States on Nov 06, 2017

J. Miller: I couldn't be much happier with this vise for the price. HUGE upgrade from the sturdy but not precise vise that came with the mill. With my Starrett Last Word dial test indicator I get almost half a thousandth of runout in the middle of the fixed jaw when tramming it in. The ends both read 0 while the center is just very slightly dished. For anything I expect to be doing that is tremendously good. I do not yet have a way to precisely measure them for square, but with every precision square and 1-2-3 block I own I cannot detect any flaw.

Only things that I feel would improve it without really adding to the expense would be:

1. *Very* slightly taller jaw inserts. There's barely enough there to clamp a stop block or machinist's clamp to for repeatable positioning across multiple parts or multiple operations. Just an extra 1/8" inch or so would make this more useful. It is usable in that way as-is, but requires a little extra time and care to get it on right.

2. There is a graduated scale on the base, but no indexing mark on the actual vise body, and no hard lines in the casting to allow anything close to an accurate reading. I realize that will never be used for...

United States on Mar 29, 2017