Milling vise choice
- platypus20
- Posts: 206
- Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:24 pm
- Location: camillus, ny (syracuse)
Re: Milling vise choice
I have a Jet JVM 836, similar in size to the Millrite, with an 8 x 36 table, I have both a 4” and a 6” vise, the 6” is the primary vise.
jack
Re: Milling vise choice
Ouch, $425 back in 1976 was very big bucks Rich. I'd be willing to bet the first two 4" and yes they were also Indian made Kurt type vises I bought would beat yours in a biggest piece of crap race.
I've seen pictures of those BP produced vices multiple times, big and beefy but most who have used them say the same that the part location and repeatability isn't that great for all that weight.
Kurt still makes other specialty vise types of around 4" capacity but, afaik they don't now make a single station standard angle lock in the 4" or 5" size. Erick Sun of Orange Vise was seriously looking into producing a standard angle lock 4" vise a couple of years ago because of the lack of that size manufactured in North America and the growing amount of smaller cnc and manual mills around. I've no idea if that project is still in the works or not. It might be worth mentioning that for used vises anything at all might turn up. And because some brands aren't well known here they could go dirt cheap. This is only one of a few different high end vise manufacturers in Europe http://www.gerardispa.com/products/ and there supposed to be even better than a Kurt but with a new price to match. Roughly double what a Kurt costs the last time I checked.
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Kurt still makes other specialty vise types of around 4" capacity but, afaik they don't now make a single station standard angle lock in the 4" or 5" size. Erick Sun of Orange Vise was seriously looking into producing a standard angle lock 4" vise a couple of years ago because of the lack of that size manufactured in North America and the growing amount of smaller cnc and manual mills around. I've no idea if that project is still in the works or not. It might be worth mentioning that for used vises anything at all might turn up. And because some brands aren't well known here they could go dirt cheap. This is only one of a few different high end vise manufacturers in Europe http://www.gerardispa.com/products/ and there supposed to be even better than a Kurt but with a new price to match. Roughly double what a Kurt costs the last time I checked.
Re: Milling vise choice
Just for reference, I just picked up a GS brand Taiwanese vise for $200 yesterday. Only one small bite out of one of the jaws. Otherwise, it was in fine shape. I think location has a lot to do with price, for sure. Here in Wichita, somebody would probably have paid nearly $300 for it just because people here seem to have more dollars than sense. But this was an hour drive from home so it might not have moved very fast. The current version of this vise sells for about $500 on Ajax tools.
Dave
Dave