Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.
So I picked up this Kurt D60-1 ... it was in okay shape. The bed was good and that is whatI was most concerned with.
As found
The top had a big circle (like from a fly cutter) in it with a smaller concentric circle and two squares ... making it look like it was vise 00 .... not 007 (Bond, James Bond) .... just 00. There on the left side of the movable jaw there was a long line and it went off at a right angle ... the deepest was about 12 thousanths
I paid nearly as much for the shipping as I did for the vise ... but together they were still less than 200. I just couldn't find one around me at a decent price.
I like to put a couple button head cap screws into the side of the jaw I am not using just as a thread protector
I chose 'Safety Blue' by Rustoleum ... not perfect, but a pretty close match. The hardest part was finding those little drive screws in my ares to re-attach the SN plate.
I made the 'soft jaws' from 1018 and ground them on 6 sides ... they came out nice. I'll probably pick up hardened jaws at some point and I ordered a handle from Kurt for 31.00 .... cheaper than most on eBay!
That came out really well. Cheaper than probably any off shore 4" and far far better in every way other than when you have to lift it on and off the table.
