Milling vise choice

[spro]

My Bridgeport mill is from 1956 transition year. They changed from round ram to the dovetailed slide ram but the machine still has the smaller table, knee and basically smaller footprint. The "J" head dates to 1953. I thought that impossible but following many sold mills and data, it appears they made the "J" head a few years before. These were the ticket then, used with huge K & T, Cincinnatis and other horizontal mills.
Back to point: My B'pt mill came with a Kurt D60 with swivel base. Way heavy vise for it but my Index horizontal (48" table) doesn't even know it is there. It has "the grip" required.

[1949DC]

Good info. I see what you mean by the length and weight from a 4 to a 5". Good point on weight on ways going to a 6". I actually have a 3" tool makers vise as you list form MSD. I made a mill attachment for my lathe. It worked ok for aluminum. But I got bit by the mill bug and bought something to handle larger work. My bed is 8" x 36"

[SteveM]

I would not buy one with a swivel. It takes away valuable vertical height.

On my Pratt & Whitney, because of the small table, to use my 3" Kurt , I actually NEED to use the swivel because I have to turn the Kurt 90 degrees.

Most of the time, I use a South Bend shaper / drill press vise or the original P&W 2-1/2" vise.

Steve

[SteveM]

Kurt vise is the gold standard. I have looked at used import vises to get my feet wet. should I save my $ for a better vise. How bad are those imports? I would imagine they clamp tight but have tolerance issues. Good info. Sounds like a 5" vise is just about right. Swivels don't appeal to me. Thought on buying one with a swivel?

If you can use a 6" Kurt, they are all over the used market for about $200. Unless you live in an area with no tools, you should be able to find a good one. I got my 5" Kurt vises at an auction for under $50 each. I also have a pair of 3's.

I have all the orphaned vises. They no longer stock many parts for the 3" and 5" vises. I actually got the last 5" rebuild kit. They discontinued the D-40 but still have parts. I mention this because you will get better support with a 6" vise than a 5" vise. There are jaws available on ebay, everything from aluminum to steel to hardened and ground steel for 6" and 4" Kurt vises, but NOTHING for 3" and 5".

Locally, we have two older ones for $225 and under (one of them is almost immaculate) and three newer ones (the ones with the big Kurt label on the movable jaw) for $300.

I bought my two 5" Kurts and the two 3" Kurts for less than half of what a new 6" Kurt lists for.

If you can get one with a swivel, fine. It will sit on the shelf pretty much all the time. Your table is big enough to mount the vise in two orientations, so you don't need it for that. You can even set the vise on certain angles depending on which slots you use.

If you can find someone selling more than one, make him a deal on two. You can put parts in both and do two parts in one setup, or you can use them to hold something long.

Steve

[BadDog]

Other than to add +1 to the Kurt (or quality clone) vises, I don't have much to offer.

But I'll add in a comment I've made before. Most seem to deride the swivel bases because it provides one more interface and additional height which works against overall rigidity. But then again, I think that if we are going for that small an increment in rigidity, then a Bridgeport (or clone) or smaller wouldn't be the mill choice. For a while early on I followed the prevailing wisdom and kept my rotating base set aside.

But then somewhere along the way I had project where that base would be just the ticket for a low precision angular feature. With that base, I could do all the square operations, and then kick the angle to do that without another setup (eyeball to layout line). I noted no discernable degradation of any sort, so I left it on to "see if it mattered to me". With a few exceptions here and there, It's pretty much been there ever since. And I work mostly with automotive scale stuff, mostly off-road trucks. In that arena it's been quite useful for more than just non-critical angles. I've also positioned a part relative to the pivot for a noncritical arc with complete success. Even setting (relatively) precise angles using angle blocks on the jaw and a DTI are very convenient, as is re-squaring, and I can't tell that it's cost me anything except about 1" of z-space, of which I generally have plenty on a 2J.

[rklopp]

I have a 5” Shars premium model on my Aciera F4. Despite all the bad-mouthing of Shars products, the “premium” grade is surprisingly nice and befitting of the “”Rolex-grade” Swiss mill. I have indicated and measured the vise for quality, and it is dead accurate. The only slight drawback is that the brush seals on the screw add a fair bit of friction.

I bought a Shars 6” Kurt non-premium for the high school robotics program, and I would not recommend it. It is definitely cheesy and has poor fit and finish.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Harold_V]

It's difficult to understand the difference a good vise makes until the one you're using won't perform to specific standards. That happened to me many years ago, and I've related the story, but I'll make mention once again.

I was forced to upgrade to a Kurt when the new Bridgeport vise I had purchased wasn't capable of holding parts square. It wasn't bad enough that they came out less than square, but size wouldn't repeat, either, as I had to hold five tenths. After fighting the job, hundreds of small brass square blocks that were to become read and write heads for IBM computers, I investigated the Kurt line. I ended up with a 5", which served my needs to perfection, and it's still in use after 50 years. My only regret was the purchase of the Bridgeport, but how was I to know?

There is no substitute for a decent vise, especially when trying to work to close tolerances.

H

[Rich_Carlstedt]

................................
A 4" Kurt if you can even find one today since there no longer made come at highly inflated prices unless you get really lucky. Probably a small step down in overall quality would be one of these. https://www.glacern.com/gsv_440 ................ Yes there's much cheaper out there, I even started out with a cheap pair, on the surface they looked ok and even had accurate surface grinding......... ............................................................

Pete, Didn't know that Kurt stopped making a 4" Vise...too bad!- They stopped the 5" maybe 25 years ago
I got my( 1943) Bridgeport in 1976 and it had no tooling so I bought a brand new 5"Kurt back then for $ 425 dollars....about 100 bucks more than a 6 inch cost at that time ! I was given a BP Vise and rotary base and it so 0verloaded the mill that the Kurt wins hands down ...Great investment !
I was also given a 4 " Angle-lock vise (Kurt imposter) made in India---biggest piece of crap I have ever seen -took 17 hours of grinding and rebuilding to make it a "just OK" tool .
Rich

[rklopp]

Kurt still sells at least four versions of a 4" vise. https://www.kurtworkholding.com/vise-selector

[whateg0]

There are other models, but the classic angle lock design is not one of them.

[SteveM]

Yes, the D40 is discontinued.

The D60 and D688 are both discontinued as well.

Steve

[Harold_V]

The D60 and D688 are both discontinued as well.

That may explain why I was able to buy a D688, new, for $328, delivered. Of course, this was back when the market took a steep dive and machine items were not selling well.

I'm more than happy with the vise. I do not care if it isn't the latest model. Neither am I.

H