Milling Vice ......... Avice.

The K4 has 30mm jaws which work out quite nicely when used with imperial parallels, same with the K6 and its 40mm jaws giving about 1.5mm and 1.0mm respectively above th ejaws if your work is also in 1/8" steps

Like many, I have used a Vertex K4 for many years. Yes the swivel features decrease stiffness somewhat, but normally I don't work the machine that hard. Machine and vice stiffness are about on a par!.

I have tightened the moving jaw, once, to reduce the tendency to lift when tightened.

A long time ago, there was an article on making a vice alignment fixture, to save reclocking every time that the vice was repositioned.

A simplified version for my K4 is literally three pieces of one inch bar, two allen screws, two T nuts and a couple of long M8 bolts followed by a skim on both the front and back faces. It saves an awful lot of winding and knocking to and fro, and time; not to mention blood pressure!

Very early on, I bought a clamping kit, which does get used from time to time.

Also, having seen what I call "An infinite Vice" when visiting Pro Machine Tools at Barnack, ( A simple device - basically three pieces of steel set across the table of the vertical mill) I made one for my Warco Mill/Drill.

Like many things, not used very much, but invaluable when needed.

The choice of which method to use depends on what you are going to do at the time

Howard

Nick,

Not sure whether you can postpone your purchase but occasionally Arc do special offers on their machines where they include a selection of the most useful accessories in the price. When I bought my SX3, I got a 100mm vice, ER32 collet chuck, clamping kit, four R8 collets plus other items included in the price. Altogether this lot would have cost me another £220. That was January 2013.

Gary