New mill vice which one

Well i am glad that the response has been positive for the SG iron model. I have ordered one from ARC. The 100mm one. There is nothing wrong with the Abwood, just the 2 3/4" jaw opening being not enough.

From ARC ad it mentions a little fettling, i have seen a few youtube vids where they have remilled the raw casting which the leadscrew presses against. Also the odd deburr here & there. None of which i will mind doing. The alternative. Well i could not really find one.

Most of the european made ones that give a 4" jaw opening seem to be a bit too large & very expensive too. I would like to get on & make 4 clamps but until it arrives i have no measurements.

Steve.

My thought too. Smaller footprint.

Steve

Academic for you, Steve, since you've made your choice, but one advantage of the Type 2 Precision vices is that, because of the absence of a screw running down the centre of the vice, you can hold relatively long and thin pieces of work upright in the vice with much less projection of the piece above the jaws than would be the case with conventional screw vices.

This might sound like an unlikely advantage, but it's been absolutely indispensable for the work I've been doing.

They will be stronger and not be brittle like the ordinary cast iron., the Bisons are sg iron and I have drilled and machined them without the horrible black dust. You will have to make some dedicated clamps for it.

I got around to fitting the Arc eurotrade vice. For anyone thinking of going down the chinese made route then maybe you might get some idea of how good i think it is & any problems encountered. The video below is a 2 part affair. If time is valuable then do not watch. They are both quite long.

Arc eurotrade sg iron 100mm machine vice.

Steve

Edited By JasonB on 27/03/2021 06:56:50

Steve, have a look for how I milled the dowel blocks part way down this page so that they are lined up with the jaws

Edited By JasonB on 27/03/2021 07:37:53

Yes Jason, that would have been the best way to do it. Thanks.

Steve.

That 100mm vise is about as big as you would want on the TS bed. Having an infinitely adjustable position for clamping means there is no loss of Y axis movement, and the double clamping is a bonus. The flat column on the TS makes it easy to use a mag base with an indicator to get the vise aligned. I would rough align it first with a tri square before fitting the clamps on one side.

Hi Stevie,

Thank you for posting the videos. Was pleasantly surprised

The late John Stevenson would have been happy to see your response to the vice. What you see with the ARC offering is thanks to his input during factory visit, many moons ago... e.g. the button segment, and the harder wearing ways. These two elements are changes he implemented before we added these vices to our range, and in this respect, these are different to the common clones available in the market place.

Since his visit to the factory, it has grown into a far bigger and more automated operation, which I know he would have enjoyed to see if he was still around.

During the video you mentioned my name and you weren't sure if I am the owner of ARC. The answer is, I am a Director of ARC, and my wife was also made a director a few years ago. U.K. law suggests that if there is only one Director and if he/she dies, technically, the business has to stop immediately and the bank can stop provision of services.

Even though I am the owner of ARC, our Ian Davidson runs the business now a days. 😊

Ketan at ARC

Edited By Ketan Swali on 27/03/2021 17:33:17

Thanks for that Ketan. I actually enjoyed doing the revue. I was also surprised at the quality for the price.

Steve.