Recommendations for a quality milling vice?

This is the Stanier that Home & Workshop used to sell. Sadly no longer available it seems.

Yes but considering they gave the vice to him there has to be some arse kissing done !

I wasn't trying to put down chinese made stuff just trying to show that if you buy cheap you get cheap , for the most part the vice is usable .

My 4” Indian Shoba vice was cheap, about £80 if memory serves about eight or nine years ago. I didn’t try to find fault with it when I first got it I just used it. It was only a few years ago that I actually took the time to measure it when I made some stepped sleeves for the mounting holes to fit the table slots. I was pleasantly surprised with how accurately made it was, even the mounting holes are parallel to the jaws. Maybe I was lucky or maybe Shoba stuff is generally well made?

Just showed it to give a perspective. Its much to large and heavy to be use in the position shown, however, turned 90 * the overhang is minimal; and for the odd occasion it might be necessary, at least I've got it.

Well I had a measure up this morning, one result as expected the other two better than expected.

Basic set up was with 1/2" parallels and a 1:2:3: block clamping over the 2" width. I did it with vice bolted to mill table as that is how they are actually used and also allowed me to mount mag stand on the table as the smaller vices would not fit the stand on the actual vice as per the video. I also changed the moving arm on the DTI stand to a solid bar part way through as I thought the lack or reading may be flex in the arm. Newell 10ths dti and also tried with a 0.0005" lever type.

Basic set up shown

Results

I expected some lift from my K4 as it is the top screw type and has had 10yrs use, still quite good and nothing a tap with a copper or lead hammer won't cure. Back of fixed jaw is integral to the base so did not expect lift there.

The Versatile I could just detect some movement which considering the jaws screw to the base seems logical but plenty good enough for hobby use unless you are into splitting atoms in half on your mill.

90mm Type 2, again back and base are one bit of metal so did not expect movement there and the downward pull of the jaw must be working as the needles did not move.

So in my workshop they would all be fit for purpose and quite possibly better than a second hand one that has seen some use.

I did take a bit of video which I'll put together later but as it is a bit jumpy did not want to have Neil feeling sick after his New Year session!

Also in the video he showed a step in the base where the casting looks to have just been face milled. The underside of the ones from ARC have a ground finish and I could not feel any ridges, that's why it is often better to get the item from a known supplier of good quality items that buy what looks to be the same from an unknown cheaper source as you never really know what you are getting from the web photos.

Edited By JasonB on 01/01/2018 10:30:54

Proof is in the pudding as they say ... kinda contradicts what a lot of people out there say about you get what you pay for ,I don't like parting with my hard earned ,if the precision vice I've ordered comes close to this review I'll be a happy bunny considering the price I payed  .

From Steve Summers channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JfzHUy9_M&t=394s

Happy New Year everyone

Sean

Edited By sean logie on 01/01/2018 10:56:14

Thank for publishing the measurements - very reassuring. For what it's worth, my workshop is almost entirely Far Eastern; it may not be the best kit in the world but it does the job. No horror stories to tell - perhaps it helped that I bought through established British importers who care about their reputations.

I intended adjusting my lifting jaws this morning to see if I can tune out the fault but am cosseting a cold instead. The jury will have to wait until I've stopped snivelling.

As Muzzer and others have pointed out, I agree that video has many problems. Using the exactly same vices I could spin a misleading video 'proving' that the American vice is poor value for money. Good job I'm basically honest guv...

Dave

Not sure this is allowed if not delete

This thread reminded me that I bought of of these **LINK**, need to check the size, but never used it. I did make some clamps to hold it to the table.

If your interested let me know and I will check the size

I bought the same vice (I think) from Arc that Jason is showing, at first I had a nightmare with it, it seemed that everything mounted/gripped would lean down at the front (operator end). I suspected the moving jaw was diving as the fixed one couldnt really go anywhere.

Just to be sure I re-clocked the table, a couple of tenths at worst but not in that plane, so not that, then re-clocked the vice, emmm couldn't se anything more than about 4 tenths, so I assumed my parralells were not true, not sure why as they had been when I tested them. Anyway it turned out to be a very small ridge at the end of the vice base, directly under the fixed jaw. the machining hadn't gone in quite far enough, I milled it and stoned it and now my vice doesn't show any movement or discrepency when tested with paralells soI'm very happy with it.

Here is a link to your thread, back last year:

**LINK**

Some either don’t like the action or can’t get on with them. I have found that the Allen screw is a bit of a PITA, as it continually attracts swarf and tightening/loosening can be a bit space constricted if in close proximity with the work or tool.

Retested my lifting jaw vice and found that tapping the work firmly down on the parallels fixes the problem, < 0.01mm lift over 40mm. That's probably why I hadn't noticed the lift before - I habitually tap hard enough to grip the parallels under the work. But I now know that carelessly gripping work in the vice without tapping it down introduces a tilt error that might matter.

It's been useful to check with a DTI - they reveal problems and prove/disprove fixes rather well! New year's resolution: I'm going to double-check my set-ups more often.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 01/01/2018 17:52:22