Mill vice

I want to fit a four inch vice to my Warco WM14 Mill. Problem is how much movement I would lose on the Z axis. The distance of the fixing holes from the back of the vice is never given. Has anyone fitted a four inch vice to a small mill successfully?

You you mean Z (height) or Y movement (front to back)

If it is front to back then you will probably have to mount it using the front tee slot which can obscure the handwheel dial. 100mm and 80mm vives

Edited By JasonB on 06/05/2023 16:58:28

More to the point, can you get your choice of vice fixed jaw sufficiently under the cutter before the vice runs into the column to be worthwhile.

I had to mill the rear gutter off my 3" (same as Jason's) to fit a Centec2A. Lucky for me the 4" that I went shopping for was out of stock, a 4" is also taller

Warco suggests the 80mm for yours and the wm16, the 100mm shows up for the WM18 as an additional option.

Edited By Dave Halford on 06/05/2023 17:03:50

Edit, Y axis....senior moment.

I presently use a 50mm, OK for really small stuff but insufficient for much else both depth of jaws and width especially when wanting to use parallels.

Thanks for comments and pictures. Looks like I may have to be satisfied with 80mm.

I recommend the ARC Euro "versatile" vices Jason shows above. The 100mm suits my WM16 fine, although maybe a little on the tall side for a WM14. While some of the other ARC machine vices are lower, some need custom made clamps to utilize their full potential.

The "SG" versatile ones have a bit less rear overhang and being that they don't have a fixed lug to hold them down can be slid forwards and back as needed.

The swivel bases shown in my photos are best put in a cupboard and only taken out for thw odd occasion when they may be needed which saves on height.

There is always the option to mount lengthways too

Edited By JasonB on 06/05/2023 18:02:58

I have a 80 mm vice that is 65 mm high. I use it for most jobs. For large stock, I have a 100 mm vice that is 95 mm high. I can only use it with short mill and drills.
The rotary stand for both vices is only place when needed. It just takes up to much space and makes the vices less rigid.

My next mill must have a longer 500 mm (20" table (Y) and must be considerably taller.

Hi Stephen, like JasonB says, you can put a big vice length ways on your table, just like I did with this rather over the top one I used on my old Chester Champion machine a few years ago, so that I could hold and mill a 3" cube of ally-bronze, although I did have to make and fit the piece of angle iron bracket to hold it down, because the two side slots couldn't be used, and I didn't have anything else big enough.

Regards Nick.

I have a 4(?)” vise similar to those shown in the first reply. It gets used occasionally, but is not my favourite by any means.

My favourites are the type ll as marketed by Arc. I have two - the 70 and 90mm. Some don’t like them at all, of course - a bit like Marmite?🙂 The smaller one is generally fitted to my smaller mill, as that mill needs all the help it can get where the z axis is concerned.

They do require more careful fixing to the bed and are not so simple to use (compared to simply winding a handle), but that does not bother me one iota.

There are other machine vises around the workshop. These include a smallish Abwood (about 80mm?), a tilting Abwood and an original Centec.

If I were to find other type ll vises (smaller or the 120mm) on an auction site, I might well make a bid if at the right price - as I have ‘borrowed’ the shallow vise from a Drummond shaper before now (on the Raglan).

One more possible advantage of the type ll may be that they can be mounted at a position of choice, rather than only at the nearest appropriate T-slot.

I prefer the 'tool maker' or grinding type vices too. They are far more compact for those of us with small mills and occasionally top makers appear on eBay for a fraction of their new price.

Even the far east new ones from the usual suspects appear to be fairly accurately ground, whilst I've heard the tolerances on the 'traditional' style vices can be horrendous.

I bought one of the ARC versatile 5" vises as it opens much wider than the 100mm Bisons. It is at the limit of what both mills can accomodate, the large round column mill and the Tom Senior light vertical. Also, the rear flange has been removed to allow about 20mm extra Y axis movement. It came with the rotary base which is not normally fitted, but can come in useful at times.

Apert from the lack of swivel base and how its attached to the table how do the Arc Versatile with swivel base compare to the Arc Versatle SG iron ones.

 THIS Vs THIS

Edited By petro1head on 12/05/2023 11:25:29