Which milling vice

Edited By JasonB on 04/09/2010 08:26:28

Hi All,
I'm thinking of replacing the cheapo vice on my X3 mill and have narrowed the search down to a Vertex K4 or a Vertex VA4. The VA4 costs roughly £60 more than the K4. Is it worth the extra cash or should I go for the K4?

thanks
alex

I guess from the table size it is the old round column version. I have had the Warco version of this for nine or ten years.

I have a number of vices from 1.5 in up to 4 in. My favorite is a homemade 3 in one similar to David's those recommended by David. It is easy to align to the axes using a set square against the flat side. You will want it set up like this more often than rotated. If you want to rotate it you can set it up with a precision protractor and hold it down with clamps.

Russell.

I've been using a Warco DH1 vice for a couple of years now and it has an amazing capacity for it size. With the recent addition of the high jaws (both in hard and aluminium) this is an extremely versatile vice.

I use it on a large turret mill (Ajax AJT4) but on a smaller machine, I would recommend removing the swivel base unless it is needed just to give a little more headroom.

Just my 2 penneth

CB

Hi John, sounds like you have the Chester Champion mill/drill with the 70mm round column, which is the only one of the Champion's in my old Chester catalogues with a table the size you say. If so, it should have three slots in the table, so why can't you fix a K4 or K5 on the middle slot long wise and that way you won't have to worry about getting one with exact fixing to fit cross wise. As Russell says Warco also did a version of the same machine which was the ZX-15.

You don't need to worry too much about overhanging the Y axis handwheel, as there isthe same distance plus as the width of the table to the handwheel.

I think Chester stopped selling this model round about 2007/8 as it dosen't appear in the 2009 catalogue.

I only have a second hand 3" non indexable cam vice, which I fix to the the middle slot on mine.

Regards Nick.

Blimey! One of my old threads resurrected

I bought a Vertex K4 last year at Harrogate and it has been brilliant.

Nick you're right. I can fit the K4 on both ways and have not found a problem using it. In fact I've just used it in my new (to me) Elliott 10M and am thinking that maybe a K5 or K6 will be needed to give me maximum ability on that beastie.

Sory John,
i didn't mean to hijack your thread. I've had no response to my question so perhaps I should start a new thread.

regards
alex