02-17-2015, 08:35 AM
I've stood in front of your milling machine Mike and agree that a 4 or 5 inch vise would be best, and you don't need to spend money on the swivel base. I had one with my Chinese knock-off vise and had it on to start with my newer Alliant mill. When I checked the ground surface that the jaws ride on for parallelism to the machine travel, it was out in both planes. Rather than taking it all apart and grinding, I just took the swivel base off and rechecked. It was within .002" or so.
I used that vise for a couple of years, then was gifted a Kurt D60. And later, a Kurt D675. I can tell you the difference between a quality vise and the cheap Chinese ones is something you don't appreciate until you've used both. On my machine the progression was a beat-up old Bridgeport 5" vise with really short jaws (on my original 1960 Bridgeport), the 6" Chinese one, then the Kurt's. Save yourself my learning curve. And I should have known better, being a machinist for a living and all.
Your machine isn't really big enough for a 6" vise, but it may fit without the swivel base. A 4" vise might be a better fit, but if you ever upgrade to a newer/bigger machine it'll be small. Look at Glacern and Teco. I was talking with a Parlec rep and he told me that they sold their vise line to Teco, they are made in Taiwan. I think Glacern does the same thing.
I used that vise for a couple of years, then was gifted a Kurt D60. And later, a Kurt D675. I can tell you the difference between a quality vise and the cheap Chinese ones is something you don't appreciate until you've used both. On my machine the progression was a beat-up old Bridgeport 5" vise with really short jaws (on my original 1960 Bridgeport), the 6" Chinese one, then the Kurt's. Save yourself my learning curve. And I should have known better, being a machinist for a living and all.
Your machine isn't really big enough for a 6" vise, but it may fit without the swivel base. A 4" vise might be a better fit, but if you ever upgrade to a newer/bigger machine it'll be small. Look at Glacern and Teco. I was talking with a Parlec rep and he told me that they sold their vise line to Teco, they are made in Taiwan. I think Glacern does the same thing.