Milling Vise Recommendation

beeser

Registered
Registered
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
18
I recently purchased a Series I Bridgeport mill with a 9" x 48" table. I'm very new to machining and don't know which vise to get. Any suggestions? I understand Kurt is a good brand but they have many different sizes and types.
 
Welcome to the board Beeser and congratulations on getting yourself a mill!

If you bought it without a vise, you likely got little tooling with it. You probably know already that you are about to spend a bunch more money on tooling and accessories.

Kurts are highly regarded for a very good reason, they're great vises. For that size mill I believe a Kurt 6" would be in order. You can find them on sale from time to time or with free shipping. I do not own one personally, but my son has two and I am very impressed with them.

Some folks also have bought a Glacern 5" for that size machine. Of course, there are many other options out there. Dig for quality if you stray from a Kurt or a Glacern. Of course, used ones are available if you are lucky enough to find them.

My advice is to "buy once" which is easy to say but hard to pull off. Ask lots of questions here and you will get a lot of valuable insights and input. This forum is friendly, well moderated, and a great place to get help.
 
I have a bunch of vises, and no high end Kurt or Glacern. They are mostly ok. I've found that sometimes a screwless vise is the answer. Other times a lock down vise is the only way to go. My little high speed machines have screwless vises (some guys might call them grinder vises), and I have been ridiculed for using them on my high speed mills, but with modified jaws they allow me to use the work envelope of the machine without slamming into the cabinet doors and knocking out the windows. A mill vise with half the range would still bang into the doors. I've got little 1 inch insert vises, and 8 inch mill vises and a whole lot of stuff in between. It all gets used. There are two 6inch mill vises on the table of my big mill, only because the 8 inch vises would require me to cut holes in the table enclosure to turn the screws, but they were both in use similarly on a mill I retired a couple years ago, and will be in use on a similar machine again in the future.

I get the buy once advise, but if I bought a Kurt I wouldn't have everything I need to do the jobs I need to do.

I'd have to go out and count them, but I've easily got well over 20 precision or semi precision vises. If I counted cheap drill press vises and bench vises the count would probably jump to over 30. I use them all. Not everyday, but I use them.

A while back I visited a successful machine shop that was closing down due to owner health issues. I bought all of his mill vises, and a couple angle vises. Own protractor style and one sine vise. Not a single vise in his shop was a Kurt or a Glacern. He had been doing business in that location for 40 years. He was still busy, and the lady who was his shop manager was still there cranking out parts to finish orders as he was closing down.

That being said, if you have the money to spend you can't go wrong with a Kurt Vise. Its just going to eat up a lot of your budget.
 
After a little research I found that although the Glacern is a little less expensive than the equivalent Kurt it is made in Taiwan. For the minor difference in cost I would prefer the US made Kurt. I also understand the warranty is better. All Industrial Tool Supply has the Kurt DX6 on sale at $539.95 with free shipping. The offer seemed even better with their 10% off coupon promotion for new subscribers but after receiving the coupon it doesn't include work holding products. Is the DX6 a good entry into vises for general prototyping work?

And yes to the observation by Alan H, the mill came with little tooling. On the plus side though a friend close by has made all of his extensive tooling available to me until I've collected enough of my own. He has even given me a few items to get started.
 
I recently purchased a Series I Bridgeport mill with a 9" x 48" table. I'm very new to machining and don't know which vise to get. Any suggestions? I understand Kurt is a good brand but they have many different sizes and types.

I have a similar size mill with 42" table. Broke a Grizzly early on, so I got a 6" Kurt. Definitely not too big, it's one of the best investments I've made - period.
 
I have a similar size mill with 42" table. Broke a Grizzly early on, so I got a 6" Kurt. Definitely not too big, it's one of the best investments I've made - period.

PERIOD? LOL. Ok. How did you break the Grizzly? I don't own a Grizzly. I'm just curious. Which model?

P.S. I did break a vise once myself. It was a cast iron import bench vise, and I was using it as a press to remove some seriously stuck U-joints. It wouldn't give so I was beating on a 6 foot cheater bar with a hammer. Not something you are ever likely to see me do to any mill vise. LOL.

P.P.S. I have two hydraulic presses (12 and 20 ton) and a 6 ton arbor press now for that sort of work.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kurt DX6, the first listing is $490 but may bite you on shipping, the second is $540. I have a Te-co 6" which has held up very well and is accurate. Glacern also has some high quality vises. A well made vise will last a lifetime. I would rather not buy a cheap tool and waste money, versus waiting until I can purchase decent quality. A lot of the Chinese clones have poor finish and can be out of tolerance (height) over the machined surface of the vise and also when clamping. Would go with a 6", might get some oversized jaws.
http://www.ritchieindustrialsales.com/kurtvisedx6onsale490.aspx
http://allindustrial.com/kurt-dx6-6-new-machine-vise-539-95-sale-free-shipping/
http://catalog.te-co.com/item/single-station-vises/6--single-station-parlec-vise/pws-6900
https://www.glacern.com/vises
 
Don’t overlook using t nuts and all thread as work holding. Vises are very handy, but you can do a lot of work by simply clamping work to the table, or bridging it up off the table with parallel bars- particularly if your budget is such that a vise has to wait a few months. You can make everything you need for work holding with your new mill! Good first project.

Glenn
 
After a little research I found that although the Glacern is a little less expensive than the equivalent Kurt it is made in Taiwan. For the minor difference in cost I would prefer the US made Kurt. I also understand the warranty is better. All Industrial Tool Supply has the Kurt DX6 on sale at $539.95 with free shipping. The offer seemed even better with their 10% off coupon promotion for new subscribers but after receiving the coupon it doesn't include work holding products. Is the DX6 a good entry into vises for general prototyping work?

And yes to the observation by Alan H, the mill came with little tooling. On the plus side though a friend close by has made all of his extensive tooling available to me until I've collected enough of my own. He has even given me a few items to get started.

I have bought from All Industrial often in the past year and found them to be a very good vendor. My family bought an expensive indicator from them for my birthday and it was not the exact model I wanted. They worked with me and made it easy to swap it out. They're good folks to deal with and seem to be growing quickly.

Understand your choice to go with Kurt. The Glacern 5" is hard to outfit with parallels. There are very few suppliers of 5" long parallels and Glacern's 5/8" hex drive also precludes buying standard size speed handles. They seem to really find their niche in the CNC world but at $359 it is still a strong contender for a smaller size mill, particularly for those folks who prefer the smaller overhang. The Glacern 5" apparently fills the void that Kurt left open when they abandoned their 5 incher. Glacern appears to only selling direct or via Amazon these days and offer free freight from time to time.
 
Back
Top