Milling Vise--To Swivel or not to Swivel?

Whatya think--swivel, or no swivel for a milling vise?

  • Swivel

    Votes: 7 43.8%

  • No swivel

    Votes: 9 56.3%
  • Total voters
    16
I am with the majority here. When I bought my Acer mill I purchased the Kurt and swivel all in one package deal. That was 7 or 8 years ago, and I used the swivel base one time. I was building a hit and miss engine and didn't have enough room on the Z axis so I took the base off to do the job. Never put it back on. But I have it if I ever need it.
 
It's interesting the poll is 60-40 for. As a noob I would like to ask humbly because I really don't know. Those of you who use a swivel and recently used it, what did you do with it?
 
I have a nice old low profile 4" vise on my H/V combi mill and I use the swivel all the time. The vise is 3-1/4" high overall.
Mark S.
 
My Wells-Index mill had two no-name swivel vises on it when I bought it in 2001 (The guy I bought it from was doing repetitive work and one was 'live' while he changed parts on the other.)

I took one off and stored it away - and later sold it at a garage sale.

When a non-swivel Kurt showed up at an auction a few years ago I changed out the swivel no-name for the Kurt no-swivel since in the 10+ years I had the mill I had never once turned the vise away from 0 degrees. Spoiled by CNC I guess.

Stu
 
OH gawd, I've heard this debate for 40 years now. Use what you like.

One of my friends made many 100K$ on an import vise on a inexpensive Taiwanese BP clone. It did not have the swivel base. And to Tom Lipton's dismay (if he ever heard of it), he has precise fitting alignment tabs affixed to the bottom.

Another has a 10X54 BP clone, with a very high tilt/swivel base. He earns several 10K$ per year on that setup. (he has no riser, which limits his vertical space).

My setup for more than 20 years has been a Kurt clone on a swivel base.

My point is that whatever you use, learn to use it well. My advise for a starter, is to get the most rigid setup you can afford. Thus for a beginner, leave the swivel base on the shelf for a while. After you gain significant experience, a swivel base can be effective in some situations and can save considerable time. I leave mine on the mill because I'm lazy and I don't want to lose the base (!!).
 
I have a Kurt w/a swivel base, I like it and use it. I will not say I use it a lot but it has come in handy and I was glad to have it.

However I have to add that I modified the holes on the vise to slots for when I do not want to use the swivel base.
 
It is all a matter of preference and you will never get everyone to agree on one or the other. So go with what you think will work for you.
 
It's better to have one and not need it. More options the better.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
To swivel is fine, but OHHH! to "shimmy like her sister Kate". Sorry, that was totally uncalled for. :cat: :grin:
 
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