Opening of machinist vises

[Manual Mac]

My 5” mill vise.

 

[Just for fun]

Sounds like there is something wrong with it. I would take it apart and find out how come it open any further than it does.

 

[Dabbler]

Your jaw opening as a function of jaw width depends on the pattern of the vise. In the old Kurt 6", prior to the 633 the 6" vise opened to around 5 3/4 inches with the jaws inside. The newer pattern (633 and Dx6) open to almost 8" before changing the jaws over.

A lot of the inexpensive offshore clones use the old pattern. I have two of those, a real Kurt and a clone of the 633 to compare to.

 

[josef]

Thanks everyone. I feel a bit foolish. I should have taken the vise apart before writing. I found the problem. Not fixable at this point. The last inch of internal threads in the cast iron carrier are bad. Trying to find out the thread size from precision matthews but no luck so far. Looks like I need to buy a new vise. With your information, I have some brands to look at. Can't afford a Kurt.

 

[WobblyHand]

Thanks everyone. I feel a bit foolish. I should have taken the vise apart before writing. I found the problem. Not fixable at this point. The last inch of internal threads in the cast iron carrier are bad. Trying to find out the thread size from precision matthews but no luck so far. Looks like I need to buy a new vise. With your information, I have some brands to look at. Can't afford a Kurt.

Did you buy the vise from PM? If it is defective, they should back you up, or at the very least offer you a good deal for a new one.

 

[Dabbler]

Did you buy the vise from PM? If it is defective, they should back you up, or at the very least offer you a good deal for a new one.

I have found Matt to be a very honourable business man, and will do his best to help you out if it is a PM vise.

 

[Tom1948]

I second that about PM and Matt.

 

[hman]

I bought a Tegara 690 vise from Shars a year or two ago. It's a very well made Kurt clone, and the jaws open to nearly 9". Looks like they're out of stock right now But if you can find one, it's well worth the money.

 

[G-ManBart]

For the price of many new import vises you can get a decent used Kurt. I paid $300 for my D688...all I had to do was clean it a bit. It had some dried cutting oil that came off without much effort.

 

[josef]

I bought my vise from Precision Matthews when I bought my PM932 back in 2017. They said they couldn't find my email in their database so couldn't tell which vise I had. It surprised me but maybe they don't keep records back that far. It was a lesson to me that I should always check things for specifications when I first get them.
After shopping around, I bought a Tegara 550V from Shars. I love it. It opens to 7". It is beautifully made. Used it today, very solid.