Thinking of joining the RF-30 club, but I got some questions...

12. vises
They are the same vise. The difference is that the 1001 model has a swivel base. Do not know what the "A" stands for. Most people say bail on the swivel base. My Shars 4" vise came with a swivel base. I bought it on sale for under a $100. I don't use the vise with the base. I made a backing plate for the swivel base that fits the chucks on my lathe. I don't use it much but it has come in handy at times. I call it a rotary positioner. I use it like a rotary table. If you have a rotary table I would bail on the swivel base.

The lock down feature pushes with a downward force when tightening the jaws. This holds the work better.
 
Looking forward to hearing what happens with your negotiations :)


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mickri said:
12. vises
They are the same vise. The difference is that the 1001 model has a swivel base. Do not know what the "A" stands for. Most people say bail on the swivel base. My Shars 4" vise came with a swivel base. I bought it on sale for under a $100. I don't use the vise with the base. I made a backing plate for the swivel base that fits the chucks on my lathe. I don't use it much but it has come in handy at times. I call it a rotary positioner. I use it like a rotary table. If you have a rotary table I would bail on the swivel base.

The lock down feature pushes with a downward force when tightening the jaws. This holds the work better.
Click to expand...

To clarify: are they the same as the Kurt vise? Does the Kurt have the "lockdown" feature? I knew the Shars vises were all just variations of the same thing. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
 
Kurt vises have the lockdown feature. I believe they were the first to have this feature. That said a kurt vise is better made than the ones from Shars. How much better I don't know. Probably will keep their tolerances longer.

When I got my Shars vise I took it apart looking for any casting flaws, etc. Didn't find anything that looked wrong so I put it back together. One thing that I have noticed with my Shars vice when dialing it in is that the center of the fixed jaw between the screws runs true and then there is a slight thousand or so change on the very outside edge of the jaw. Until I realized this it was frustrating trying to get the fixed jaw dialed in.
 
world of difference between Kurt/ high end Homge/ Glacern vises and standard Shars or worse vises. I have a basic Shars. It's fine, but I spent a bunch of time on it and still get work lift at the rear as the stationary jaws rocks backwards every so slightly. $200 for a 4 or 5" Kurt (if it is a Kurt) is a good price, I've only ever seen one for sale for less than that.
 
UPDATE:
I bought the mill and the Kurt vise (and got a free t-shirt!) for $975. I'll post pictures later. Maybe 0.001" of "play" in the spindle (I remembered to lock it this time). There's about 0.005" to 0.010" of backlash in the x and y screws. It sounded good when I ran it. Everything else was solid as far as I could tell. The front panel on both the machines was broken. The depth gages are fine, though. The table was fine. What looks like nicks and scratches in the photos is just paint and dirt.
I think I'll start a new thread after I post pictures in this one and reference it from this one for those who'd like to buy one and may have the same questions. Unless you all think I should just keep this one going? Maybe I could ask a moderator to add something on the first post about how this started as a "asking questions" thread and turned into a "RF buying, unloading, setting up, etc" thread. Whatever would be most helpful to readers.
 
ARC-170 said:
UPDATE:
I bought the mill and the Kurt vise (and got a free t-shirt!) for $975. I'll post pictures later. Maybe 0.001" of "play" in the spindle (I remembered to lock it this time). There's about 0.005" to 0.010" of backlash in the x and y screws. It sounded good when I ran it. Everything else was solid as far as I could tell. The front panel on both the machines was broken. The depth gages are fine, though. The table was fine. What looks like nicks and scratches in the photos is just paint and dirt.
I think I'll start a new thread after I post pictures in this one and reference it from this one for those who'd like to buy one and may have the same questions. Unless you all think I should just keep this one going? Maybe I could ask a moderator to add something on the first post about how this started as a "asking questions" thread and turned into a "RF buying, unloading, setting up, etc" thread. Whatever would be most helpful to readers.
Click to expand...

Congratulations and well done. Sounds like you got a good machine! Welcome to the RF club.


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My vote is to start a new thread on unloading, setting it up and any repairs/mods you make.
 
congrats, that's a decent price. Looking forward to the arrival photos :)
 
Step # 1 in that I just bought a Machine adventure:
You will most likely need to do some disassembly to move it to it's new home so....Strip it down, clean it up, lube it all over then enjoy it.
 
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