Vise recommendation

AR. Hillbilly

Registered
Registered
Joined
Apr 9, 2016
Messages
120
I just bought a new to me Index 55 mill.
It should be delivered sometime in the next week or so.
I’m going to be looking for a vise and other accessories.
I’ve been looking at EBay for old American Iron and at new imports alike.
I don’t know what size would work best either?
My first mill and I know nothing.
Any pointers would be welcome.
Will also be hunting B&S 9 collets and tooling.
 
I’m looking in to the spindle re-grind. I talked to the ne guy at WI who says I have to buy a new spindle and that they never did regrind.
I need to find the correct person to speak to.
I was thinking 5” or 6” on the vise. Thank you
 
My first mill and I know nothing.
That's the key words for me.
Buy an import.

Take it apart, clean up the hidden rough castings where appropriate, lube it, and reassemble. You now have a serviceable cheap vise, and an intimate understanding of how they works, which is actually more complicated than just pushing the two jaws together to squeeze a part.

Now, proceed to make your newbie mistakes. The dumb***, stupid, "I knew better" mistakes, along with the "I didn't even know that was a thing" mistakes. Old-timers sometimes make those sort of mistakes, but newbies. . . hoooh-boy. . . we invent new ones after we've run out of the old ones.

After you've been at it a while, you can set the drill-pocked and mill-slotted vice to the side without crying much at all, and get some expensive American iron knowing that you'll pay once and cry once.
 
I gave up on 4" altogether as soon as I had a good quality 6". I've never run into a problem where the vise was too big (except lifting it onto the table), but I've certainly run into cases where it was too small. Also, much easier to find 6" parallels.

I'm in favor of buying right the first time. Unless you're extremely careless, the worst things that are likely to happen can be 'fixed' with a new set of vise jaws - which will cost less than an import vise. I bought my Kurt nearly three decades ago, and it has a couple of minor scars - but all on the jaws, and none of them so bad that I've felt the need to replace anything.

OTOH, not having my work crawl out of the vise as I machined it, and having a fixed jaw that's truly square helped eliminate a number of variables, which is of extreme importance when you're just learning and trying to figure out why things didn't turn out they way you thought they should.

GsT
 
I'll disagree with @Shotgun here actually, I don't think just 'an import' is a good idea. I've seen a number of those that are 'vise shaped objects, which need a surface grinder to get decent'. A GOOD quality import perhaps (Precision Matthews, etc), but the ebay /vevor ones are garbage.

IMO, a good vise is one of those 'buy once, cry once' things, and I'd suggest spending for a Kurt/Glacern/Orange 6", either new or taken-care-of-used. A bad vise will have you chasing your tail on dimensions/squareness.
 
I have a mill leaving very soon with a Kurt 6" . I only have 2 more to rid myself of . :clapping:
 
I picked up a blemish 6 inch vise from Kurt. Had to look hard for any thing wrong. The only thing I could find were some minor casting pits were it didn’t mater. Very happy with the vice.
 
Back
Top