Abrasha wrote in message ...
Woody wrote:

Its time for a new vise for my Clausing knee mill. Has anyone used a
6" Kurt on a 8520? I know a 5" would probably be the better choice
but the cost is prohibitive and they rarely show up on ebay.

Thanks for the help, please reply to group
Woody

I have a 4" Kurt on my Clausing 8520, and it's absolutely huge. The absolute
maximum this machine can take.

A 3" would be a lot better, but these are very difficult to find used. New they
cost a small fortune.


I have an 8520 with a 5" Kurt copy and I think it is the maximun size
for this mill. One thing I had to do to make it fit, was mill off the
coolant trough at the rear of the vise. It would hit the column when
the Y was cranked all the way in. Machining it off is easy. I clamped
the vise to the mill table hanging off the rear edge. The fixed jaw
was clamping on the table surface, and the movable jaw was clamping on
the X table way sliding surface. The vise screw is parallel with the
spindle. This allows end milling for removal of this coolant trough
and I fly-cut the final amount for a nice finish. That ductile iron
sure cuts nice. By the way, I bought this vise through Penn Tool. It
is a copy of a Kurt 5", made by Auto-Well in Tiawain. I must profess
that the quality and accuracy is excellent. I think I paid $265 a
couple years ago. The Y travel on the clausing is slightly less than
5" and that is almost what that vise will open, so I conclude this is
a good size for a clausing. A 6" would definately hit the column. I
just want a 3" though, cause they are so cute. I gotta get out more.
--Doozer in Buffalo