In article ,
F. George McDuffee wrote:
On Sat, 21 May 2005 17:19:12 GMT, "Ray Field"
wrote:
Would like to buy a milling machine vise suitable for use on a Maximat V10.
What features should I be looking for/considering. Work is generally
model-making, amateur machining, some car restoration/repair work and
general around the house fixing.
Emco original equipment vise is priced around $500 in the USA. Any
equivalents available?
All advice will be appreciated.
=============
Major limitation is lack of height between spindle nose and
table. Big vises only make this worse. You might try a
precision machine vise like this one from WT for 179$US, however
it is pretty big.
http://www.wttool.com/p/2109-0020
http://www.wttool.com/p/2109-0021

That looks way too big for your machine. The second one has
less height, but trades off rigidity for that extra clearance.

The first looks like a clone of one of the various flavors of Kurt
Anglock vises -- but not the one which would be easy to mount -- the one
with its own mounting ears. This kind will need clamps like the
toolmaker's vise will.

The second one has the same problem -- compounded as the clamps
will apparently interfere with the vise jaw's motion, so you will have
to shift the clamps as you change workpiece size.

Both are 6" vises, which are overkill for your Emco, I think.
Note that there are 4" clones of the Kurt Anglock (a lot more affordable
than the real thing, though the real thing is a lot better overall).
The only size of Kurt which is reasonably priced is the 6", which is
about right for a Bridgeport. I think that the lower price on these is
a function of quantity production -- more demand than other sizes.

I also have a nice 3" clone of a Kurt Anglock, which is just
about right for my Nichols horizontal mill. (Though I finally got a
genuine Nichols vise for the machine at last year's Iron Fever.) If you
can find one of the 3" Anglock clones, you probably will want to use it
most of the time off the swivel base to get a lower profile, Put it on
the swivel only if you need the ability to set it to angles.

That 3" clone was sold by some other members of the local
metalworking club -- they had a nice batch of them a couple of years or
so back, but I have not heard of them getting more, so I don't know
where you will find them. Perhaps the 4" clone will do for the V10.

an alternative is a toolmakers vise such as
http://www.wttool.com/p/2124-0020 or
http://www.wttool.com/p/2124-0021
which are a little smaller but require that you fabricate some
clamps to allow clamping to the table.

This was what I did for a vise for my Emco C5 mill (built with
the milling column for a Compact-5 lathe, and a much heftier X-Y base
which Emco got from Spain.

As an indication of what the clamps should be like, I documented
my work on a simple web page:

http://www2.d-and-d.com/EMCO/Vise-and-clamps/index.html

A third alternative which is slightly less accurate is a drill
press vise like
http://www.wttool.com/p/2108-0015

Certainly not as precise as the toolmaker's vise, nor as rigid,
but less work to set up, I guess. I would be more likely to use that
kind as it was designed -- as a drillpress vise.

Good Luck,
DoN.
--
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