I have a Drill Press vise from Home Depot.
It's an absolute piece of junk so I am looking for a new better quality
vise.
I found a Grizzly vise that looks much better than mine for just $17
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...mnumber=H0964&

Is it a reasonably good vise or another piece of junk?


Thanks

Alex wrote:

I have a Drill Press vise from Home Depot.
It's an absolute piece of junk so I am looking for a new better quality
vise.
I found a Grizzly vise that looks much better than mine for just $17
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...mnumber=H0964&

Is it a reasonably good vise or another piece of junk?

I've looked at a bunch of Grizzly stuff over the years. They all have
one thing in common, they have outstanding paint jobs. Their photos
are also high quality. Notice there are *no* specs about parallelism
of ways, squareness of fixed jaw, *nothing*. It's a really cheap import
POS. Like all such, every tolerance is on a large bell curve. If you
happen to get one with a collection of relatively tight tolerances (by
random chance) you could mistakenly think that the whole line is high
quality.

However, we're talking about a drill press vise. What exactly is wrong
with the one from Homo Depo? These go on cheap drill presses with spindles
which probably run out 1/32". The quality is entirely consistent.

One thing I would suggest is to *fix* the vise you have. You would learn
really a lot and how much is that worth to you?

GWE

Ignoramus29781 wrote:

On 6 May 2005 18:20:36 -0700, Alex wrote:

I have a Drill Press vise from Home Depot.
It's an absolute piece of junk so I am looking for a new better quality
vise.
I found a Grizzly vise that looks much better than mine for just $17
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...mnumber=H0964&

Is it a reasonably good vise or another piece of junk?


Looks like a piece of junk. At least, a DPV should offer x and y
adjustment by means of screws.

i
That vise is really light duty, and, the guide in the center won't allow
long pieces to hang through the table.

I was lucky to got a used industrial Wilton Drill Press in a very good shape with very
little runout. It's not that I do projects that need extremely high tolerance but it
feels good to use good quality tools vs using some flimsy POS that drives you crazy.
The Home Depot vise I have is extremely flimsy - every single part rattles with no
reliable way to adjust it. I don't think it can be fixed but let me know if you think
something can be done.
BTW I'am be checking eBay. Hopefully some used quality vise will pop up.

Thanks


Grant Erwin wrote:
Alex wrote:

I have a Drill Press vise from Home Depot.
It's an absolute piece of junk so I am looking for a new better quality
vise.
I found a Grizzly vise that looks much better than mine for just $17
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...mnumber=H0964&

Is it a reasonably good vise or another piece of junk?


I've looked at a bunch of Grizzly stuff over the years. They all have
one thing in common, they have outstanding paint jobs. Their photos
are also high quality. Notice there are *no* specs about parallelism
of ways, squareness of fixed jaw, *nothing*. It's a really cheap import
POS. Like all such, every tolerance is on a large bell curve. If you
happen to get one with a collection of relatively tight tolerances (by
random chance) you could mistakenly think that the whole line is high
quality.

However, we're talking about a drill press vise. What exactly is wrong
with the one from Homo Depo? These go on cheap drill presses with spindles
which probably run out 1/32". The quality is entirely consistent.

One thing I would suggest is to *fix* the vise you have. You would learn
really a lot and how much is that worth to you?

GWE

Alex wrote:
I have a Drill Press vise from Home Depot.
It's an absolute piece of junk so I am looking for a new better quality
vise.
I found a Grizzly vise that looks much better than mine for just $17
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...mnumber=H0964&

Is it a reasonably good vise or another piece of junk?


Thanks


I looked at that link and the "photo" looked more like a 3-D CAD
rendering than it does an actual photography.

What is wrong with your HD one? Perhaps you can tune it to be better.

John

Ignoramus29781 wrote:
On 6 May 2005 18:20:36 -0700, Alex wrote:
I have a Drill Press vise from Home Depot.
It's an absolute piece of junk so I am looking for a new better
quality
vise.
I found a Grizzly vise that looks much better than mine for just
$17
http://www.grizzly.com/products/item...mnumber=H0964&

Is it a reasonably good vise or another piece of junk?

Looks like a piece of junk. At least, a DPV should offer x and y
adjustment by means of screws.

i


Why should it do that?

John Martin

John Martin wrote:

Ignoramus29781 wrote:

[ snip ]

Looks like a piece of junk. At least, a DPV should offer x and y
adjustment by means of screws.

Why should it do that?

To provide a modicum of precision in locating the workpiece.

-jc-

John Chase wrote:
John Martin wrote:

Ignoramus29781 wrote:

[ snip ]

Looks like a piece of junk. At least, a DPV should offer x and y
adjustment by means of screws.

Why should it do that?

To provide a modicum of precision in locating the workpiece.

-jc-

Locating the workpiece how, John? With a center finder or a dial test
indicator? Or an edge finder? Frankly, it's far easier and just as
accurate to lay out hole locations with hand measuring tools and a
prick punch, then center punch them and drill. Holding the workpiece
in a simple drill press vise. Unless you're using a spotting drill or
a center drill first, it's in fact more accurate. Even with a spotting
drill or a center drill, though, a drill press is not a precision
machine tool. Adding an XY vise to one will not make it so.

There certainly are drill presses with XY tables built in, which are
extremely accurate. But they're called jig bores, and are in a totally
different league.

While there may be some decent XY drill press vises around, those that
I've seen have been crap. You're much better off with a solid simple
vise.

John Martin

While there may be some decent XY drill press vises around, those that
I've seen have been crap. You're much better off with a solid simple
vise.

John Martin

I had a 17" Jet drill press for a long time which had a 4" cross-slide
vise from Grizzly on it. I found that vise to be quite usable and an
excellent value for the price. The reason it's useful is that you can
clamp the part firmly in the vise and *then* move it until your mark is
dead under the drill, then lock the gibs and drill. I found it useful to
replace the gib screws with thumbscrews since without locking the gibs I
always got chatter. I did some good work with that setup. I later bought
a 5" cross-slide vise from J&L which was a real POS, returned it right
away.

So I agree with you. Some cross-slide vises are much better than others,
also drill presses are not ultraprecision machines.

GWE