G and m tools have a few quality machine vices withing your budget and around the size you want. What mill are you going to buy ?

For most small to medium sized bench mills I would suggest having a look at the DH1 from Warco, I've had one for a few years now with all the additional jaws as I got a good deal. It is a bit above your stated budget but IMHO well worth the investment. I have a Ajax AJT4 (bit heftier than a Bridgeport) and it is my go to vice for all but the largest of jobs although it is a bit dwarfed by the machine but it would be quite at home on a smaller mill.

Edited By CoalBurner on 04/10/2014 19:11:52

Nick

I have one similar to this – it's within your budget and I find it OK. The swivel facility does, of course, compromise the rigidity to some extent and also reduces the headroom – but it can be removed if you wish. On the other hand it can also be quite useful at times! Quite adequate for most of the Stuart range I think – it will probably be a while before you get to the 6A!

Norman

I'd go with Bob, get a clamping kit, a selection of toolmakers clamps, a couple of angle plates, maybe a vee block. Though I have a couple of vices most of the time I don't use them for milling.

I have an SX3 and use. A K4 but having seen the DH1 and it's versatility I think it offers better value for money in the long run. I do have a clamping kit but use the vice more frequently, I would also suggest that you need some parallels.

Tony

Just using clamps, if I have more than one part to machine I use stop blocks to maintain the position of consecutive parts. One problem with a machine vice is you need to hold the part correctly, in the vice clamping it in the middle of the jaws and not holing it so there is too much sticking above the vice.

Jason,

That is not a recommended way to hold a part in a machine vice no matter how good your vice is. Instead of applying the grip along the length of the part most of the load will be applied to the end of the part as the jaws twist even if there is only a small amount of play in the jaws.

See **LINK**

It doesn't matter which vice you buy, you will always have that nagging doubt in the back of your mind that "another brand" would have been a better decision!

I would go with a combination of suggestions given above. For some jobs, a vice is the simplest, quickest and most accurate solution. The Vertex vice Jason uses are around £70 so there is about half your budget, then you could buy a toolmakers style vice with three inch jaws and these can be had for around £50 from Arc. Then get yourself a clamp kit (£30 ish from Chester) and you have most of your bases covered. As you go along you can collect up other things such as parallels and angle plates. For a start a couple of pieces of tool steel can be used as parallels but then you can try out the various solutions. Personally I use a set of so-called Wavy Parallels most as these are – in my opinion – the most versatile.

Angle plates, hardened steel ball race outers and all sorts of things I have to help getting a grip of whatever I am working on are all in a drawer under the Mill. The page Bob linked to is a useful reference and I suggest you either bookmark it or print it out for future, ie when you get your Mill. In my humble opinion, fifty percent of Mill work is figuring out how to get a grip of some awkward shape so it won't move during machining.

graham.

The 6" Kurt-style Anglock vise that Andrew mentioned is heavily copied, so Chinese versions are readily available for a lot less than the Full Monty. RDG does a 4" version for 108 quid inc vat. which I assume is from that origin. I have a Chinese 6" copy of otherwise unclear parentage that is about the right size for my Bridgeport clone. It actually cost about the same as this 4" example last year and is perfectly accurate for my needs when set up properly. I use it for the vast majority of milling work ie where at all possible.

The much-copied "angle lock" feature applies some of the clamping force to pull the moving jaws down against the bed of the vise, taking up any play and preventing (or at least reducing?) jaw lift. I suspect the simple design of the Kurt vise lends itself to being copied and probably isn't difficult to manufacture fairly accurately.

Not all vises and rotary tables have cast-in coolant channels like the one in the link but if you are going to use flood coolant, it's really helpful to have it channelled back through the table rather then streaming all over the floor. It may be another feature to look for, depending what you plan to use it for.

A set of ground parallels and a sprung parallel keeper is another nice addition I use a lot. Obviously you will be fitting a DRO as a matter of course….

Murray

On a small mill go for 4 inch jaws,with a plain base,make sure the fixed jaw is sturdy and will not deflect when tightened and is vertical,some of the cheap ones are not very true,also the moving jaw must not lift when being tightened,if it lifts you will never get accurate work,swivel base vices are rarely used and make the vice higher ,which reduces the height capacity of the mill,Parallels,I tend to make my own ,usually from gauge plate,the snag with standard parallels is that they are usually made to full fractions,i.e. 1/2 3/4 1 inch so if your vice has 1 1/2 inch high jaws and you want to machine a small amount of a 1/2 in bar ,a 1 in parallel brings the bar flush with jaws, a 1 1/4 parallel holds the work too high in the vice ,a 1 1/16 parallel would hold the work proud above the jaws by only 1/16. which allows a skim to be taken but the work is held firm and square. By using a combination of standard parallel and specials ,work can be held well down in the vice jaws. Some toolmakers make their own parallels in aluminium,the reasoning is they are quick and cheap to make and if you do hit the parallel with a cutter,no damage is done to an expensive cutter. clamping direct to table is ok on small mills where the T slots are small,when you get to bridgeport size tables the T slots are larger and clamping is more difficult on small work pieces, I prefer the continental toolroom mills with near square tables and a lot more T slots,they are a lot easier to work on.I do not know why US and UK built machine were built for so many years with standard narrow tables having 3 slots a turret mill would be so much more useful with a wider 4 slot table .I realise full universal mills with swivelling do need a table with a dead central slot for spiral milling.

A solution to small work which cannot be held in the vice jaws is hold an ali block say 3 by 4 ins in the vice ,drill and tap some holes say m8 to hold small clamps, then skim the block with fly cutter to clean up so the face of the block is now square to the spindle axis, which can result in very accurate work,a thick block can be skimmed a lot of times

Like many, I have used a Vertex K4 for many years. Yes the swivel features decrease stiffness somewhat, but normally I don't work the machine that hard. Machine and vice stiffness are about on a par!.

I have tightened the moving jaw, once, to reduce the tendency to lift when tightened.

A long time ago, there was an article on making a vice alignment fixture, to save reclocking every time that the vice was repositioned.

A simplified version for my K4 is literally three pieces of one inch bar, two allen screws, two T nuts and a couple of long M8 bolts followed by a skim on both the front and back faces. It saves an awful lot of winding and knocking to and fro, and time; not to mention blood pressure!

Very early on, I bought a clamping kit, which does get used from time to time.

Also, having seen what I call "An infinite Vice" when visiting Pro Machine Tools at Barnack, ( A simple device – basically three pieces of steel set across the table of the vertical mill) I made one for my Warco Mill/Drill.

Like many things, not used very much, but invaluable when needed.

The choice of which method to use depends on what you are going to do at the time

Howard