Have you ever felt a need to have two milling vises

Probably a waste of space and weight on the Bridgeport table. Only seen multiple vises used in CNC production applications. For big parts you use a combination of step blocks, bar clamps and studs from the usual clamp set kit which you can get for around $50 or so from Enco, MSC, etc.

Depends entirely on condition. A new POS Chinese import may well be better than an old and beat to death Bridgeport vise. The Bridgeport vise will have originally been built to better tolerances and with better materials, but if it's useful service life is over, it's still scrap metal.

Pete C.

I have never had the need for two, and if you had a long piece to hold your vice should do fine for restraining the piece in your y and y axis and to prevent it from tipping, this could be done by blocking up the long end or if you needed to mill the whole length of your table travel a beter set-up would probably be to use the clamps and forego the vise altogether.

I am not a fan of either, My preference is for the Kurt. If the Chinese one is of better quality and a Kurt clone that would probably be OK for a while.

In article , Ignoramus11334 writes

When I bought my Emco FB2 in the mid 1980s, I ordered 2 milling vices as part of the kit, thinking along exactly the same lines as you are. One vice is permanently fixed to the mill table, the other is still in its original wrapping, never used. YMMV.

Just acquired a shaper, I must adapt the spare vice to go on that.

David

OK, thanks to all, I will not keep the second vise. I would rather use the space and money for something else.

i

--Every now and then you gotta have a second fixing method. Suggest, tho, that you get something other than a clone of the vise you've already got. I opted for a spare 4" vise because it's a lot easier to lug around and it takes up a lot less space when I don't need it.

I'm voting for a waste of space and resources. Now if you asked should I have a 8" and a 4" or something like that I might have said yes. Of course a 4" should be a multi angle vise....

Wes

Who split the difference and has a 6" Kurt :)

Sell everything and buy a new Kurt!

I recall one job I could not have done without having THREE identical vises. The job was to make a .250 keyway in a 20' long piece of shafting.

You can never have too many tools!

Errol Groff

Nah, get one of these

Better than Kurt. Larger capacity, smaller footprint (IMHO - not going to compare specs - I've used both though).

Regards,

Robin

According to Errol Groff :

[ ... ]

In circumstances like that, I think that there is something to be said for multiple *identical* vises, so you don't have to shim the workpiece in two of the three to make sure that it is level.

Enjoy, DoN.

Just a note, long keyways can be easily done with one vice and some clamps. Clamp on the part upside down with the vice, put a couple of side stops parallel to the table and then toe clamp the piece and start milling. Reposition the piece by sliding it along the stops and reclamping. The upside down vice keeps the keyway top dead center to the cutter.

John

Very interesting. I think that I will keep a 10" vise that I have that is not too heavy. I think that for long shafts, etc, I should rather use clamps.

i

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hey Iggy,

Three is best. Two standards to do what you say, and then a "two piece" one that you place to suit the size of the work.

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

True indeed.

Gunner

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What kind?

Gunner, Shaperhead

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In article , Gunner writes

Elliot 10M.

David

Brian sez:

"> Three is best. Two standards to do what you say, and then a "two

That's me, Brian. My "two piece" one is a substantial pair of toe clamps. I've got a 6' Kurt, a 4" Kurt, and 6" Chinese. The real value of the Kurts is mostly in pride of ownership. The 6" Kurt was a gift but it has sentimental value. A lot of that value is in the aprox. $200 spent for new jaws and taking it out for grinding.

Bob Swinney

You can make your vices "identical" by machining the bottoms of them while clamped upside down to a precision bar clamped to the table, the bar setting on the bottom of the vice. Or send them out to be ground the same way.

John