Milling Machine Vise

============= 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.

an alternative is a toolmakers vise such as or are a little smaller but require that you fabricate some clamps to allow clamping to the table.

A third alternative which is slightly less accurate is a drill press vise like

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.

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:

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.

I bought a 3 inch phase II vise from travers for $65 at NAMES. It fits my rockwell mill very well. I tried a 4 inch kurt and it was just too big.

chuck

Thanks for info and suggestions. Is a swivel base worth the extra cost? Is it rigid enough?

That price included the swivel base! It may have been a NAMES show special price though. I have not used the swivel base yet so I do not know how rigid it will be.

Depends on how much you will use it and what types of things you plan on making. You can use a vernier protractor or sine bar and a test indicator to get exactly the angle you want, but it can be a pain.

GmcD

As has already been mentioned, sometimes there is no "extra cost".

There is some loss of rigidity when you bolt it on a swivel base, but not very much with the Anglocks and clones thereof. And you can unbolt the vise from the swivel base and mount it directly on the bed for both more rigidity (if you don't need the angle capability at the moment), and gain a bit more space for the workpiece at the same time.

But keep that swivel base for when it is really helpful.

If your mill is a CNC machine, you really don't need the swivel base, but on a manual machine, there will be times when a swivel base makes something easy which is just barely possible without.

Enjoy, DoN.