Repeatability of Self Centering Vises

Are there any smallish ones (3-4 inches) that do not have mounting ears? I would much prefer to set it in another vise rather than mount it on the table.

"Bob La Londe" fired this volley in news:n51kls$5bl$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Bob, the 'accuracy' might not be there, but repeatability will be pretty good until the screws and nuts wear. It'll probably be within just a few thousandths, so long as your stock is accurate as to width between the jaws. The real variability with them comes from non-linearities of cheap screws. So various stock widths will affect centering, but the same stock width over and over will repeat well.

As to ears... hey... you've got a mill! (Where'd those ears go? )

Lloyd

The repeatability will depend to a large degree on the design of the screw's thrust bearing. In a normal vise the play in the thrust bearing is taken up when the vise is clamped, not so with a centering vise.

If the thrust bearing is adjustable, as in a Kurt, there should be minimal play and good repeatability.

The only way to take the free play out of these vises from Grizzly is by shimming the screw.

I've purchased these on a couple occasions over the last couple years and the quality is a crap shoot. Several have been quite good right out of the box, others required some attention to make them barely usable. We make custom jaws to use them as work supports to hold long workpieces of varying diameter at a fixed center height - think adjustable v-blocks.

The ears disappear off those Grizzly vises in a twinkling.

On 19-Dec-15 4:33 AM, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh wrote: wish they were available he in OZ would give me abase to build a better vice