Looking at all the choices between ebay, LMS and others. Any recommendations on a good quality milling vise, 3" 4"? I'd like to stay less than $100 with shipping so that constrains things to India and China imports as I haven't seen anything on ebay of domestic nature.
there's this
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1145
and this
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1699
and
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1904
or
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2356
There are less costly variants of the above from vendors like Discount Machine on ebay.

I know how hard it is to get anyone on here to reply. so I will try to help you out.

I got my 4" vise for my larger Grizzly G0484 Gear head mill from JTS www.jtsmach.com.. They have a great selection for vises and some well under $100.00... They have a special catalog that you get if you order something from them from their regular catalog. The specials catalog has an extra 10% off on Tuesdays. They have a really niece 4 " in the specials catalog and with 10% off it comes down to about $80.00 with shipping.

JTS has its best deals on ebay (jtsmach8xzw). So check them out there. I got my 3" vise for my X2 for $42.95 and $17.00 shipping (check out this ebay # 280277160429). You can't beat JTS on ebay. You can get the same 4” I have from ebay as well from JTS for 59.95 + 28.50 for shipping (check out this ebay # 380072739687)
These vises are the same type of vises littlemachineshop.com sells for twice or even three times the price. Shop around!!! Most vises today are import and if you want a Kurt, you will have to shell-out $300.00 or more for a 4" and 4" is as samll as they go..

Good luck

Mike

you might want to narrow it done to just the 3"ers I got a 4" and its a bit on the large size for the X2

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j249/dogwoodtheone/newvice2.jpg

You want #2 or #3 on your list. One of the 'Kurt'-like vises. I initially bought one like #1 in your list and it is just nowhere near as nice as the kurt style - also like the above poster said, go with a 3".

Why not #4?. The #1 is not good at all. I got one of those with my mill, and I have only used it a couple times. I ended up buying the #4 vise for my mill, and it's really good. The #2 and 3 vises can both be rotated, so thats good, but they do take up a lot more space.

#4 may be OK. I have never personally used one but I like the quick open/close of the kurt style. I think I have used that rotating base for my vise once maybe twice. To be honest, it takes up too much room on a mini mill.

I bought #4 from LMS and returned it because it didn't work properly. On the vise that I received, the internal locking mechanism was too small for the machined slot in the vise. Consequently, the mechanism would turn as the vise was adjusted so that the locking pin would not seat properly.

To their credit, LMS refunded my money but didn't respond to my compaint about the poor construction of the vise.

Thanks for the feedback so far, good info. I work with a guy who teaches CNC at the local junior college, he has loaned me a 6"vise from a grinder. It is an old dinosaur, with a rotating base, only opens about 3", weighs a lot. I guess the attributes desirable would include having a fair degree of weight, to absorb vibration, as well as being true, and large amount of holding power. l guess this would eliminate a lot of units more suited for drill presses. The small y axis of the x2 mill does seem to limit ones choices. drat, I think I'm probably agonizing over this more than is necessary. thanks again, others who have found a "jewel" among the junk available?

I got one of those 3" screwless toolmaker's types from LMS, but mine has the holes instead of the grooves in the side.

I've only had it a few weeks but it works well - takes a bit of fiddling sometimes to tighten it down but it works well. Make sure you tighten the set screw that holds the locking bar underneath because mine fell out and I didn't know for a few days.

It fits the table well and it opens to 3.75", which is way bigger than any of the comparable Kurt types.

Looking at all the choices between ebay, LMS and others. Any recommendations on a good quality milling vise, 3" 4"? I'd like to stay less than $100 with shipping so that constrains things to India and China imports as I haven't seen anything on ebay of domestic nature.
there's this
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1145
and this
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1699
and
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1904
or
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2356
There are less costly variants of the above from vendors like Discount Machine on ebay.


Why not make it yourself ?
Check this out...
http://homepage3.nifty.com/homeshop-tools/vise/vise-e.htm

Found another one.
http://www.wcc.net/~jkmccoy/shop/vise.htm

Not to hijack tubeguy's thread, but I am looking for a machinist vice that rotates and inclines similar to this one (link below).

I would like a bit more capacity between the jaws. Any recommendations?

http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=83383

Thanks!

Jason

I wouldn't mind that also, however the clearance for such a vise plus tooling, leaves little or nuttin, as I see it. Import variants on epay, probably not the greatest quality, either. So I have been thinking a screwless vise, then later a rotary head. More bucks altogethere though obviously.

I needed to hold a 4 x 4-1/2" piece of aluminum, so I had no choice but to go with a 4" vice.

I bought an import and mounted it 'sideways' on the table by simply drilling mounting holes thru the coolant troughs on each end. It works great and the weight really helped stabilize the little mill.