What vise have you had good luck with?

[pfarber]

I am looking for a vise (tilting) to replace the hunk or pot metal that came with the Shoptask (its so crappy that they didn't even mark the '0' point on the angle guage.. as a matter of fact NONE of the angle/rotating guages have a 0 mark!?!?!)

What have you used that:

1. fits but doesn't chew up to much of the milling envelope
2. its solid and good quality
3. is not $$$$$ (ie kurt or other high end part)

[under-dog]

depends on the size you need but sherline tilting angle table with thier vise or something similar. Relatively cheap and easy solution.......if you are working on a small scale. Probably as small and non mill space consuming as you can get.
The sherline tilting angle table is on sale this month:
http://www.sherline.com/special.htm

Real cheap solution for something slightly larger is a shop fox tilting vise. Do a search. Quality is not superior but as you requested a "cheap" option

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Fox-H2633...38072&sr=1-229

I had bought one of these and sold because I found it too large for my taig but depending on what machine you are using will have an effect what you would consider small. It is not top end accuracy and quality but definately a cheap solution. I think when I bought it I signed up for thier credit card and got $30 off my purchase(which was the vise) plus free shipping so it only cost $10 at the time

These are obviosly not top end industrial solutions. The sherline, like all thier products is very well made and accurate for what it is: a miniature tool system.

Its all relative so without knowing what size your machine is.....

[under-dog]

Just went to look at the shop task. Interesting is it a gantry on the x axis? It looks to be a much more usable mill setup than shopsmith's

I looked at thier vise and it is very similar to the shop fox. I wouldnt be surprised it it is the same maker. I know that Palgrem also uses pretty much the same vise.

From what I recall it had some sort of stops at "0" and "90" but I am not sure. It aslo has a grade scale but I cannot vouch for its accuracy as I never actually put it to use. It was more of a drill press vise so I can assume it was close but probably not perfect.

As mentioned earlier I have the sherline tilting table and use it with my rotary table on my CNC. i have been happy with it but it may be a shy small on your machine especially if you work on larger parts. everything i do is on a miniature level. 3" envelope usually

[bicycleboy]

Vises are hard to shop for. You really can't tell the quality unless you can try one or pay big bucks for a big name like Kurt. Choosing a good size is also important.
I wanted a good square strong vise for my Shoptask Tri-Power. The shoptask tilt vise, although flimsy and not square has served for machining many parts and is still used when my new vise won't work. I would strongly recommend forgetting about the tilt vise and get a Kurt type anglock knock off or the real thing for rigidity. Get the swivel base too.
A good size seemed to be a 5 or 6 inch. The 5 inchers weigh about 70 pounds and the 6 inchers about 100, a real consideration on the shoptask were you are constantly removing the vise for lathe use.
Enco sells one 5 incher for $103 and another for $262. I called and asked what the difference was. They weren't sure but one was a Chinese Kurt knock-off and the other was a Korean knock-off with ground surfaces and an inspection sheet. Having seen other Chinese $100 vises I elected to risk my cash on the Enco # 510-2299. Best Christmass present I ever suggested.