kurt vise quality?

[jed102]

Well after waiting with anticipation for my non import quality d675 AngLock Kurt vise, it came in. The first thing I noticed is how beautiful it looked,The second thing I noticed is that there was considerable play side to side on the movable jaw.

So, I grabbed a feeler gage set and started with a .010" and kept working my way up until, no kidding, 0.025" before I finally couldn't slip it in between the middle guide and an inside rail. So I wrote a letter to Kurt mfg. and am presently waiting for a reply.

Before I get too upset about this, could I get some people to measure the side to side play on their Kurt d675 vises so I can have a better idea of what is normally out there. Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for a reply from Kurt mfg.

Sincerely,

Frank

[motomitch1]

I say your good to go that .025 in there so I will hold unparallel parts better.

[One of Many]

I will second that! The movable jaw has some float to allow for minor misalignment. If it were rigid and didn't clamp parallel, it would be worse and you would be less happy.

The stationary jaw and seat are the control surfaces. If the head is trammed and the stationary jaw is indicated to the desired axis. No real issues should come of that .025. In most situations, one should never rely on the front jaw for repetitive part orientation.

DC

[jed102]

Thanks for the input. I may do some modifications though, to make the amount of slopiness adjustable in order accomidate the type of work I do, which is quite often small parts that are easier to grab on one side of the vise.

Frank

[motomitch1]

I see your point you could put one small part on the other end of the vise jaw to keep it parallel when clamped

[jed102]

Yes, though it seems a bit of a shame. With drill press vises I can understand having to do that.

I'll be interested to see if Kurt ever answers my email, and what they will say. I hope maybe they will listen to feedback, and improve the design further.

Frank

[ViperTX]

So, will the Kurt be better then the $75 Phase II that ENCO is offering?? How much better??

[dertsap]

tighten the set screw on the backside of the moving jaw ,beleave its a 1/4 '' hex , if you loosen that screw right off you can remove the jaw for cleaning and maintenance porposes , kurt always has some slop or it won t move ,

[dertsap]

the trick to using a kurt vise is , when you want to cut step jaws clamp on a parallel directly below where you are going to cut the step , to compensate for the lift ,this way you are assured acurracy when you clamp down on your part the lift shouldn t be an issue , and if you keep a consistant clamp pressure between parts you should aquire a fairly consistant parallism
keep the set screw snug ,because when you are clamping with hard jaws the fixed jaw will be square to the bottom of the vise , the moving jaw however will lift and no longer be parallel to the other jaw especially when you are clamping high in the vise , this will cause your part not to have even clamping pressure and the jaws will have a tendancy to push the part out , and even more so as you apply more pressure

kurt vises are bullet proof , after a while you ll be glad you didn t buy imports

next time look at CHICK vises dont let the price or the aluminum scare you , they work the opposite the more pressure the more the jaw sucks down , they don t lift , and in my opinion they are the best

[One of Many]

Originally Posted by jed102 Yes, though it seems a bit of a shame. With drill press vises I can understand having to do that. I'll be interested to see if Kurt ever answers my email, and what they will say. I hope maybe they will listen to feedback, and improve the design further. Frank

The level of precision in a high quality work horse vise verses a super precision toolmakers vise is quite different. Matching ones level of expectations with first hand knowledge, limits these kind of disappointments and surprises.

As a simple fix to the moving jaw slop. For my mill vises and even horizontal saw vises. I have made offset extented jaws that have a swivel foot screw(robbed from a De-Sta-Co clamp) into the face of the moving jaw on the extended end, for just this purpose. I can mount them to the right or left by swapping the front/rear jaws . They can be .5-1" wider on one end to facilitate room for the screw and a lock nut on the exposed rear face. Adjust it to suit the part being machined on the other end. Basically I did this because the dummy part would fall out, or just be plain inconvenient PITA.

A bit off topic.........Using the same principle as above. Most horizontal saws always seem to have the jaws so far away from the blade. Making small chunks impossible to trim. I made up some slightly larger false jaws from 3/8 CRS plate that extend out past both ends of the original jaws. The blade end, was cut to after final install with CS cap screws. The opposite end has the swivel foot screw to keep the jaws parallel when gripping short stock. With care, this makes it possible to trim off some parts with less than a 1/4" grip.

Give it a try. It'll make you happy CLAMPER too!

DC

[DareBee]

You also have to figure that the D675 is Kurts general purpose vise, I bet that the CNC qualified units wont have that much play.
I (so far) have been too cheap to buy the CNC vises, but I have 3 D675 and 1 D688 and the are superb, all of my other vises went for scrap metal. My oldest D675 must be about 8 years, these are great units.

[jed102]

Thats interesting about the Chick vises pulling down as you tighten! Kurt apparently allows the use of O rings under the movable jaw to somehow achieve the pull down effect.

Also, I may try something like DCs' idea to deal with the clamping of small parts on one side of the vise where that .024 side play will cause trouble. As far as buying one of Kurts cnc vises goes, I simply can't afford stuff like that at this point

Frank