Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

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08-17-2010, 05:44 AM
lkenney

Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

I have put on my hazards protection suit and have heard all the why we should buy made n USA BUT this question was put to me today.

It may mean that I can expand my shop by one or maybe two people so I am trying to but Americans back to work. We are buying Haas Mills not new but better than I have now.

How many of you shop owners have bought these tool holders and the 4", 6" and double 6" vises and what do you think of them? Glacern makes some bold claims and they take good pictures.

You can answer me by PM or to my email if you don't have a hazard suit handy.

Lowell
[email protected]
08-22-2010, 03:06 AM
aadrew10

I just bought some of their drill chucks last week. Best drill chucks I've used, Can't detect any runout. They stay concentric to the taper because they're all one piece. I have yet to try any other products from them however.

- Andrew
08-22-2010, 03:50 AM
l u k e

Quote:

Originally Posted by aadrew10

I just bought some of their drill chucks last week. Best drill chucks I've used, Can't detect any runout. They stay concentric to the taper because they're all one piece. I have yet to try any other products from them however.

- Andrew

Have you ever used the Mari Tool drill chucks, I was wondering how they compare to Glacern quality wise?

I'm in the middle of tooling up a VF2 and have worked out a spread sheet comparing Mari Tool and Glacern costs (tool for tool). In all, Glacern in a little cheaper, I'm just not sure which is better quality. Both companies have a pretty good reputation from what I've read.

I have a Glacern vice I'm real happy with, but I have only used it on a knee mill so far.
08-22-2010, 03:56 AM
aadrew10

Quote:

Originally Posted by l u k e

Have you ever used the Mari Tool drill chucks, I was wondering how they compare to Glacern quality wise?

I'm in the middle of tooling up a VF2 and have worked out a spread sheet comparing Mari Tool and Glacern costs (tool for tool). In all, Glacern in a little cheaper, I'm just not sure which is better quality. Both companies have a pretty good reputation from what I've read.

I have a Glacern vice I'm real happy with, but I have only used it on a knee mill so far.

I haven't used any Maritool drill chucks. I just purchased some of their tool holders and am waiting for them in the mail.
08-23-2010, 03:38 AM
Edster

Just curious how did you check the runout on the glacern drill chuck?
08-23-2010, 04:28 AM
aadrew10

I put a .256 gage pin in the chuck with a .0001 dial test indicator. Moving up and down the pin about a half inch, the gage never showed more than a half tick on the indicator.
08-23-2010, 05:05 PM
djr76

I use 4" double Kurt vises in my mills. They work awesome but do need new seals every few years or so. I have 9 mounted in 2 Haas mills (3 in vf2, 6 in vf3) and have been using them for about 12 years now with satisfaction. Buck Chucks mounted in my toolroom lathes and most of my tooling is Kennametal. I never used Glacern or Maritool since I have MSC right in my backyard.
08-23-2010, 09:17 PM
hercules

I have some Glacern CAT 40 tool holders and some from Mari Tool. All are about 2 years old now. Two of five Glacern ones are showing a bit of fretting on the taper. The Mari ones don't show any wear yet (I have nine of those). I actually have larger tools and thus take heavier cuts with tools in the Mari ones. One of the Mari ones did get a little flash rust on the taper from me holding it in my hand on a very hot day, but it cleaned right up with scotch brite. The Glacern holder that shows the most wear is an integral CAT 40/drill chuck which I find odd since it should not see any appreciable side loading.
08-25-2010, 04:32 PM
l u k e

Sol at Glacern gave me a great deal on my first tooling purchase for my VF2. So in a few years I'll have something worth while to add to this thread. :D
01-15-2011, 07:18 PM
frankee

Hi,

I purchased the 5 inch standard Glacern vise a few weeks ago after a lot of deliberating and research: I'm really happy with it. It just looks like a tool that was made with both care and attention to detail.

I, probably like a lot of guys, first looked into buying the slightly cheaper straight-from-China imports, but in my opinion, even from their marketing pictures, I felt they looked a bit, let's say... junky. The fact that Glacern is a US company, with North American standards (even if it's made overseas) was an important consideration for me, and I'm Canadian. The shipping/brokerage/taxes etc ended up costing about $150 on a $250 vise, but that's part in parcel with doing business and I have no regrets. It would be nice though if eventually Glacern could set someone up as a distributor on this side of the border.

Frank
01-15-2011, 08:56 PM
underthetire

I'm not saying good or bad. I'm not saying buy American or not. That's all your choice. What I will caution about is spindles. That's what this all boils down to. Are you comfortable enough to try this holder in a 5k dollar+ spindle? And I will tell you to at least buy the best retention knobs you can. I've seen 40k dollars worth of carnage from broken retention knobs, over and over.
01-17-2011, 01:01 AM
dingo0722

I have 4 vises from Shars shars.com - 6quot 670V CNC Milling Machine Vise 00004quot
These are very nice high quality vises. I believe these are manufactured by the same company as Glacern's. I also have a bunch of there cat30 ER32 and 16 tool holders. No complaints with them at all. All top quanity
01-18-2011, 06:48 PM
frankee

I had a closer look, and the Shars and Glacern vises do look to be the same ... except for the paint color on the Glacern, which is obviously superior :)
08-30-2018, 08:26 PM
Green0

Re: Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

I have some vises on the way.
09-06-2018, 09:55 PM
Green0

Re: Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

I got Glacern double vises today- 3 and 1 Shars, and they are identical. I paid more for the Glacern ones. Shars was sold out so the 1 was all I could get from them. The glacern has laser engraved logos on the ground jaws so those are probably not as flat as the Shars hard jaws. I would have bought all Shars but they only had 1 in stock. I got it for $300 cheaper than a unit from Glacern.

I do like the black stickers on the glacern - I think the inset color is adhesive- I would buy a pink vise if it was the cheaper version of the same vise though. You could zebra stripe the things for $100 savings. haha.
09-14-2018, 12:42 AM
Green0

Re: Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

Actually there was one majorly nice thing about Shars - their vise had 18mm T slot key interfaces on the bottom of the vise, and the Glacerns have some other size. Glacern provided 18mm keys, but one of our mill guys screwed one up so one of the 3 vises has ****ty T-slot keys. Our DNM 5700 mill is from Korea, so it used the 18mm T-slot keys. It's nice to be able to put a vise on a table and know it is relatively square because the keys are size, matching, and factory keys.
09-14-2018, 11:40 AM
LeeWay

Re: Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

I bought the Glacern twin 4" when I bought my Mini Mill last year. I used it on there until the Orange vise arrived. The Glacern is a good vise. I have two older Shars on my Pulsar, and the Glacern will replace those. They are tired and are now to hi maintenance to get them to operate easily. The Glacern has a built in screw cover which is nice. It is not an Orange vise, but is a good quality vise with a few nice features.
We also use a 5/8" indexable cutter in the Mini Mill from Glacern. Love that thing. Great quality.
Most of our tool holders are Maritool. We use a few Dorian and a couple Technics. Even some cheaper Amazon holders. They are all good. When I need new ones, they will be from Maritool. The tools look a little nicer and the packaging and shipments are superior to the others. All of our pull studs are from Maritool.
09-14-2018, 02:28 PM
Green0

Re: Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeeWay

I bought the Glacern twin 4" when I bought my Mini Mill last year. I used it on there until the Orange vise arrived. The Glacern is a good vise. I have two older Shars on my Pulsar, and the Glacern will replace those. They are tired and are now to hi maintenance to get them to operate easily. The Glacern has a built in screw cover which is nice. It is not an Orange vise, but is a good quality vise with a few nice features.
We also use a 5/8" indexable cutter in the Mini Mill from Glacern. Love that thing. Great quality.
Most of our tool holders are Maritool. We use a few Dorian and a couple Technics. Even some cheaper Amazon holders. They are all good. When I need new ones, they will be from Maritool. The tools look a little nicer and the packaging and shipments are superior to the others. All of our pull studs are from Maritool.

The Shars and Glacerns are identical, so it's simply a matter of how much you want to spend. They appear to be built in the same factory. Identical in all respects with exception of the american fractional Key slot in the bottom of the Glacern. Shars has a couple lines so it really depends on the line you're talking about, as to where quality is going to be.
09-14-2018, 03:00 PM
LeeWay

Re: Glacern vises and tool holders how good are they

They are not identical to my Shars vises. Mid grade. Both are twin vises. They are similar in size, but not the same. These Shars vises were ordered in 2012 or 13. These two Shars twin vises were $400.00 each or so. Maybe $380.00. No quick jaw mounts. No screw covers.
The ones they have now look to be better vises and are $720.00. That one does have the screw covers. They do appear very similar to the Glacern.
09-14-2018, 07:33 PM
Green0

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeeWay

They are not identical to my Shars vises. Mid grade. Both are twin vises. They are similar in size, but not the same. These Shars vises were ordered in 2012 or 13. These two Shars twin vises were $400.00 each or so. Maybe $380.00. No quick jaw mounts. No screw covers.
The ones they have now look to be better vises and are $720.00. That one does have the screw covers. They do appear very similar to the Glacern.

The 6in double vise i have from shars and the glacern double I have are identical 3 guys on the floor all derived the strong impression they are from the same company, and we took them apart to get the stupid tension mechanism out so we could open both jaws without excessive screw manipulation so we looked at all the parts.

Im not saying every model but the 6in doubles were identical. Glacern has another model that nearly costs twice as much as the shars double and it is probably a uniquely different model from the same vise manufacturing company.