[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

[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

[Farmers Machine]

I have 4 D 688 on a Milltronics RH 30 mill with 20,000 + hours. have about a ton of machined soft steel jaws for all of the different production set ups. want to buy 6 of the high density vices to double the capacity and cut part changes in half. never used a chick vice but never regretted the KURT made in the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good Luck
The Farmer

[keen]

Hi guys - just recond a 6" kurt vise and was interested to find this thread. re the jaw slop - i did a test. I gripped a long bar just 1/2'' into one side of my Kurt vise and tighened it up hard - all wrong i know - the jaw skewed round. i measured the grip ex the load to shift at the other end of the bar.

Now I got my ultra precision 6" vise (which I had ground and fitted a hardened strip in the slide so there was almost zero play). Did the same test - the jaw could not skew much but you know what.....the grip was no better!

Just goes to show that Kurt have done their homework - sideways slop has the same result whether it is 0.0005" or 0.010" 1 degree or 0.1 degree - same end result.....

[SanDiegoCNC]

Have any of you guys tried the Quad-I vise? I had one and it was great. Solid as a rock and for about the same price as a Kurt. It is a little taller but can be turned on its sides. Here's the best part about them... the front jaw is fixed and the rear jaw is movable. Since most programmers use the front left corner of the work piece as their datum, the Quad-I's ease of use become apparent.

Also, the Quad-I is American made, right here in San Diego.

For more information on this vise, please visit my website link...

http://www.sandiegocnc.com/Quad-I%2C...2C+workholding

[keen]

Hi SanDiegoCNC.

Your vise looks really classy - but I worry about no lock jaw. I have modified a vise to high precision and still found I got slight jaw lift. If I put a dial indicator on the moving jaw and tighten hard the jaw flexes up about 0.001" - 0.002" But my lock jaw vise does not do that - provided it is set up correctly - as in 'O' ring driven jaw lift set at say 0.001" to start with. What lift under clamping do you get on your moving jaw?

[Rekd]

Just goes to show that Kurt have done their homework

Yes, they have.

The few occasions I haven't been able to overcome the lift from the jaw while trying to hold tolerance I've found that using a vice that you can put the part below the screw (load path) on the movable jaw will help keep it from lifting. That's not always possible though.

Since most programmers use the front left corner of the work piece as their datum, the Quad-I's ease of use become apparent.

I LOLed. :rainfro:

[BobWarfield]

Since most programmers use the front left corner of the work piece as their datum, the Quad-I's ease of use become apparent. http://www.sandiegocnc.com/Quad-I%2C...2C+workholding

You boys play nice now!

While I don't know what "most" programmers do, "many" programmers do in fact work this way and this is not the first time I've heard that thought.

In fact, I know shops that make the lower left corner of the fixed jaw (nearly the same thing) that work datum. The vise stays put on the machine and it makes it easy to load almost any program, slap a part down relative to that corner, and go.

Cheers,

BW

[motomitch1]

Frank
I checked 3 Kurt d675 vises with a feeler gage the best one was .004 play side to side on the movable jaw. and the other two had .006 & .008 the newess one is 6 years old.

mitch

[jed102]

Thanks Mitch! It seems that perhaps their quality control has gone down hill since 6 years ago, considering I have .024 side to side play on my brand new D675.

Anyone else have some interesting news? If I get enough feedback of this sort I will have something substantial to bring to Kurt.

Frank

[WhiteTiger]

Curiousity got the best of me and I had to go check. My thoroughly used and abused 1981 jet vise will just accept a .007 feeler gage. Perhaps that comparison will help motivate kurt


Tiger