hi,
what a good size of vise to use on pm25mv ?
Any recommendations? Around $80
hi,
what a good size of vise to use on pm25mv ?
Any recommendations? Around $80
4" works rather well on a the G0704 so probably the same for the PM25. 5" and 6" will fit, but space starts to get tricky.
I'm not sure I'd buy an $80 vise though, not unless it's a single use type situation. The Shars 4" vises are quite nice and fairly cheap compared to name brand vises.
The one cheapo vise I ever bought was a disaster, I couldn't keep parts in the damn thing. That vise now resides on my work bench.
I've had no probs with this so far:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371977945470
Something similar will prob do you.
I bought a $100 china vise. Then I bought a Kurt D40, DX4, and a DX6. I'd rather have a used Kurt vise than an out of square maybe it'll hold the work kinda vise.
Same thing happened here. Bought a junk vise, learned basic machining with it, realized it sucked because nothing was ever square, setup was harder, and keeping material in it was hard. All of this combined meant more lost time, lower quality parts, more broken tools, and ultimately more money spent because I ended up buying a good vise anyways.
I'm a little late to the party. I have a PM-25MV. I bought a "precision" 5" vice from the Precision Mathews folks. When milling the vise keys, the key came loose and broke a chunk out of my carbide mill. When I ran a test indicator over the face to square it to the mill, I noticed that the surface was too irregular. I won't call it junk, but nothing I would use for precision work. A 5" vise fit, but was really too big for the machine.
I am building a 4' X 4' CNC for wood and aluminum (mostly wood) and have a lot of extrusion ends to mill square. I decided to spring for a Shars 440V. When I ran a test indicator over its face to square it, I was amazed at how steady the needle was. A beautiful sight to behold. I love it. The vise and the mill have been producing great results. I'm not missing having a Kurt. I'm not knocking the Kurt, but you cannot beat the 440V's quality for the price ($250).
Another plus for the 440V is its capacity. The jaws open 6", which is great for a 4" vise. It also has downward force when tightening, which prevents lifting.
I can see from your post that your budget is limited, but better to save up for a better vise than buying a cheaper one, being totally dissatisfied, and having to turn around and buy a good one on top of it. As noted above, I've been there and done that.
I believe I can confidently say that no one here, or any of the various machinist forums, is going to encourage you to buy a $80 vise, or anything even close to it.
Gary
I recommend 4" vise. Considering 5" vise, even if you fit it under your chuck, you won't have Z space for the cutter movements.
As for manufacturer, I recommend PM vises. It feels to me they are as good as Kurt but cheaper. I chose this version https://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/vise-4-highprec/
For $120 - very precisely grounded surfaces, although they also have higher version "ultra precise" it seems to be overkill for this size machine...
Here's a 6" vise on my G0704.
I generally it for cutting flat stock, .5" or less.
I have a few 4" vises on my PM25. The two on the left were $80 ebay vises and are pretty good. The machining in a few places is a bit rough, but I use them almost exclusively with soft jaws and mitee bite type clamps, so whatever isn't right with them is fixed by machining the jaws in place. The one on the right is a little more expensive, but still a cheap china vise. I don't recall where I got it or what I paid, but it works fine for me. I wouldn't go any bigger though, 5" would be pushing it.
Here is a pix of the Shars vise we used. It was modified with thrust washers and grease fittings along with custom made T-slot mounts. It's pretty darn accurate and is in scale for the little G0704 table.
Shooter,
How do you keep the tool holders in the ATC so bright and shiny with all that swarf covering the rest of the machine...this must have been a test fit of the ATC and a cover was yet to be installed..right!
Stuart
"THE GRIZZ" photo album - https://goo.gl/photos/yLLp61jooprtYzFK7
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT2lq9obzEnlEu-M56ZzT_A
Stuart, you would be right. That was taken while I was making sure everything fit and moved correctly. A cover is planned, but hasn't been made yet. Most of the tool holders were pretty new at the time. Also, your machine inspired a lot of the things I have done to mine. I have referenced your build literally dozens of times trying to figure out how to do something.
"THE GRIZZ" photo album - https://goo.gl/photos/yLLp61jooprtYzFK7
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT2lq9obzEnlEu-M56ZzT_A