new bridgeport 6" swivel base vise

[mikecwik]

i cant find anything about the cost of a new vise online, even on their site. matter of fact i cant even find them on their site. a guy told me it might be into the thousands of dollars. i wouldnt think so but with what a new wilton bench vise goes for you never know.

[Ohio Mike]

I don't believe that Bridgeport (now owned by Hardinge) has made a vise in years. If you want a good vise buy a Kurt AngLock thats made in the USA. The Kurt is the vise all others pretend to be. By the way if you did call Hardinge and want a vise they would gladly sell you a Kurt that they marked up beyond retail. A Kurt 6" D688 lists for $524 and the swivel base is another $325. Retail prices are much better at the discount tool houses if you can catch a sale. Some local suppliers are reasonable too, Kurt does a pretty good job of protecting its retailers from each other.

[vicegrip]

If a Kurt 6" is too pricey, Yuasa makes a good one. Or Parlek.
And the swivel base is just not that usefull. To heavy.
Reduces rigidity. Steals work hight.

Accurate angular work needs to be "signed in" (varified by signbar or angular standard) anyway.
DON'T use the hardened vise-keys, toss them in a drawer.
If you must, then belt-sand away the sharp edges and corners to spare your table.
vg

[Wyoming]

Yep, swivel base has been sitting in one of the shop drawers since the used Kurt came home from eBay.

[mikecwik]

i appreciate the input, though i never understood what appreciation was good for! i actually wanted the weight of the swivel as the bridgeport ive never wanted secure for what i use it for. ive heard about the swivel base being of limited use and even a bit of a problem and even though ive never used mine i still have it on . i'll get around to trying it without.

i was just curious about the ballpark price of what they went for new.

[vicegrip]

There is much in today's machine tooling that is "Counter-Newtonian".

The milling vise is one of the worst.
The clamping force in a milling vise, induces a spreading,
rather than clamping force in the vise it'self.

This effect is exacerbated with the use of a swivel base.
At least in bolting the vise directly to the mill table,
the bowing of the vise body is contained somewhat
by contact along the width of the mill table.
===========================
A shaper vise is a conceptually correct device.
The clamping force is anchored on the outside of the fixed jaw.
Hence we have "clamping", rather than spreading of the vise body.

Good ol' Newton.
He helps validate the 8-track Univerce model.
(where the infinity of outer-space folds completely back into
the infinity of inner-space).

Gravity pulls our atmosphere down to terra firma.
So what is the opposing force? The vacume of space?
NO the vacume of space must only be the conveyance.
Like in a vacume-bell there has to be another member
for the vacume to be sustained by.
That would be the "infinity" of inner space.

Now the model is sound (by Newtonian Law).
The defence rests.

vg

[billbong]

Hi, I don't think I have clamping slots at the sides of the vice...on the ends yes, but only the two holes on the sides that the rotating base is attached to.

Next time I'm out in the workshop I'll check where the hole are.

Just checked in my photo collection, the vice is an Abwood and the rotating clamp bolts go through two side projecting lugs, so tomorrow I'll have a look at removing the rotating base......never gave it much thought before, but it makes sense.....once you've squared the vice up you don't go swivelling it around often, if ever.

This is much the same as the lathe tailstock set-over mechanism.....once you've got the tailstock lined up with the headstock to cut parallel, you don't want to move it just to cut that odd once in a blue moon long taper, so when I do have to do a long taper, like a Morse etc, I just mount a boring head in the tailstock spindle and a dead centre in place of the boring bar and set it over without distubing the tailstock setting.

I think the rotating base by itself would make a good mount for a 3 jaw chuck to hold round work vertically, and with a bit of cunning design could even be made into a rotating indexer.

I wonder how many people bash the vice handle with a mallet so hard thet they bow the base....incredible.

The majority of milling vices push the work up as they get tightened, especially the ones with side doevetails, except those that have special jaws with sloping back mounts to actually pull the job down when you tighten it, and even the ones with square side guides are not a lot better.

It's all in the vice jaw design where the force occurs, and upwards is the most prevalent for the cheaper type.

I would like to try a toolmakers type vice, the type that has a short screw angled down to pull the jaw down as it tightens the work up, but it would have to have a jaw width of at least 150mm, probably cost an arm or two.
Ian.

[Wyoming]

Never used/seen an Abwood milling vise. I'll stick with my Kurt.

[SidecarFlip]

Mike...

I have a Palmgren on the Series 2 and a Kurt on the Haas and neither has a swivel base for the before mentioned reasons.

For a good all around vise I recommend a Palmgren. Mine has served well. Kurt Anglelock's are nice but pricey. Parlec's are a Kurt knockoff and cheaper.

I tun table length material on the Series 2 regularly and Bison makes a dandy table length vise setup. 2 workholding jaws, one stationary and one moveable with a square threaded sliding jaw.

I have a real nice Troyke rotary table I'm about to sell........

[mikecwik]

im not actually in the market for a vise. i have two 6" bridgeports, a l-w chuck and a 4" grizzly. i enjoy the aesthetics of the older vises and they are better than i am anyway. i reckon the l-w would be mighty fine to hold some parts on the intro to scraping.....a.k.a. fiasco #????????

i never had a space issue on my mill but i did take the base off the vise.

[SidecarFlip]

Don't refer to a crescent wrench when talking about an adjustable open end wrench. Likewise, don't refer to any mill as a Bridgeport.

Ther are better forms (more rigid) of mills than Bridgeport and much worse, but only 1 Bridgeport trade name.

The Atlas went to Montana BTW.

[canoecruiser]

Back in the day doing broadcast towers I called an equipment rental house looking to rent a backhoe. Said to the counterman "need a 580 for x days". He said "Don't have a Case in the yard, would a John Deere be OK?"
Interesting how every profession has its own jargon and how easily we slip into it.

[mikecwik]

The Atlas went to Montana BTW.

I'm glad you got rid of it. Were you sad to see it go? Just a little?