Cross slide vise (or compound vise table) recommendation?

Fixall

Fixall

Brian
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Mar 26, 2018
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I would like to purchase a new vise for my drill press (no milling).

I am currently using a little 4" Wilton D144 industrial drill press vise (precision ground to plus or minus .0001 per inch), which does a pretty good job. I'd like a way to easily drill more accurate tang holes, and eventually pin holes for slip joints though. It seems like a decent cross slide vise (or maybe a compound vise table, since I already have a drill press vise?) would be the answer.

The last time I looked at these was about ten years ago. It looks like prices have nearly doubled since then. :eek:

I want something with decent tolerances, but I don't want to spend $500. Heck, I'd rather not even spend $300. $200 or so would be ideal.

I've been looking for something used, but all that's come up in the last few months was an 8" Wilton 11698 for $200 that was gone within minutes of being posted. I'd rather not wait any longer.

Does anyone have a brand/model recommendation?

How about a size recommendation? I was thinking a 4" would be fine, but I suppose that would depend on the X and Y travel. Is there a minimum amount of travel you would suggest for what I plan on doing?

Thanks!
 
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I bought a Wilton 4" cross vise about 6-7 years ago. At the time it was on sale for $80. Amazon now shows them for $144 on special.
They claim .1 mm accuracy. But I've never been able to get that kind of accuracy out of it. I suspect it needs to be stripped down, cleaned up and everything tightened. And even then I'm not sure you will get that kind of accuracy out of. But for my purposes it's been OK. Just OK.
4 inches has worked for me most of the time. There have been a few instances where I wish I had a 6 inch. But that hasn't been very often.

The Wilton replaced a Harbor Freight cross vise that lived up to it's name of being horrible. It now serves as a door stop.

The rating on Amazon is 4.2 out of 5...so...considering inflation etc. it's probably a decent one, but not a great one.
 
Little Machine Shop has a 4" precision milling vise with swivel base for $154. It claims to be very solid and accurate. I don't own one.
ETA: sorry, I don't think that's what you're looking for.
 
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seanj said:
I bought a Wilton 4" cross vise about 6-7 years ago. At the time it was on sale for $80. Amazon now shows them for $144 on special.
They claim .1 mm accuracy. But I've never been able to get that kind of accuracy out of it. I suspect it needs to be stripped down, cleaned up and everything tightened. And even then I'm not sure you will get that kind of accuracy out of. But for my purposes it's been OK. Just OK.
4 inches has worked for me most of the time. There have been a few instances where I wish I had a 6 inch. But that hasn't been very often.

The Wilton replaced a Harbor Freight cross vise that lived up to it's name of being horrible. It now serves as a door stop.

The rating on Amazon is 4.2 out of 5...so...considering inflation etc. it's probably a decent one, but not a great one.
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I think I was looking at the same Wilton 4" vise. I wondered if the tolerances would be tight enough to use for folders, and if it would have enough X and Y travel. It looks like it has about 5" of travel both ways. The 5" Wilton steps up to 6" of travel for $280, and the 6" gives 8" of travel for $300. There seems to be quite the premium when stepping up to 5" or larger.

I was also checking out some Palmgren options (thinking they might have better tolerances) but it looks like all the reasonably prices Palmgrens are made overseas now. It looks like the 6" version only has about 4" of travel too. :poop:

The other idea I had was to pick up something like the Grizzly G8750 6" x 18" compound slide table for around $200, and then use it with my standard 4" Wilton drill press vise. The Grizzly has 7.5" of X travel and 12" of Y. No idea how the tolerances would be. It does have .001" increments though...
 
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Fixall said:
I think I was looking at the same Wilton 4" vise. I wondered if the tolerances would be tight enough to use for folders, and if it would have enough X and Y travel. It looks like it has about 5" of travel both ways. The 5" Wilton steps up to 6" of travel for $280, and the 6" gives 8" of travel for $300. There seems to be quite the premium when stepping up to 5" or larger.

I was also checking out some Palmgren options (thinking they might have better tolerances) but it looks like all the reasonably prices Palmgrens are made overseas now. It looks like the 6" version only has about 4" of travel too. :poop:

The other idea I had was to pick up something like the Grizzly G8750 6" x 18" compound slide table for around $200, and then using it with my standard 4" Wilton drill press vise. The Grizzly 7.5" of X travel and 12" of Y. No idea how the tolerances would be. It does have .001" increments though...
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That's an interesting idea with the Grizzly. I've never used one of those, but I've been quite happy with the Grizzly products I've used. In particular my drill press.
 
DevinT said:
Shars.com heavy duty mill drill table

Hoss
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A recommendation from you is good enough for me!!

I just ordered the Drill Table, a couple Kant Twist clamps (love those things!), and a Kant Twist 3" Hold Down Clamp that I didn't even know existed. Should be really useful.

Thanks!
 
Just a word about using a milling table.
Make sure you put a sacrifice piece of aluminum or hard wood under the work, or you will drill lots of holes in your expensive table.

Also, get some T-track clamps to hold things down tight. If you can find one of the old T-track vise grip clamps (or make one) they are really handy.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Just a word about using a milling table.
Make sure you put a sacrifice piece of aluminum or hard wood under the work, or you will drill lots of holes in your expensive table.

Also, get some T-track clamps to hold things down tight. If you can find one of the old T-track vise grip clamps (or make one) they are really handy.
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Absolutely. I have some 1/4” aluminum sheeting that should work well.

I was going to order a Rockwell silicone glue kit. They also make some hold down clamps for t-tracks. Do you think a couple of those would be worth picking up?

I actually have one of those 9” t-track, vise grip style clamps. It’s just a cheap from Harbor Freight though and I’ve never used it. No idea about the quality…. Probably not great, lol.
 
You definitely want some T-track hold downs. Even a cheap HF set will be useful. You can even forge and HT your own.

Another choice is a dedicated drilling plate with four flush flat-head hold-down screws and T-nuts that fits on the slide vise. A piece of 1/2" aluminum would work well. You could put threaded inserts in the plate to take hold down clamps of various types/shapes. This allows quick removal of the drilling plate if needed.
 
Mail call! I got a delivery from Shars today. :D

I think this is going to work out perfectly. It's going to be nice not dealing with my work shifting while I clamp it down. Thanks D DevinT ! I was expecting to have to clean it up a bit before use, but this thing is smooth! I'm glad I opted for the heavy duty floor standing drill press... This thing is beefy!

46KlShY.jpg


The rest of the clamps and the T-track hardware will be in from Rockler in the next couple of days. :)
 
Looks like a nice table. Could you tell me how much the table weighs? I couldn’t find a weight on Shars website.
 
anvilstrkr said:
Looks like a nice table. Could you tell me how much the table weighs? I couldn’t find a weight on Shars website.
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It's very well constructed with a very flat table. :)

According to my scale, it's just over 45 pounds.
 
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