Extremism in the Quest for Nice Holes is no Vise
February 19th, 2010Shiny!
My drill press vise arrived today, and I stuck it on my cross slide table. Beautiful.
Here it is, before I installed it.
I originally ordered a cam-action vise from Grizzly, but it stuck when opened fully, and they agreed to take it back. To replace it, I decided to try a South Bend (Taiwanese Grizzly) vise, which was considerably cheaper. This is Grizzly’s new high-end line.
I’m very surprised. They worked hard on this thing. The ways are scraped. It was around forty bucks. The Grizzly version is $14, but it looks like somebody carved it out of a block of soap with a tongue depressor.
I have to get off my butt, install two new 220 sockets, and mount my VFD and a 3-phase motor on the drill press. Then I will be the King of All Holes.
I even have something I need to drill holes in, so I can tell myself $500 wasn’t too much to spend.
February 19th, 2010 at 4:29 PM
Was the photo taken with the Action-Vise-Cam?
February 19th, 2010 at 9:07 PM
Good grief! What chinaman thought it a good idea to make a tool that is going to get covered with oil, grit, swarf and red hot shavings white! That item should be battleship grey of hammered grey. Hang it on the wall as an exhibit and get a real machine tool clamp 😉
February 20th, 2010 at 1:34 PM
You might be interested to know that one of the best manufacturers of knee mills – Acer – paints their machines off white.
February 20th, 2010 at 2:47 PM
I believe the Chinaman who made the decision was named Shiraz Balolia.