Vise Advice

Anyone have experience with an affordable alternative to the Kurt anglock vises. e.g., the Enco or Grizzly imitations or something in between these and Kurt?

The import lock down vises are almost direct copies of the Kurt design. If you buy one, chances are you will need to do some careful checking and maybe a little tuning before putting it into production.

I have three of them and their only drawback compared to the Kurt is the cast iron they're made of which is soft and easily marked whereas the Kurt is hard and durable.

The 5" Kurt I bought 20 year ago has all the paint worn off but the working surfaces are still in good shape. My two 6" Enco vises are already showing some wear.

If your going to work you vise 8 hours a day 5 days a week, pay the money and get the Kurt. The import vise is a better choice for for occasional work.

I'm thinking of getting six of the cheap Enco 8" vises and matching them for use on my planer.

[This message has been edited by Forrest Addy (edited 02-21-2001).]

Yeah, I figure if I had a Kurt I would probably be using it the rest of my life. But I also would like to have more than one type of vise. For that reason and the fact that it is for occasional use I will go for a cheaper one.

JR,
I purchased a chinese copy of a KURT 4" vise, and have been very happy with it. It uses standard KURT jaws, and so far has been a great vise. Other than a single drill bit mark on one of the jaws where I set the depth stop wrong once, it is still in pristine condition after 3 years of use. No sign of the leadscrew or nuts wearing out, it's still quite tight and accurate. I use mine a lot, so I would definitely not describe these as "light duty" or "occasional use" vises. Unfortunately, I can't remember the brand name of my vise, or the company I bought it from (I do remember that I purchased it from and Ebay auction, and that their Ebay handle was "hhip"). Other than that, I would highly recommend these vises as an alternative to the expensive Kurt vises - they are definitely worth the money.
Best regards,
Bawko

I have little experience with the Asian copies, seems like they would be ok...I'd buy a Kurt 3 inch copy in a heartbeat if anybody made one...but nobody does. One consideration is that the new Kurt vises open wider than the copies so clamping larger work is a possibility. I recall reading where someone bought a Grizzly 6 inch Kurt copy and sent it back due to parallel /accuracy problems...Grizzly reground it and returned it ok...dunno who paid the shipping.

Hmm, I bought a Grizzly 4" and I'm sending it back. Must have come off the same assembly line as that 6". The jaws aren't parallel or square. Also the little rectangular pin near the fixed jaw which must function as an assembly guide I guess, was loose enough to fall out--it lacks about a sixteenth of an inch of fitting its hole. The moving jaw seems to have a forward leaning bias in it as it tilts forward slightly. Anyway I wasn't sure I could fix it so am sending it back. I knew I was taking a chance when I ordered it as I have purchased other Grizzly equipment -- some of which I'm still happily using.

JR, is yours a 4 inch "precision" vise (i.e. Kurt copy) or one of their "regular" 4 inch mill vises ?

Yeah, it's the 4" precision milling vise model G7156. Made in China. I guess that means mainland China not Taiwan. Perhaps they tried to make too much vise for the money. I would have been happy if they'd left off the rotating base and done better quality control on the vise itself.

I think my search for an affordable alternative to the Kurt vise is over. I received a 4" vise yesterday I'd ordered from Penn Tool made by SPI in Taiwan. It cost twice as much as the Grizzly and without the rotating base was $211. Still significantly cheaper in price than a Kurt 4". I haven't used it yet but so far it checks out well. It arrived with an inspection checklist(someone actually did a quality control check on it). The fit and finish on it is beautiful(yes beautiful), the jaws close evenly and everything appears parallel. I really couldn't afford this thing now but viselust overwhelmed me. Fortunately, Master Card could afford it.