Shop Fox D2730 3-Inch Cross Sliding Vise

The Shop Fox (AKA Grizzly) 3" vise is a very useful addition to a full-sized drill press, it may be too big and/or tall for a bench-mount press, but it fits well on my ancient Craftsman floor-standing drill press.The castings are rough, but the ways and gibs are well finished and accurately ground - you should strip the vise and throughly clean all mating surfaces, along with the acme srews and their captured nuts - the packing grease is gummy and tenacious, but will strip off with kerosene.When you reassemble the vise, spend some time setting the gib screws for the correct tension, adjust them so the head moves smoothly in both axises, doesn't bind, and has no perceptable rock or wobble. It doen't have enough mass, or jaw strength, to stand up to milling cast iron or steel, but neither do the bearings on the typical drill press.At about half the cost of a small Palgrem, the Shop Fox is a very acceptable substitute when used within its limits. Then use the adjustable collars to set the cross feed screws for minimum backlash.Properly tuned, the Shop Fox is fine for repetitive hole driling, or milling light materials.

Grinding off the rear mounting lugs helps, but is not a complete resolution of the clearance problem. Robust if roughly built, this cross sliding vise is adequate for a range of occasional tasks. However the vise fits drill presses that are larger than the Grizzly G7942 with which the "Shop Fox" is sold. The two components are a poor match at best. When partnered with the G7942 Baby Drill Press there is simply not enough room under the drill head to fit the vise in a useful configuration.