|
I expected this unit to be somewhat sloppy due to the very low price. Forget milling with it. I was prepared to disassemble and polish all the mating surfaces. The paint blobs pressed into the surfaces and crude machine work should be expected for such a cheap unit.What I didn't expect were key ways that were milled off by 10 degrees.The mating surfaces only contact at their edges which were pitted and irregular.There is no way to get a reasonable amount of slop out of it without it binding in places across its travel.It's not worth returning it due to the cost for shipping a heavy item.I'll use it as a fixed vise.
Kudos to the seller for refunding the item and their shipping. Beware, the price is cheap and you get what you pay for. The machining was so poor that there would be no way to get any accurate milling. Bottom line - heavy junk, might work as a boat anchor. I returned the item although the shipping was almost as expensive as the product.
I was unable to get the excessive play out of the ways, even after much tinkering. After taking the vise apart, I noticed that one of the adjustment shims was drilled completely through so the adjustment screw wasn't pushing on the shim, but directly on the way itself. Don't waste your money, no matter how low the price. Very poor quality. I was going to bring the whole thing to my relatives machine shop to re-mill the entire vise, but I think it would be easier to build a whole new vise from scratch instead of fixing this one.
The ways were machined poorly (very rough and uneven machining with lots of chatter) and the adjusting screws were cheap. There is also a lot of end play in the lead screws, especially the bottom axis. The bottom axis on my vise slides back and forth about 1/8" without turning the lead screw. This makes it almost impossible to position anything in the vise reliably.
I had need to mill some light aluminum for an experimental airplane. I am very happy with the vice and the outcome on the pieces I needed to make. Once bolted to my drill press, the vise was solid and easy to line up with the bit.
The micrometer indicators are kind of hard to read, but it's easy enough to set up an indicator with a magnetic base to read the distance.I took mine apart before using it and filed/sanded all the surfaces that touch. There is no play at all in either direction. They aren't even in the same category. This vise is completely different that the Harbor Freight cross slide vise or any of the other cheap ones. For $38, this blows the $50 harbor freight vise out of the water.
It has adjustable gibs on both slides, so you can take any play out of both of the cross slides. Some of the ways were a little rough, so Im sure this helped. Some of the liquid coating that covers that casting dripped onto the ways, so I scrapped that off before sanding and filing. I then coated it with regular synthetic oil (same lube I use on my mini lathe) and put it back together.
|
