Whatever we think of inexpensive Asian machine tool products, we need to realize that their low cost often means the difference between being able to enjoy having a hobby machine shop and not. You have to accept a certain amount of quality variability, lack of finish and cleanliness - then adapt and overcome. It’s sort of like getting 80% of the needed qualities for 20% of the price. I offer that if we could see the facilities where some of these products were manufactured we’d be amazed that they are as good as they are.
I agree 100%. These tools make it possible for so many of us to enjoy this hobby. And honestly, high precision often isn't even remotely necessary for the things we do for fun in our home shops anyway. Though I would love to see a lot of that manufacturing come back to the states. But that's a different conversation lol.
I have the 5” Vevor vice. As a hobbyist, considering the price, it is quite satisfactory. It needed complete deburring, which given my experience with inexpensive tools and equipment, was no surprise. Although I’m using the vice, as is, with no problem, one of my future projects is to scrape the bottom flat, and surface grind the ways and parts. It will be an interesting experiment to see if I can turn a cheap vise into a good, used Kurt vice.
Good stuff, I think it's a great choice for beginners. You can bang it up, learn on it, and like you said improve it. One of my first thoughts was actually doing a vid at some point where we do exactly that. Go over it top to bottom, grinding, scraping, etc and spiff it up.
You should have shown the perpendicularity of the stationary jaw! I had an import 4" vise very similar to this that had a whopping .017" out-of-squareness on the stationary jaw from top to bottom (about 1-1/8"), brand new. I immediately returned it, and bought a Kurt DX4. It was about 6 times as much money as the import, but I have zero regrets.
Yeah there's a lot more that I could have done/shown but it's always a balance of trying to get "enough" info and making an hour long video lol. My original plan was to put the stationary jaw up on the plate next, but after the main body I figured we could probably make some assumptions about it... hahaha. Thank you for watching btw!
I think you did a very clean and honest review on this device, it's not to shabby for home/ hobby shop. The material is fairly good, where these fail is because they have to be churned out in great numbers to about 60/70 % quality finish to sell at this price.
Thanks very much. I try really hard to be both fair and honest whenever I review a product. And yeah I think that's a pretty accurate assessment. These definitely feel like they are produced as quickly as possible, using the fewest steps possible, to allow sale at the lowest price possible. Thanks for watching btw
Bought one of these about 2 years ago, discrepancies similar to yours, scraped the base and the main rails flat, fixed jaw was at right angles OK, rebuilt it, and machined a square test piece in it with no problem, the only thing I have against it is that the material is very soft, and easily marked, as you probably know the moving jaw is held down as well as forward as it is tightened, I copied a a Kurt tip, and machined the bottom of the moving jaw near the front for 2x 12mm O rings, left them sticking proud about 0.012" so that the jaw sits on them, you can then pull these down with the small adjusting screw till you have about 3 to 4 thou gap with the jaw loose, when you tighten something in, the jaw actually moves down as well as forward, and pulls the part onto your parallels, no need for hammering.
Nice, I've never heard of that trick but sounds pretty logical. I might do some work on this one to spiff it up a bit, will do a vid on it if I do. Thanks very much for watching btw.
You get what you pay for. A couple thou off for $100? I dont think it's all that bad. I feel it all boils down to an individuals desire for Fair, Good, Better, Best, or just downright DROP DEAD PERFECT accuracy! And - just how deep your pockets are.😊 . Buy once, cry once as a friend has told me in the past. Thanks for another great video and more knowledge.
I agree 100%. And fwiw I definitely don't think a vice like this is a bad choice for a beginner at all. It's plenty good enough to hold parts and get started machining. Heck in many cases it would still probably be more accurate than I am anyway lol. And thank you as always for watching!
Even though there are a few videos on the 5 inch vice already I think it's important to show either the consistency or inconsistency of the production over the years. Thank you for the video
Nice, it's a lot of vice for $100 bucks. I try to be careful not to make direct recommendations in vids and let folks decide for themselves but I think it's a fine choice for a first vice. Plus, if you ding it with the cutter it's gonna hurt WAY less than dinging a $500 vice...
Thanks very much. Some other folks have mentioned this and I think it's a good point, we can't discount the value in the fact that these inexpensive import tools have enabled so many of us to have access to the hobby. And I think that's a fantastic thing. We don't all need super precision all of the time just to have fun doing something that makes us happy. Thanks for watching btw!
I came to the same conclusion regarding their 8" version with rotating base that was dirt cheap a couple of years ago, that they are great for a drill press but not so good for heavy milling. I found the base was square enough but the sliding jaw had to be refit and the half ball jaw hold down and pocket needed to be polished to work. These vises seem to be good enough for light machining after some clean up. I have been poking around looking at used Kurt CNC style vises, the prices and shipping are very high but I want to use one on a 5hp mill...Good video!
Thanks very much, Don. I really appreciate you taking the time to check out my videos. I look up to you a lot, have learned so much from your videos. So it makes me feel like I must be doing "something" right lol. I would really love to get a pair of those Kurt style cnc vises for the horizontal B&S. I've seen folks use them in pairs to clamp longer parts and do long keyways and such.
Thanks for sharing! If one had tons of time AND patience, it might be worth hand scraping this thing into tighter tolerances. Maybe...... That'd be a lot of scraping. Thanks again! 😊
Got the 4 inch version. Scraping the bottom flat fixed the main ways to within a few 10ths. Haven't managed to completely stop the moving jaw from lifting up as it tightens yet...
Lol heck yeah, shop nerd "flex" as the kids say... 😂 I got lucky with this one, bought a box full of stuff and the interapid was in there, still in the little plastic bag in the case. Not sure if it was brand new but at least very well cared for.
I just had my big, 1950's era (36x24x4) surface plate checked and lapped to a B almost an A, I just bought a import little 12x9 surface plate off of Amazon for $62, as a curtsy they offered to check it, came out as also a B grade bordering an A, even they were surprised as to how flat it was. I also drilled a hole through it with a Milwaukee diamond 3/4 hole saw, using my big drill press and a lot of water, cut like butter and through bolted a 14" x1" ground rod, I'm building a dedicated height comparator.
Wow, that is quite a surprise. Mine came with an inspection cert, which I threw away because I figured it was a creative work of fiction... Lol maybe it was accurate after all.
ive a vevor 5" & 6" vice from 15 months ago and while they are no kurt, they are both much better than your friday vice. ALL my brite bits, jaws, slideways etc are ground and not a single tool mark can be seen even when disassembled. I notice yours even omitted the thrust bearing in the screw and even the oiler, both mine have this. At least one of mine had sand up where the 1/2 ball is... I washed moth together amd the solvent was crunchy after that area.
Interesting. I wonder if they have different models? Or maybe changed manufacturers? And this one was covered in grinding dust, which is pretty standard in my experience for china import tools.
Thanks very much! And yeah that's what I figured. Honestly for $100 bucks I don't think it's a terrible choice if you're just beginning and need a first vice. For that price, you can learn on it, give it as many "apprentice marks" as you want, then eventually you can replace it down the line and you'll still have a heavy vice to use for other things around the shop. Dang it, should have said that in the vid lol...
Thanks for the video, I know this takes a ton of time to produce so I hope you take the critique as trying to help. You need to research cosine error, you have your indicator setup wrong. Also, most important things to measure in a vise are clamping force and perpendicularity particularly when clamping something. The latter is pretty easy to measure, just clamp something and measure how far it deflects as you tighten the vise. the former is likely just apparent by the lack of thrust bearing on the screw. for most in this price range (who don't have a surface plate) this vise is better than they can measure.
Thanks very much, I always appreciate when anyone takes the time to share their experience and wisdom. Like I mentioned in the vid, I'm just a guy in my garage trying to do my best and learning something new every day. That's a big part of what I get out of these vids, folks sharing in the comments and helping me to know what I'm doing right or wrong, what I could be doing better, or shouldn't be doing at all lol. I've never had any formal training, never even seen a lathe or milling machine until I was stuck in the house during lockdowns and started watching machining vids on UA-cam. So im always working to learn more and get a little better every day. And I still have a LOOOOONG way to go, so thank you!
Yes it's a good test on the surface plate, but fwiw those are static no load tests. There's checks that should be run under what the vise will see during the dynamic loads when it's being used. Your Tegara mill vise should be pretty good, so an apples to apples comparison can be made. I learned the hard way after buying a couple of at the time $250 4" mill vises that the tests need to go a bit further. If you've got a torque wrench, set up that vise beside yours on the mill table and bolt it down. Then set up your dti behind and towards the top of the fixed jaw. Use parallels and hold something that's known to be square and flat towards the top of the vise jaws. Then use the torque wrench to apply the same torque on the screw for each vise. Measure just how much rear jaw deflection your seeing between both of them verses the torque numbers your using. It's not a perfect test unless you can also measure the jaw closing force with something like a load cell that would also indicate how well the screw and nut are made and there efficiency and how much actual load is being applied to that rear jaw. But it would still be a good indicator of what's really happening within the vise for bed and jaw deflection which is extremely important. Funny enough those 4" vises I bought did check out a whole lot better than what you found. And the surface grinding was in fact fairly decently done. What can't be seen is the parent metal, casting quality and the castings integrity under the paint. I also had to machine the wedge the half ball rides against to prevent jaw lift since mine were left as cast. And both of mine weren't much tougher than hard chezze since each vise even when bolted down were seriously bending and deflecting both the vise bed and rear jaw under moderate closing pressures of about 30-40 ft. lbs. On one vise I was seeing over .010" jaw deflection and over .003" on the bed in front of the fixed jaw. As actual milling vises, they were just about worthless unless I was willing to shim everything to help compensate. And deviations like that makes using the hand wheel dials or a good dro and part coordinates vary by a whole lot. I finally replaced them with a matched pair of Glacern 615's. So I first had to waste just about $500 before I learned a tough lesson. What the vise is really cast from and how much bondo is under the paint is just as important as how it measures on a surface plate. Like you said, at best mine would be I guess ok or at least good enough on something like a drill press. But if I want accurate, all my drilling gets done in the mill anyway.
I bought the 8" version for use on a drill press and it is fine for that but it is not even close to a Kurt 8" Ang lock. The vise under load distorts way too much and likely not strong enough for serious milling. A couple of local pros bought the 3" size for a vise that can be slapped down on the table quick for a small parts, I did the same and it is handy but the larger the vises get the more they flex. There is the important point. Side by side with the Kurt the import vises feel like they are stretching considerably more and could fail to hold under normal loads. I would like to find a used 6" Kurt 2 model but not really tempted to buy the Vevor version at $141.
Thanks very much, that's great info. It makes a lot of sense to test for deflection under load. I really appreciate how much I learn from the comments on these vids. And yeah you can even see some bondo just slapped onto the bottom to fill a hole when I flipped it over. I imagine there's a lot more underneath the paint... lol
If you have access to a surface grinder all those issues can be resolved in less than an hour. Disassembly and reassemble most likely would take longer than grinding.
To me those cheap tools are more to tinker, learn and customize for specific use than a ready-to-use solution. They are cheaper than a raw cast piece with 80% of the job done already. With a bit of work and tuning they can work really close to the finished 5 times more expensive ones.
They are absolutely great for learning, agree 100%. And as someone else mentioned, being able to access ANY tool is better than none. These inexpensive import machine tools have enable so many of us to get into the hobby, that can't be overlooked.
I started 20 years ago paid 350.00 for the shars 8". I was really ok with it work as I expected. Last summer at a car show/swap meet, I spotted a kirt box, took a look and yap brand new inquired about the price. Guys like would 100.00 be two much, I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough. So I thought the shars vice was a good unit until I kirt got mounted. Huge difference, moral of the story,NAA just wanted to brag about my brand new in the freaking box kirt 8" for a 100 bucks. Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
Holy smokes congrats! I'm just imagining trying to keep a straight face and be like, "Yeah, I guess I'll do $100..." Hands shaking as I hand over the cash... hahaha
If you own a surface grinder...nothing to it Otherwise it would be hours of hand lapping after a fly cut to flatten the weighs and even the bottom surface
It's in line with what I saw on my 6" chuck from vevor, seems fine until you check the detail and see that finish is not great, but in the end it's usable and darn cheap. But I will change it by a better one in the future...
Yeah, I think it's an absolute net positive that we have access to inexpensive machine tools. I never would have been able to get started in machining without that. It takes time to scour auctions and internets forums to collect high quality tools. I still have plenty of import tools that I use all the time. Currently looking to replace my dividing head that's popped up on the channel more than once, but I'm certainly in no position to spend hundreds of dollars so until "lightning strikes", I can still work with what I have.
Put a sheet of wet& dry face up on a flat surface and give yourself a workout sliding the vice around on it. With the base flat you might find the other measurements improve.
I got the 5" for like $50 on sale... Really wish I would have bought 2. It's... ok. It's as good as I need for my baby PM mill. The handle is T.R.A.S.H.
Absolutely, as long as it meets your needs. I mean, $50 bucks and then you have a vise and can focus on other tooling? That sounds good to me. There is enough stuff to buy in this hobby lol.
You don't expect super precision for a hundred bucks. As long as the stationary jaw can be tramed in square and the clamping force is equal across the jaws, you can get very satisfactory parts. Finish is not the final word. I would take function over a polished surface any day. I would have liked to have seen it mounted on a mill table and an indicator run up and down and across the face and top of the fixed jaw.
Absolutely, for $100 bucks you're still getting a good 50-60lbs of vise. And yeah, there's a lot more that I could have done. It's always a balance of 3 things; getting "enough" info/the point across, Time, and my own knowledge and experience. (or complete lack of knowledge and experience...) lol however you want to look at it. 😂
Absolutely, you could learn and practice, wouldn't have to worry about making a few "apprentice marks" etc. And honestly, it takes time and experience just to get to the point where the accuracy of a couple thou even matters. So yeah, IMHO it's a fine choice for a first vice, it'll hold your parts in the hobby shop.
What's sad is Vevor likely selected this vise specifically for a review, so they checked it out before sending it out and thought "Yeah, this vise right here? She's going to get a good review", so you know that one of these that the normal person is going to get will be far worse quality. In fact, I can confirm that what the normal person gets is far worse quality. I made the mistake of buying one of these when I was starting my adventures in machining. The ways and the bottom of the vise were completely out of parallel, which makes it entirely useless as a vise. The ways were even more slanted than what you ended up receiving, again, making it entirely useless as a vise. I've seen some other people have "acceptable" results scraping in the surfaces, but that's an arduous process that requires way more patience than I personally have. I ended up saving up for a Kurt, and it's been a night and day difference. Even with my import bench mill, which has its own rigidity problems, I can actually square stock fairly reliably. Obviously, not everyone can afford a Kurt, but it's amazing how much of a difference a quality vise can make in the greater scheme of things.
Yeah high quality tools make a difference, whether it be measuring tools, a vise, or cutting tools. That being said, at least things like this are available so people can get "something" until they get a chance to upgrade as they progress and learn.
Still, this is a strange approach to measuring a vice. Your starting point in measuring is the guides, and it was necessary to support the guides on the surface plate and measure the base. And so we only know that the base is crooked... and nothing more.
Well it looks like and opportunity to learn how to scrape in subsurfaces really not that hard. I see nothing here you can overcome with a little bluing, a Amazon scrapper, and marble flat 🧐 Good luck doing this in your next show
Yeah I'll probably do a video in the future trying to spiff it up a bit and turn it into a more acceptable vise for the milling machine. Thanks for watching :)
There is a point or practicality, all this $100 vise can be repaired, improved with a bit of sweat equity, maybe not the kind of vise you want for a beginner tho, Im not a machinist or an engineer, so I wouldn't even know to check this sort of thing, js
I bought a $100 china cnc vice. Nothing was true, straight, or square. After grinding it in, it became usable. After that, I bought a Kurt DX4 and a DX6, money well spent. Buy once, cry once. I wouldn't even use these for drill press vices.
If I could afford to buy Kurt vise's I certainly would love to buy a pair for my horizontal mill. Even my taiwanese vise is pretty nice for me and what I do though. I've got this one on my drill press now and it'll be good for me there, for now at least. But yeah, definitely was even less accurate than I had expected, or hoped at least lol. Thanks for watching btw.
If I could buy even a used Kurt vice for $500 or $600 then I surely would. Here downunder, a new 6 inch Kurt vice is more like $6000🇦🇺 of our sh!tsvillian pacific micro pesos. That’s due to completely screwed up US Postal charges, and conversion rate of $US to $Aud and on top of that our Government adding a further 10% GST (Goods & Services Tax) on top of that price when it arrives to go through customs. So a new Kurt vice here costs more than a good used Bridgeport Mill second hand ffs. Most of it is the freight cost. We are supposed to have a “free trade agreement” signed with USA but the US Government is using ludicrous postal charges as de facto trade tariff barrier. God knows why because it’s only hurting US Manufacturers. 🙄👎 So we all buy cheap Chinese crap milling vices like Vertex or Vevor etc because the only alternative from USA must be made from that rare earth “unobtainium” based on what they cost. If you can’t fix your postal issues well forget trying to grow your business by exporting anything outside the US Lower 48
The US doesn't make a heck of a lot of anything anymore unfortunately. But it's a shame, and a crime, that you can't get US products at a reasonable cost. I'll leave my comments at that ;)
It doesn't make sense how it can be that cheap... the shipping alone is over $100, the material to make that is over $100. This vevor stuff doesn't compute.
You provide great content for a hobbyist or someone just starting metal work. Thank you.
Thank you very much, that means a lot. I work really hard at it and sincerely appreciate the kind feedback. Thank you for watching
Whatever we think of inexpensive Asian machine tool products, we need to realize that their low cost often means the difference between being able to enjoy having a hobby machine shop and not. You have to accept a certain amount of quality variability, lack of finish and cleanliness - then adapt and overcome. It’s sort of like getting 80% of the needed qualities for 20% of the price. I offer that if we could see the facilities where some of these products were manufactured we’d be amazed that they are as good as they are.
I agree 100%. These tools make it possible for so many of us to enjoy this hobby. And honestly, high precision often isn't even remotely necessary for the things we do for fun in our home shops anyway. Though I would love to see a lot of that manufacturing come back to the states. But that's a different conversation lol.
You spoil us with so many videos in a week!
Haha, you spoil me with all the support!
I have the 5” Vevor vice. As a hobbyist, considering the price, it is quite satisfactory. It needed complete deburring, which given my experience with inexpensive tools and equipment, was no surprise. Although I’m using the vice, as is, with no problem, one of my future projects is to scrape the bottom flat, and surface grind the ways and parts. It will be an interesting experiment to see if I can turn a cheap vise into a good, used Kurt vice.
Good stuff, I think it's a great choice for beginners. You can bang it up, learn on it, and like you said improve it. One of my first thoughts was actually doing a vid at some point where we do exactly that. Go over it top to bottom, grinding, scraping, etc and spiff it up.
You should have shown the perpendicularity of the stationary jaw! I had an import 4" vise very similar to this that had a whopping .017" out-of-squareness on the stationary jaw from top to bottom (about 1-1/8"), brand new. I immediately returned it, and bought a Kurt DX4. It was about 6 times as much money as the import, but I have zero regrets.
Yeah there's a lot more that I could have done/shown but it's always a balance of trying to get "enough" info and making an hour long video lol. My original plan was to put the stationary jaw up on the plate next, but after the main body I figured we could probably make some assumptions about it... hahaha. Thank you for watching btw!
I think you did a very clean and honest review on this device, it's not to shabby for home/ hobby shop. The material is fairly good, where these fail is because they have to be churned out in great numbers to about 60/70 % quality finish to sell at this price.
Thanks very much. I try really hard to be both fair and honest whenever I review a product. And yeah I think that's a pretty accurate assessment. These definitely feel like they are produced as quickly as possible, using the fewest steps possible, to allow sale at the lowest price possible. Thanks for watching btw
Bought one of these about 2 years ago, discrepancies similar to yours, scraped the base and the main rails flat, fixed jaw was at right angles OK, rebuilt it, and machined a square test piece in it with no problem, the only thing I have against it is that the material is very soft, and easily marked, as you probably know the moving jaw is held down as well as forward as it is tightened, I copied a a Kurt tip, and machined the bottom of the moving jaw near the front for 2x 12mm O rings, left them sticking proud about 0.012" so that the jaw sits on them, you can then pull these down with the small adjusting screw till you have about 3 to 4 thou gap with the jaw loose, when you tighten something in, the jaw actually moves down as well as forward, and pulls the part onto your parallels, no need for hammering.
Nice, I've never heard of that trick but sounds pretty logical. I might do some work on this one to spiff it up a bit, will do a vid on it if I do. Thanks very much for watching btw.
You get what you pay for. A couple thou off for $100? I dont think it's all that bad. I feel it all boils down to an individuals desire for Fair, Good, Better, Best, or just downright DROP DEAD PERFECT accuracy! And - just how deep your pockets are.😊 . Buy once, cry once as a friend has told me in the past. Thanks for another great video and more knowledge.
I agree 100%. And fwiw I definitely don't think a vice like this is a bad choice for a beginner at all. It's plenty good enough to hold parts and get started machining. Heck in many cases it would still probably be more accurate than I am anyway lol. And thank you as always for watching!
Loved the interapid moments I tuck mine in at night and check on them to make sure they are ok
Haha me too 😉
Even though there are a few videos on the 5 inch vice already I think it's important to show either the consistency or inconsistency of the production over the years. Thank you for the video
Thanks very much for watching
Thanks for the interesting review. A couple hours on a good surface grinder could transform the little vise into an accurate and usable shop tool.
I was thinking the same exact thing... Could be quite a cool project turning a bargain vice into a high precision bargain vice 😉
I have the vevor 6" super happy with it .
Nice, it's a lot of vice for $100 bucks. I try to be careful not to make direct recommendations in vids and let folks decide for themselves but I think it's a fine choice for a first vice. Plus, if you ding it with the cutter it's gonna hurt WAY less than dinging a $500 vice...
Good fair honest review. 👍
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks very much, and thank you for watching
Good review mate top marks for judging it based on price.
Thanks very much. Some other folks have mentioned this and I think it's a good point, we can't discount the value in the fact that these inexpensive import tools have enabled so many of us to have access to the hobby. And I think that's a fantastic thing. We don't all need super precision all of the time just to have fun doing something that makes us happy. Thanks for watching btw!
I came to the same conclusion regarding their 8" version with rotating base that was dirt cheap a couple of years ago, that they are great for a drill press but not so good for heavy milling. I found the base was square enough but the sliding jaw had to be refit and the half ball jaw hold down and pocket needed to be polished to work. These vises seem to be good enough for light machining after some clean up. I have been poking around looking at used Kurt CNC style vises, the prices and shipping are very high but I want to use one on a 5hp mill...Good video!
Thanks very much, Don. I really appreciate you taking the time to check out my videos. I look up to you a lot, have learned so much from your videos. So it makes me feel like I must be doing "something" right lol. I would really love to get a pair of those Kurt style cnc vises for the horizontal B&S. I've seen folks use them in pairs to clamp longer parts and do long keyways and such.
Thanks for sharing!
If one had tons of time AND patience, it might be worth hand scraping this thing into tighter tolerances. Maybe......
That'd be a lot of scraping.
Thanks again! 😊
Thanks very much for watching. And I might do a video at some point in the future about trying to spiff it up a bit with some grinding.
Got the 4 inch version. Scraping the bottom flat fixed the main ways to within a few 10ths. Haven't managed to completely stop the moving jaw from lifting up as it tightens yet...
Nice job! You could try milling down the cast in "ball" and replacing it with a ground ball bearing. Might help. Thanks for watching btw!
Looks like an excellent vice for the drill press or the bench.
Thanks.
Yeah it's a lot of vise for the money no matter how you slice it, will be useful to have in the shop for sure. Thanks for watching
Showin off with that jig bore style Interapid!! I have a couple interapid .0001 test indicators, but couldnt swing for the vertical haha.
Lol heck yeah, shop nerd "flex" as the kids say... 😂 I got lucky with this one, bought a box full of stuff and the interapid was in there, still in the little plastic bag in the case. Not sure if it was brand new but at least very well cared for.
You couldn’t buy the material for $100
Ya can…just only in china 🇨🇳 haha
I just had my big, 1950's era (36x24x4) surface plate checked and lapped to a B almost an A, I just bought a import little 12x9 surface plate off of Amazon for $62, as a curtsy they offered to check it, came out as also a B grade bordering an A, even they were surprised as to how flat it was. I also drilled a hole through it with a Milwaukee diamond 3/4 hole saw, using my big drill press and a lot of water, cut like butter and through bolted a 14" x1" ground rod, I'm building a dedicated height comparator.
Wow, that is quite a surprise. Mine came with an inspection cert, which I threw away because I figured it was a creative work of fiction... Lol maybe it was accurate after all.
Good as a raw casting. If you have a 6X18 surface grinder you can bring it within 2 tenths which is something I'm inclined to do
I have a little 6x12, might do a video about trying to spiff it up a bit
ive a vevor 5" & 6" vice from 15 months ago and while they are no kurt, they are both much better than your friday vice. ALL my brite bits, jaws, slideways etc are ground and not a single tool mark can be seen even when disassembled. I notice yours even omitted the thrust bearing in the screw and even the oiler, both mine have this. At least one of mine had sand up where the 1/2 ball is... I washed moth together amd the solvent was crunchy after that area.
Interesting. I wonder if they have different models? Or maybe changed manufacturers? And this one was covered in grinding dust, which is pretty standard in my experience for china import tools.
You're a funny man. I like you, funny man. Keep bein' funny, man. Have a lovely day
Lol thanks, man. You too, and thanks for watching!
First ! great vid. thanks because newcomers are usually short on cash for the good stuff.
Thanks very much! And yeah that's what I figured. Honestly for $100 bucks I don't think it's a terrible choice if you're just beginning and need a first vice. For that price, you can learn on it, give it as many "apprentice marks" as you want, then eventually you can replace it down the line and you'll still have a heavy vice to use for other things around the shop. Dang it, should have said that in the vid lol...
Thanks for the video, I know this takes a ton of time to produce so I hope you take the critique as trying to help. You need to research cosine error, you have your indicator setup wrong. Also, most important things to measure in a vise are clamping force and perpendicularity particularly when clamping something. The latter is pretty easy to measure, just clamp something and measure how far it deflects as you tighten the vise. the former is likely just apparent by the lack of thrust bearing on the screw. for most in this price range (who don't have a surface plate) this vise is better than they can measure.
Thanks very much, I always appreciate when anyone takes the time to share their experience and wisdom. Like I mentioned in the vid, I'm just a guy in my garage trying to do my best and learning something new every day. That's a big part of what I get out of these vids, folks sharing in the comments and helping me to know what I'm doing right or wrong, what I could be doing better, or shouldn't be doing at all lol. I've never had any formal training, never even seen a lathe or milling machine until I was stuck in the house during lockdowns and started watching machining vids on UA-cam. So im always working to learn more and get a little better every day. And I still have a LOOOOONG way to go, so thank you!
@@hersch_tool I'm no expert either, plenty to learn!
Yes it's a good test on the surface plate, but fwiw those are static no load tests. There's checks that should be run under what the vise will see during the dynamic loads when it's being used. Your Tegara mill vise should be pretty good, so an apples to apples comparison can be made. I learned the hard way after buying a couple of at the time $250 4" mill vises that the tests need to go a bit further. If you've got a torque wrench, set up that vise beside yours on the mill table and bolt it down. Then set up your dti behind and towards the top of the fixed jaw. Use parallels and hold something that's known to be square and flat towards the top of the vise jaws. Then use the torque wrench to apply the same torque on the screw for each vise. Measure just how much rear jaw deflection your seeing between both of them verses the torque numbers your using. It's not a perfect test unless you can also measure the jaw closing force with something like a load cell that would also indicate how well the screw and nut are made and there efficiency and how much actual load is being applied to that rear jaw. But it would still be a good indicator of what's really happening within the vise for bed and jaw deflection which is extremely important.
Funny enough those 4" vises I bought did check out a whole lot better than what you found. And the surface grinding was in fact fairly decently done. What can't be seen is the parent metal, casting quality and the castings integrity under the paint. I also had to machine the wedge the half ball rides against to prevent jaw lift since mine were left as cast. And both of mine weren't much tougher than hard chezze since each vise even when bolted down were seriously bending and deflecting both the vise bed and rear jaw under moderate closing pressures of about 30-40 ft. lbs. On one vise I was seeing over .010" jaw deflection and over .003" on the bed in front of the fixed jaw. As actual milling vises, they were just about worthless unless I was willing to shim everything to help compensate. And deviations like that makes using the hand wheel dials or a good dro and part coordinates vary by a whole lot. I finally replaced them with a matched pair of Glacern 615's. So I first had to waste just about $500 before I learned a tough lesson. What the vise is really cast from and how much bondo is under the paint is just as important as how it measures on a surface plate. Like you said, at best mine would be I guess ok or at least good enough on something like a drill press. But if I want accurate, all my drilling gets done in the mill anyway.
I bought the 8" version for use on a drill press and it is fine for that but it is not even close to a Kurt 8" Ang lock. The vise under load distorts way too much and likely not strong enough for serious milling. A couple of local pros bought the 3" size for a vise that can be slapped down on the table quick for a small parts, I did the same and it is handy but the larger the vises get the more they flex. There is the important point. Side by side with the Kurt the import vises feel like they are stretching considerably more and could fail to hold under normal loads. I would like to find a used 6" Kurt 2 model but not really tempted to buy the Vevor version at $141.
Thanks very much, that's great info. It makes a lot of sense to test for deflection under load. I really appreciate how much I learn from the comments on these vids. And yeah you can even see some bondo just slapped onto the bottom to fill a hole when I flipped it over. I imagine there's a lot more underneath the paint... lol
If you have access to a surface grinder all those issues can be resolved in less than an hour.
Disassembly and reassemble most likely would take longer than grinding.
Yeah I might do a video on cleaning it up with the grinder. My grinder is a little too small for it though.
To me those cheap tools are more to tinker, learn and customize for specific use than a ready-to-use solution. They are cheaper than a raw cast piece with 80% of the job done already. With a bit of work and tuning they can work really close to the finished 5 times more expensive ones.
They are absolutely great for learning, agree 100%. And as someone else mentioned, being able to access ANY tool is better than none. These inexpensive import machine tools have enable so many of us to get into the hobby, that can't be overlooked.
I started 20 years ago paid 350.00 for the shars 8". I was really ok with it work as I expected. Last summer at a car show/swap meet, I spotted a kirt box, took a look and yap brand new inquired about the price. Guys like would 100.00 be two much, I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough. So I thought the shars vice was a good unit until I kirt got mounted. Huge difference, moral of the story,NAA just wanted to brag about my brand new in the freaking box kirt 8" for a 100 bucks.
Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
Holy smokes congrats! I'm just imagining trying to keep a straight face and be like, "Yeah, I guess I'll do $100..." Hands shaking as I hand over the cash... hahaha
Could be interesting to rework from the bottom up, and see if it can bi improved with minimal effort.
If you own a surface grinder...nothing to it
Otherwise it would be hours of hand lapping after a fly cut to flatten the weighs and even the bottom surface
Yeah, a surface grinder big enough to grind it would make easy work of turning it into a really nice tool.
Hey quick question, what for turning tool are you using in your short video of turning stainless steel? I'd like to try one of those...
It's an NTK cutting tools TFX Swiss style front turning tool.
It's in line with what I saw on my 6" chuck from vevor, seems fine until you check the detail and see that finish is not great, but in the end it's usable and darn cheap. But I will change it by a better one in the future...
Yeah, I think it's an absolute net positive that we have access to inexpensive machine tools. I never would have been able to get started in machining without that. It takes time to scour auctions and internets forums to collect high quality tools. I still have plenty of import tools that I use all the time. Currently looking to replace my dividing head that's popped up on the channel more than once, but I'm certainly in no position to spend hundreds of dollars so until "lightning strikes", I can still work with what I have.
Nice video man, keep it up...
Thank you very much!
So like all cheap stuff like this, consider it a raw casting kit. Some disassembly, surface grinding, and reassembly, and a few better parts required
This one is definitely a raw vice "kit".
Haha, yeah that's exactly how I view a lot of the import stuff.
Put a sheet of wet& dry face up on a flat surface and give yourself a workout sliding the vice around on it. With the base flat you might find the other measurements improve.
Great idea. I think with a bit of work it could be massaged into fairly decent shape.
Hrm, it looked like there could have been a lot of cosine error with the indicator angle on the jaw? Might have made it look worse than it is?
Yeah im sure there is some error there
Do the same test with your kurt on the same surface plate
I tested my vice when I first got it and IIRC it was within .0005" across the whole thing.
I got the 5" for like $50 on sale... Really wish I would have bought 2. It's... ok. It's as good as I need for my baby PM mill. The handle is T.R.A.S.H.
Absolutely, as long as it meets your needs. I mean, $50 bucks and then you have a vise and can focus on other tooling? That sounds good to me. There is enough stuff to buy in this hobby lol.
What is that noise in the back ground. And that is noticeable with only the speakers on my device .
Most likely you're hearing my mini split droning on in the background...
You don't expect super precision for a hundred bucks. As long as the stationary jaw can be tramed in square and the clamping force is equal across the jaws, you can get very satisfactory parts. Finish is not the final word. I would take function over a polished surface any day. I would have liked to have seen it mounted on a mill table and an indicator run up and down and across the face and top of the fixed jaw.
Absolutely, for $100 bucks you're still getting a good 50-60lbs of vise. And yeah, there's a lot more that I could have done. It's always a balance of 3 things; getting "enough" info/the point across, Time, and my own knowledge and experience. (or complete lack of knowledge and experience...) lol however you want to look at it. 😂
Thx for the vid.
Thanks for watching!
But wouldn’t that be a really good advice to get and practice by cleaning it up you know with your mill ?
Absolutely, you could learn and practice, wouldn't have to worry about making a few "apprentice marks" etc. And honestly, it takes time and experience just to get to the point where the accuracy of a couple thou even matters. So yeah, IMHO it's a fine choice for a first vice, it'll hold your parts in the hobby shop.
So the Discrepancy in the vice is probably the equivalent to the amount of rice the person who made the vice take home .
Let's see how vertical that fixed jaw is.
Yeah, was going to check that next but decided against it for time. Probably should have shown more.
How come my $100.00 Chinese vise doesn’t compare to my $800.00 Kurt vise ?
I really don’t understand.
What's sad is Vevor likely selected this vise specifically for a review, so they checked it out before sending it out and thought "Yeah, this vise right here? She's going to get a good review", so you know that one of these that the normal person is going to get will be far worse quality. In fact, I can confirm that what the normal person gets is far worse quality. I made the mistake of buying one of these when I was starting my adventures in machining. The ways and the bottom of the vise were completely out of parallel, which makes it entirely useless as a vise. The ways were even more slanted than what you ended up receiving, again, making it entirely useless as a vise. I've seen some other people have "acceptable" results scraping in the surfaces, but that's an arduous process that requires way more patience than I personally have. I ended up saving up for a Kurt, and it's been a night and day difference. Even with my import bench mill, which has its own rigidity problems, I can actually square stock fairly reliably. Obviously, not everyone can afford a Kurt, but it's amazing how much of a difference a quality vise can make in the greater scheme of things.
Yeah high quality tools make a difference, whether it be measuring tools, a vise, or cutting tools. That being said, at least things like this are available so people can get "something" until they get a chance to upgrade as they progress and learn.
Still, this is a strange approach to measuring a vice. Your starting point in measuring is the guides, and it was necessary to support the guides on the surface plate and measure the base. And so we only know that the base is crooked... and nothing more.
Well it looks like and opportunity to learn how to scrape in subsurfaces really not that hard. I see nothing here you can overcome with a little bluing, a Amazon scrapper, and marble flat 🧐
Good luck doing this in your next show
Yeah I'll probably do a video in the future trying to spiff it up a bit and turn it into a more acceptable vise for the milling machine. Thanks for watching :)
Hell can't beat it for $100
Yup, absolutely.
Even the Chinese got it spelled wrong on the box
There is a point or practicality, all this $100 vise can be repaired, improved with a bit of sweat equity, maybe not the kind of vise you want for a beginner tho, Im not a machinist or an engineer, so I wouldn't even know to check this sort of thing, js
This could be a good vise for a beginner to practice on as long as they are aware of its limitations.
I bought a $100 china cnc vice. Nothing was true, straight, or square. After grinding it in, it became usable. After that, I bought a Kurt DX4 and a DX6, money well spent. Buy once, cry once. I wouldn't even use these for drill press vices.
If I could afford to buy Kurt vise's I certainly would love to buy a pair for my horizontal mill. Even my taiwanese vise is pretty nice for me and what I do though. I've got this one on my drill press now and it'll be good for me there, for now at least. But yeah, definitely was even less accurate than I had expected, or hoped at least lol. Thanks for watching btw.
If you have a surface grinder and some time, this seems like a bargain
It's a lot of vise and very little money, can't discount that fact for sure.
I’ll file this under good enough for the girls I go with .
hahahahahaha
👍👍😎👍👍
Thank you!
Vise is spelled v-i-s-e.
Vice isn't a clamping device.
If I could buy even a used Kurt vice for $500 or $600 then I surely would.
Here downunder, a new 6 inch Kurt vice is more like $6000🇦🇺 of our sh!tsvillian pacific micro pesos.
That’s due to completely screwed up US Postal charges, and conversion rate of $US to $Aud and on top of that our Government adding a further 10% GST (Goods & Services Tax) on top of that price when it arrives to go through customs.
So a new Kurt vice here costs more than a good used Bridgeport Mill second hand ffs.
Most of it is the freight cost.
We are supposed to have a “free trade agreement” signed with USA but the US Government is using ludicrous postal charges as de facto trade tariff barrier.
God knows why because it’s only hurting US Manufacturers. 🙄👎
So we all buy cheap Chinese crap milling vices like Vertex or Vevor etc because the only alternative from USA must be made from that rare earth “unobtainium” based on what they cost.
If you can’t fix your postal issues well forget trying to grow your business by exporting anything outside the US Lower 48
The US doesn't make a heck of a lot of anything anymore unfortunately. But it's a shame, and a crime, that you can't get US products at a reasonable cost. I'll leave my comments at that ;)
It doesn't make sense how it can be that cheap... the shipping alone is over $100, the material to make that is over $100. This vevor stuff doesn't compute.
Yeah I really don't know how they pull it off. That was my thought, I couldn't even buy this material for close to 100 bucks
@@hersch_tool I know! Something fishy has to be going on, doesn't compute to me.
VISE not vice for God’s sake
Vise.... not vice. Catholics have vices, machinists have vises.
Well, to be honest, I have both… thanks for watching!
🤣
First thing you need to do is to learn the difference between Vice and VISE. DUH!