I went and wiggled the heads on the one at Harbor Frieght, then did the same with the vice from Sears. For $40 I bought the Sears unit. Mine does not have the sliding vice but my table spins and moves lateraly so I do not need one more thing to move (Read wiggle). They also have some nice vice bolts at Sears.
it all depends on how much precision you want. That HF vice might be able to hold .050, and that sucks. That's about the same as putting it in a standard two jaw, positioning it by eye, and clamping the vice down. If you drill your holes an 1/16" larger then the bolt going through them, then you'll
have no problem with that setup. The backlash (wiggle) in those is awful.
In all honesty, I would prefer a center punch and hand drill for anything less than 1/4" stock.
(I had one several years ago, it fell apart in a few months also)
I might just get a two jaw then. Right now I just lay it on the drill and try to keep it in the center punch. Split point bits make it quite a bit easier though now.
Actually, I have that exact vice I bought on sale. It's no machinist vice, but it's fine for the money and plenty good for drill press grade accuracy. It was a bit "loose" and "rough" (got real tight on one end of travel, loose on the other) when I first unboxed it, but after I spent about 30 minutes adjusting and a little filing on it to "clean it up" a bit it was fine and has no appreciable slop. I have no complaints at all, and it's SO MUCH EASIER for getting the drill and target lined up. I always center punch anyway, clamp it down, and crank till it lines up, then crank to the next hole, and so on.
I got that one...
grants right it is a little loose...but its accurate enought to drill bolt holes or whatever with...As long as you measure and center punch first it will be fine...
it all depends on how much precision you want. That HF vice might be able to hold .050, and that sucks. That's about the same as putting it in a standard two jaw, positioning it by eye, and clamping the vice down. If you drill your holes an 1/16" larger then the bolt going through them, then you'll
have no problem with that setup. The backlash (wiggle) in those is awful.
In all honesty, I would prefer a center punch and hand drill for anything less than 1/4" stock.
(I had one several years ago, it fell apart in a few months also)
I agree 100%,mine sucks balls,If I have 6 holes to make in a piece then 5 will be perfect,one will be off every fucking time :mad2:
It was really making me think I was a total hack,then I realized how much this piece of shit danced around while drilling,decided I'm only 1/2 a hack
I will be buying something better soon
maybe this
enco #201-2536
only $120 right now(but I've spent all my dough on hydro-steer this month)
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