Excellent 100mm Pillar Dril Vice on offer at Axminster

[Yorkie]

I've had a rather flimsy drill vice for some years now and have often thought about getting a better quality one, but they're not that cheap. However, I spotted that Axminster have got one of offer just now, at £26.96, down from £39.96, and also have a short term offer of £1.00 P&P, so I took the plunge and bought one. Excellent quality - very chuffed with it. Accurately machined surfaces, 'acme' screw thread which moves smoothly, and various notches  for holding bar vertically and horizontally. The pic speaks for itself really.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-3-way-unigrip-vertical-horizontal-drill-vice?sel=910201&utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=100mm+Axminster+3-Way+Drill+Vice&utm_content=David%2C+100mm+Axminster+3-Way+Drill+Vice+now+only+%C2%A326.96&utm_campaign=15wk18b_midweek_drillvice

It's 'Soba' brand, which I assume is in the far east or maybe India. I googled the vice and it's more expensive elsewhere. EG, it looks suspiciously like this one at £48.35:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RDGTOOLS-DRILL-PRESS-VICE-WAY-x/dp/B00VVGO8PK/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1430642339&sr=8-8&keywords=drill+press+vice+100mm

Hope that might interest someone.

[boater sam]

Aye, us northern lads like our vices.
Well machined sounds good, not too sure about flat surfaces.

[AlanBeckett]

That looks promising young David. I've got one of these from long ago - http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/bench-hand-vices/4637296/
I'm surprised it's still available although they've changed the colour.
The things that usually lets the Far Eastern ones down are the flimsiness and the appalling Rolled Threads they use.
That one looks much more sensible.

Alan 

[Yorkie]

I think most of us have an in-built aversion to stuff made in countries such as India and China.

Last year I looked for a 60 - 75mm chuck to fit on my little 100 year old Lorch lathe, the original having developed rather too much run-out to use for small diameter turning.

There aren't too many small chucks around, and I looked at several makes, and visited RGD and Arc Euro Trade (based near Leicester), who - among other chucks - sell small 3-jaw scroll chucks by an Indian firm called 'Zither'.  3-jaw scroll self-centring chucks aren't noted for accuracy, and I was as sceptical about buying an Indian made chuck as I would be about a Chinese one so I made the trip down from Hull to Leicester to see a chuck for myself before I took the plunge.

I was impressed by the spec: within .08mm (3 thou) on a test bar, and .03mm (1 thou) on the face and periphery of a test ring held internally and externally.

The chuck and its two sets of jaws were all stamped with the same serial number and the test certificate which accompanied the chuck indicated that it was within tolerance.  I've been delighted with the chuck, which shows no run-out at all on a DTI. I looked up Zither on internet to find out more about the firm, (who I'd never heard of), and noted that they've been in business since 1948 and are an ISO 90001 company.

I posted a write-up on the Model Engineer Forum, not appreciating that the proprietor of Arc Euro - Ketan Swali - was a member of the forum.

He posted some interesting information about Zither on the thread. He'd dealt with Zither for years, and the chucks were made to Arcs requirements:

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/p...p?th=97930&p=1#1672219

ARC are an excellent firm to deal with - very helpful and friendly.

I've attached a pic of the old and new chucks.  The wear  on the scroll of the old chuck is apparent where the jaws don't close.

No good trying to judiciously grind the jaws, as while they may centre on one diameter, they won't on another. (Tried that!).

[AlanBeckett]

...... so I made the trip down from Hull to Leicester to see a chuck for myself before I took the plunge.

You could have called in
Wear on Self Centering Chucks is a fact of life. My Chipmaster has what I suspect is the original Bernerd one, and pretty battered it is. You see them adverised on ebay for silly money simply because of the name, but there's no reason to believe they're any good. Even new Jaws won't solve wear on the Scroll.
I bought a replacement East European one, from RDG I think, which works fine for what I want, and of course there's always the 4-Jaw.
I may get one of those for my little Lathes as the originals are pretty grim, even when new.
Alan

[Yorkie]

...... so I made the trip down from Hull to Leicester to see a chuck for myself before I took the plunge.

You could have called in

Alan

I went via the Humber Bridge, A15 down to Lincoln ring road, then A46 to Syston, east of Leicester where Arc Euro Trade are based. Much as you are a chum Al, an extra round trip of 60 - 80 miles on top of the 190 mile round trip to Syston would be more than I could muster! We did make a day of it though, and went to Belton House (NT) near Grantham. Gone past many times up and down the A1 for many years but always in a hurry to get somewhere. Well worth a visit.

[Radio Fixer]

Nice vice that David at a fair price. I have a cheaper version of the one like Alan's. It sorta does the job. Should I buy another one? Well I'm trying to give all this radio restoring up so maybe not.

thanks for showing though

Gary

[Yorkie]

Well I'm trying to give all this radio restoring up...

Gary

Sure you are Gary - like I'm trying to lose weight!

We're beyond redemption.

You've already found the answer to radio restoration - restore ever more complex ones so they take and eternity to complete, then that way, you don't get them piling up in the house at quite such a rate! Trouble is, the more time and effort we put into our radios, the more reluctant we are to part with them.  I don't 'collect' radios - they just accumulate as a by-product of restoration. I've tended to go for smaller and smaller ones so they take up less shelf space.

 Not quite attained the ranks of a 'hoarder next door'.

[boater sam]

That's my vice too! (pun intended) I found a solution though, 50 metres of new shelving. It will take me a while to fill it all.