Cross slide vice

Jeff Horton

Member
Messages
4,272
Location
The Heart of Dixie
I need a cross slide vice for use in my drill press. Not a machinist quality vice either. I find I am regularly making brackets for the kayaks and need a better/quicker way and this would improve my quality as well.

I see a couple at Harbor Freights web site. I looked on EBay and was surprised to see some cheaper but always leery when it's that cheap.

So recommendations? Trying to stay around 50-75$.
 
I have a Busy Bee (BB is somewhat similar to Grizzly) cross slide I use on the wood lathe, for wood & metal. First thing I did was disassemble, clean, and graphite lube before use

It's sloppier in some areas of travel, but overall not too bad after adjusting the gibs.
 
The Harbor Freight had a scale on the vice and the Ebay versions had a dial on the handle. Slop is a good reason to go with Harbor Freight unit, backlash in the adjustment wouldn't matter. Scale on the vice would show the actually movement and I am dealing with 1/16" increments. I will check Grizzly latter.
 
I have an old HF, got it with my DP maybe 20-25 years ago. It works just fine. Needs to be clamped down, but for my needs, it has been quite accurate.
 
Drove to Huntsville last night and picked up a Harbor Freight vice. Looked at in the floor and for drilling holes it looked perfect for my needs. I will take down to the shop latter and take it apart, clean, debur and give it a good cleaning and adjusting. (the one on the floor was sloppy loose). I am going to mount in on a base and I want to set it up so I can just drop in on the drill press and go. Assuming I can do what I am thinking I will post some photos latter in the week.
 
Top