Ever since the SX3 arrived, I've been wanting a real milling vice. My 80mm screwless precision vice (something like this) is adequate for small stuff, but chatter is a significant problem with it, and it shows on the finish. I've spent a lot of time searching the Internet for the best one I could afford, a finally decided on the Vertex VA-4. I've written more about the selection process here.

The VA-4 is much more massive than my precision vice and at 20kg vs 6kg for the precision vice it's a completely different weight class. I really need to make a side-by-side comparison picture to show the true difference.

The make and finish of the VA-4 is very nice for a Chinese knock-off (the "real deal" is a 4" Kurt angle-lock vice). Finish is much greater than what I've seen for other Chinese Kurt-style vices, but it's not on par with the make and finish of my screwless precision vice. My own general rule for machine tools is that you pay a standard price per kg with the actual price per kg depending on the overall quality, and at 4x the weight but only twice the cost of my screwless vice the VA-4 should be about half as nice in make and finish, and that seems about right.

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• Vice 2

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