[autotechsteve]

I am in the market for a new clamping set for a Haas VF-1 that will hopefully be up and running soon. I have looked at Ebay, MSC and Enco as well as just browsing the web looking for good quality at a good price.
The part that keeps confusing me is with the few brands, (TECO, Gibraltar and Chinese) that are available, which ones buy from the same Chinese supplier. For example, the ENCO $29.95 set appears to be the same as the TECO set from the pictures on their site and on Google images. The Gibraltar set does appear to be from a different supplier and their reputation backs up their quality.
So is the Chinese $29.95 set any good or is it really that much better to spend the extra bucks on the top quality sets. I know the generic answer is "you get what you pay for". What I am looking for are some real world comparisons of some of the available sets out there. Like maybe if a guy bought the cheap set first to get going and bought the nice set later. What are his opinions of the two sets? Thanks for the help guys.

Steve

Here are some links to what I have found;

Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies

Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies

Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies

[fizzissist]

You had me at "appears to be the same"

Can I make a recommendation? Having been there/done that for a lot of years??

You can buy the cheap chinese crap...and if you're only going to buy ONE set, just fine.

The glitch is if you buy 2 or more, then want to mix and match (because they all "look" the same, you'll NEVER keep 'em seperated) you're going to discover the serrations are slightly different, the clamps bend, the threads strip, etc, etc....

Buy TECO, and nothing but. When they all end up on the table, and you clean 'em and put 'em away, it won't matter that they get mixed up, and
THEY WILL ALL FIT TOGETHER PROPERLY.

The difference in the money (what....30 bucks??) will long since be forgotten when you spend that value in time screwing around trying to get heights to match, etc.

Just my 2cents.