Originally Posted by
rlockwood
There are other similar vises on the market, too.
The newer Chicks are somewhat difficult (requires a lollipop mill and either alot of 3d undercutting or a custom dovetail mill) to make your own jaws for, and Chick is notorious for high replacement part costs. They're also typically entirely aluminum, which has both pro's and con's. All said and done, though, I still think they're among the best vises on the market.
I know Jergens makes some, and some other companies too, but I have no experience with them. Nor do I have any with the Orange, but it shares a lot of the positives from the Chick, whilr eliminating the drawbacks
Another suggestion would be to have 2 5 inch vises on your machine and make 4 fixture plates to hold your parts. With 4 fixture plates, you have 2 plates in the machine running parts and 2 plates out on the bench being loaded. When your machine reaches M30, you open the vises, remove the fixture plates containing your parts, blow out the jaws, load the second set of fixture plates and hit cycle start. The whole change over takes less than 45 seconds.
I do this kind of stuff all the time and it works really well for me.
You can buy GOOD PARTS or you can buy CHEAP PARTS, but you can't buy GOOD CHEAP PARTS.