[smokediver576]

So, as a new owner of a Tormach PCNC3 !!!! Flew from Atlanta GA to Ft Collins CO, loaded it into a 14' Uhaul and drove 1,600 miles / 23 hours home. Got in last night at 12:30am. Machine was bought in July of 2012, set up, put in the corner, powered, tested and never cut the first piece of material. Just about ever option except the enclosure. ATC, 4th axis, tool sets, auto oiler and more! $17,500!!!!!!

Looking at getting a vise (the old Kurt I have needs to be replaced).

What are the differences or pros/cons to the two Tormach offers? Trying to figure out why the Machinist vise is nearly double the CNC vise.

30553 - 5" Machinist Vise
30553 - 5" Machinist Vise

or

5" CNC Vise
5" CNC Vise

Many, many or questions to come I'm sure.

[CadRhino]

I ended up buying 2 of the machinist vises. They are expensive but they are made by minimag in the usa and very accurate. I really like the cnc vises since you can turn them on their sides but after reading a post where someone complained about their tolerances I decided to suck it up and pay for the machinist vise. It is very high quality.
You can do some searches and find the post I am referring to.
Oh, congratulations!

So, as a new owner of a Tormach PCNC3 !!!! Flew from Atlanta GA to Ft Collins CO, loaded it into a 14' Uhaul and drove 1,600 miles / 23 hours home. Got in last night at 12:30am. Machine was bought in July of 2012, set up, put in the corner, powered, tested and never cut the first piece of material. Just about ever option except the enclosure. ATC, 4th axis, tool sets, auto oiler and more! $17,500!!!!!!

Looking at getting a vise (the old Kurt I have needs to be replaced).

What are the differences or pros/cons to the two Tormach offers? Trying to figure out why the Machinist vise is nearly double the CNC vise.

30553 - 5" Machinist Vise
30553 - 5" Machinist Vise

or

5" CNC Vise
5" CNC Vise

Many, many or questions to come I'm sure.

[WOTDesigns]

Machinist vises are old school and take up more room but mount "easier" with just 2 bolts/threaded studs. CNC vise offers lot more options for mounting such as on their side to machine the end of a 6" long thin part for example. They can also be positioned closer together than machinist style vises

Attachment 260428

Personally if I could go back I wouldn't have spend a dime on the 5" vises. I had a jaw shatter while clamping aluminum from the outside of the jaws. Tormach sent me some giant POS jaws that decrease my inside clamping area to just over 3". 3" makes for 2 giant paper weights.

I later picked up 2 Glacern 6" CNC vises and absolutely love them. They are on the big side for the Tormach but are MUCH nicer, more versatile, significantly higher quality and can accept standard accessories like Kurt style track stops that slide into the track on the fixed jaw.

I have 2 $150 iirc 4" vises I picked up from little machine shop years ago that are higher quality, open wider, and get used much more often than the Tormach CNC vises as well.

There are times a 4" is all u need, other times you need a 6"... It's a lot easier to make a 1" part on a 6" vise than it is to make a 9" part on a 5" vise that you can't get standard jaws for.

2 5" CNC Tormach vises clamped outside that broke my jaw
Attachment 260430
Attachment 260432

Here are 2 5" CNC and one 4" machinist vise. Note how ugh closer the CNC vises are to each other than to the 4" vise on the left? That's the tab on the machinist style keeping them apart
Attachment 260434





Brian
WOT Designs

[WOTDesigns]

Sometimes u just need all you glean get and staggering different sized vises can help too

Attachment 260438

Finally found a pic of the two glacern vises on the Tormach. Note the Mitee Bite Talon grip jaws... Not sold for 5" vise

Attachment 260440

Brian
WOT Designs

[BAMCNC.COM]

I use 2 5" CNC Vises on my table, with 7inch extended monster jaws as soft jaws - I buy them by the box of 10.



Instagram

[WOTDesigns]

Me too, but I now have:
4" soft jaws for 4" vise
5" soft jaws for 4" vise
reversible 5" soft jaws for 4" vise
5" soft jaws for 5" vise
6" soft jaws for 5" vise
6" soft jaws for 6" vise
8" soft jaws for 6" vise
8" Talon jaws for 6"
6" steel machine able jaws for 6" vise

It's kind of REALLY annoying. The Tormach 5" CNC vises are very low quality and far to small opening for their cost. If they were free... Great deal! For 30% more to buy a better vise that will grow with you makes a lot more sense to me.

Of course it all depends what you make. I do production and job shop so I'm always setting up different ways and need versatility. Conversely BAMCNC uses soft jaws for all of his parts and doesn't even have to take his vises off the table (can you hear my blatant jealousy at not having to remove/clean damn vises 3 times a week?)



Brian
WOT Designs

[popspipes]

So, as a new owner of a Tormach PCNC3 !!!! Flew from Atlanta GA to Ft Collins CO, loaded it into a 14' Uhaul and drove 1,600 miles / 23 hours home. Got in last night at 12:30am. Machine was bought in July of 2012, set up, put in the corner, powered, tested and never cut the first piece of material. Just about ever option except the enclosure. ATC, 4th axis, tool sets, auto oiler and more! $17,500!!!!!!

Looking at getting a vise (the old Kurt I have needs to be replaced).

What are the differences or pros/cons to the two Tormach offers? Trying to figure out why the Machinist vise is nearly double the CNC vise.

30553 - 5" Machinist Vise
30553 - 5" Machinist Vise

or

5" CNC Vise
5" CNC Vise

Many, many or questions to come I'm sure.

I use a 6" shars 660 U vise, its large but I wanted a 6 " vise and with an integral casting behind the rear jaw, rather than keyed and bolted on to the main body. It will fit the table and the table guard will fit around it without modification except slotting the plexiglass cover for the leadscrew.

[BAMCNC.COM]

hahah lol Brian. If I get into knife making that will change!

[WOTDesigns]

Sure will! I think a lot of your existing customer base would probably love to continue supporting you buy buying a knife you made as well. I bet $1 you'll be sold out pre production once you're up and running and get some learning batches out of the way.

I look forward to seeing your table when you pull the vises off!! Different vises/coolant/table combos leave different colors and it's like a surprise every time I pull a vise that's been on a while especially on the butter soft tormach table.

Brian
WOT Designs

[WOTDesigns]

I use a 6" shars 660 U vise, its large but I wanted a 6 " vise and with an integral casting behind the rear jaw, rather than keyed and bolted on to the main body. It will fit the table and the table guard will fit around it without modification except slotting the plexiglass cover for the leadscrew.

Glacern is sold cast as well. It's a nice feature really.

Brian
WOT Designs

[pickled]

Glacern or Parlec 6" vises work well for the PCNC1100. Whatever vise you get just order up a few sets of the monster jaws and go to town. They both have treated me well. I had a decent experience with the 5" CNC vise that I bought from Tormach when I added the 770. Mine was actually made pretty tight and has been quite repeatable (must have gotten lucky). I do agree though that the opening size of the 5" is not optimal at all. It's always nice to have a smaller tool maker's vise laying around too. They can be had for very low $ these days.

[Beezle]

I have one of each of the Tormach sold vises. The American made vise is definitely higher quality all around and the vise I use almost all of the time.

I also use the various jaws that Tormach sells and I have yet to have any problems with any of them. Even 6x9x1 parts, held with the fixed jaw inside and the moving jaw outside. Part came out well within .001.

I looked at the short 6" Kurt vise as well as the 6" Glacern everyone seems to like, but it calculates as too big for the Tormach for me.

The Kurt: Manual VersatileLock Short Vise, 6" - Kurt Workholding

6" wide, but only 12.9" long.

[MichaelHenry]

If I had the case I'd spring for a couple of Orange Vise 6x16 vises. I believe that they can be customized to permit side mounting:

Orange Vise Company - Quick-Change CNC Machine Vises

Chick One-Loc and Gerardi also make nice vises, with prices to match.

[WOTDesigns]

If I had the case I'd spring for a couple of Orange Vise 6x16 vises. I believe that they can be customized to permit side mounting:

Orange Vise Company - Quick-Change CNC Machine Vises

Chick One-Loc and Gerardi also make nice vises, with prices to match.

At more than double the price of my Glacerns I just don't see it. At all.

Brian
WOT Designs

[BAMCNC.COM]

One of the main guys left Glacern and made Orange - I believe the guy in the Glacern YouTube vids actually.

[RTP_Burnsville]

I have a Kurt D-688 and am very happy with it. It really depends on what you want to mill as to what vise is 'best'. Whatever you buy, get a good one as it is one tool that quality is important.

Robert

[Don Clement]

+1 on the Kurt D688.

Don C.

[mountaindew]

This tormach was listed on craigs list here in Colorado for like 2 days !
Wondered who was the motivated buyer!
Awesome purchase. I use tormach 5" vise, easy to set, weight is ok to move around. very precise and easy to indicate in place.
I would have purchased kurt's " they have a factory about 3 miles from me. Was not confident how well they would fit and what problems I would have.
Knowing more now I see no problem with most good quality units.
md

[smokediver576]

This tormach was listed on craigs list here in Colorado for like 2 days !
Wondered who was the motivated buyer!

Actually, I contacted him within 12 hours and had a verbal commitment from him until a deposit check arrived the next day. Even he was surprised at how quickly it sold. He had no idea that someone from GA would come all the way out there to haul one of these back. He did not follow any of the user groups. Otherwise, I don't think it would have ever hit the sale sites. At some point I'm going to do a post about the "true" cost to go and pick one of these up. However, there was a ton of other little items he'd left off like, his 4th axis is a tilting 4th axis.

Got to wait on getting the electrical panel installed and a ton of other stuff but at least it's here and I can start putting stuff back on it that we removed to haul back here!