Precision Steel Vice PM 40

This solid steel machine vise is one of the best made and can be one of the handiest machine vises for any mini or micro mill, as well as an insert vise for larger vertical mills. I have used one for over 6 years and have been more than satisfied with it for more than 6 years. I just ordered two more. The original one was made in Germany and came in a very nice wooden box. I hope they are still made in Germany. Until recently, I have basically used it for drilling on my drill press, because the hold down slots using M6x1 hex headed screws and using a 10mm open end wrench is very awkward. I recently drilled a couple of 3/16 inch holes right above the screw position trough the bottom jaw surface of the vise and used 10-32 socket headed set screws. The steel is not hardened and any high speed steel drill bit will work. This allows me to use 10-32 square nuts with my Proxxon MF70 mill, standard T-nuts with my Taig Micro-Mill, standard T-nuts with my Sherline mill, any Sherline T-nut supplied with any other mini or micro mill. This vise, with my modification, handily and easily mounts on my Sherline 4 inch rotary table. I have gone through many imported vises of the so called "screwless variety" and still often use the Sherline #3551 model. The precision machined right angle parallel sides allows for easy squaring onto the mill table, just like ant precision screwless machinist vise. While it might not be as good at preventing "movable jaw rise" as the screwless type, with my modification, the Proxxon is a real pleasure to use and it provides faster clamping and unclamping of parts for low volume production. Update: September 9, 2010. Yes, this vise is still made in Germany and comes in a slide top box. With custom "T" slot nuts, a have found this vise to be one of my favorites. I now own three of them. I so small ot production of specialty items and tooling. This has to be one of my favorites. It's worth every cent. You get what you pay for - precision German Made product that is second to none. Update: February 10, 2023 Yesterday, I received my fourth one of these vises that I purchased for my Taig mill. Again, I drilled a hole above the mounting slot so that I can use socket headed cap screws (SHCS) for easy mounting and removal with a Allen type hex wrench. Having forgotten on how I drill the holes, I again developed the technique on how to drill the holes perfectly centered in che correct position in the center of the circular mounting radiused area. A 1/4 inch outer diameter centering drill bit accomplices this easy. Opening the vise to clear the movable jaw away from the place where the hole needs to be drill and mounting on a drill press vise upside down. I slid the bit on the vise against the radius of the slot to drill a centering hole in the web above the slot on each side. A 3/16 inch bit was used to drill each center hole with a trough hole. I used specially made T slot nuts, but M6x1.0x12 button head cap screws would allow this vise to be mounted with the supplied M6x1.0 square nuts to the Proxxon MF70 mill table using a M4 hex wrench through the 3/16 inch hole above each slot. The photos show a heavily used vise and it's mounting on my MF70 mill, as well as the mounting of my fourth vise on my Taig mill. Contrary to one current reviewer, the access holes had no effect on the strength or accuracy of the vise. Thankfully, this vise is still made to a high standard in Germany.

A very high quality precision vise. This is a small vise and that's what makes it a perfect choice to add to your toolbox. I have 2 Sherline mills and a Sherline lathe, I use the Sherline vise alot and found the Proxxon vise is very handy and quick to use as it does not require a wrench to clamp. It is small enough to fit in most setups, yet big enough to handle a lot of work. The advantage of this vise over the Sherline is its low profile. On a small machine you do not have alot of headroom, the lower the vice, the taller the work piece can be. It is always a benefit to keep the workpiece as low as possible on a small mill or drillpress, the lower the head on the column of the machine, the more rigid and accurate machining will be. Much of the time I need to use parallel blocks to raise small work high enough to clear the sherline vise jaws, with the lower height jaws of the Proxxon it is seldom necessary, and the setup is more rigid. I also like the deeper cut v grooves of the Proxxon which holds round work more securely. The wood box affords safe storage and helps to eliminate rust. I reccomend this vise to anyone doing small precise work. Update 12/30/11 I clamped a 3 inch long x 1/2 inch piece of precision ground drill rod in the v groove and placed it on a Starrett granite surface plate for inspection. I checked it with a dial indicator and was stunned as there was no detectable error, it was perfectly parallel to the bottom of the vise! The small size and weight of this vise allows it to be mounted on the faceplate of a 6 inch or larger lathe. This allows you to clamp pieces in the vise on the bench where you can adjust, measure, and shim more easily, then mount the vise on the face plate and align it. I did not drill holes in the vise to mount it on the Sherline. Although drilling holes thru the vise as suggested in another reveiw would be more convenient I decided that it would weaken the vise and flexing might destroy the accuracy. If you get two 10/32 X 1/2 inch hex head bolts and washers ( not socket head, hex head as the groove on the Proxxon vise blocks tightening with a hex key wrench, the hex head can be tightened with a open end wrench) and file or grind a little from there lenght, they will work perfectly with sherlines T-nuts and it fits the 1&1/2 inch T slots on the Sherline mill. The accuracy of this vise is excellent and I am going to buy another.

This was an accessory I needed for my Proxxon Micro Mill, which is outfitted with the Micro Compound Table. It came with mounting hardware that cannot be used on the Compound Table. Thankfully, the Compound Table/Micro Mill combo came with hardware that could do the job. I don't know where else you would use such a tiny vise. Perhaps if you're using it stand alone on a small bench or board, you could use the screw and nut combo provided. The vise does exactly what I need it to do for my model wooden ship construction. Well, almost... I would actually prefer a wider vise jaw. An extra inch would be great.

To answer your main question, yes it is worth the price. 90 degree cuts, flat milling, this thing actually saves you money and material, and most importantly a lot of time and frustration, makes hobbies fun again. Never going back to the cast proxxin vise that's not even that cheap, $30 i believe. Just buy this thing, you won't regret it. Don't worry about the price, just be glad this thing exists

Je suis très content de cet étau et je le conseille pour tous les amateurs (et même professionnels). Dans le cadre de mon travail je suis parfois amener à réaliser des pièces de petites tailles et j'ai acheté cet étau en dépannage et bien j'ai été surpris de la qualité car pour le prix c'est très qualitatif. Seul bémol pour certains peut être c'est la dimension limitée mais bon dans mon cas la compacité est très pratique. Je le recommande sans hésité.

Satisfecho

Hög precision och gedigen kvalitet gjord av äkta stål, en kvalitetsprodukt

Der Präzisonsschraubstock der Marke Proxxon ist ein ausgezeichetes Produkt. Preis,Leistung und die Verarbeitsqualität ist exellent. Verwendbar auf den Proxxon Maschinen oder auch wie ich Ihn als dritte Hand für Einspannarbeiten im Modellbau benutze. Auch bei Lötarbeiten als Hilfe beim einspannen von Kabeln u.sw. gut geeignet. Ich kann diesen Schraubstock somit weiterempfehlen. Das Produkt ist sehr gut verarbeitet und die Backen schließen paßgenau. Spindelantrieb läuft leichtgängig.

Prodotto di buona qualità e preciso, le uniche note negative sono per la manopola in plastica e per il prezzo un po' elevato, c'è da dire però che non c'è altro in giro di pari dimensioni e qualità.