HFS(R) 2 Way 4-Inch Drill Press X-Y Compound Vise Cross Slide Mill

OK first I was scared to death after reading many of the reviews. But I received mine today so with great trepidation I opened the box. WOW it worked just fine, no issues. Opening and closing of vice jaws no issues. Movement in X and Y direction was fine. The lands or flat surface the slides move on were flat and pretty smooth. On the downside there was paint on the lands and grit on the threaded rods for moving the base for and aft but nothing a wire brush couldn't cure. And even the paint on the lands presented no real problem. All in all I am well pleased.

If you expect to get even a slightly good machinist for fifty bucks, you're *$&#. For real. You got no business touching tools. I knew for fifty bucks it-d be rough and it was. Complete disassemble, sanding, lubricating and adding washers or spacers to tighten up tolerances. I got it for milling and drilling a polymer 80% on a standing drill press. It worked good. Not great, but good. I had to be diligent and anticipate where the vises' tolerance problems were and adjust prior to reaching that point in my workpiece. My lowers came with plastic jigs, cuz they're specifically shaped, so using a router on a metal was not an option. Moving forward, I'll just order a metal jig and one that fits it. But this vise is fine where a couple thousandths of an inch of tolerance is allowable.

Pros: - This heavy solid metal device seems very sturdy and well made. I have no worries about its durability. - The mounting slots looked like they might let the bolts slip, but turned out to work great once I had it set up. - The adjusting cranks and compression screws allow for reasonably precise operation over a surprisingly wide range of motion. Cons: - The piece is a little bit tall, be sure you have enough room beneath your drill press before you buy it. - The lower crank is somewhat sticky. Operating it quickly requires so much force that I wind up lifting and shaking the entire drill press (and the workbench it's attached to) if I don't use a second hand to hold it steady. (Still gets the job done though, this is only a minor annoyance) - There were sizable scrap metal chips stuck in the grease in all the mechanisms. It may jam and/or damage itself if you don't clean it before the first time you use it. (Not a problem so long as you notice before you try to use it) Overall a very nice piece of hardware for the price. I am very satisfied with how well it works.

What should you expect for a $50 cross slide vise? For it to be functional, and that's about it. As many reviewers have said, right out of the box, this thing is awful. Very rough movement, long axis screw is slightly warped, and many loose parts. Simply greasing the moving parts and making some minor adjustments works wonders but you'll still probably have to do a little sanding/filing on some rough spots. The slight warp in the long axis screw is manageable for the work I'm doing (lower receiver milling) but would be a deal breaker to anyone doing a lot of milling. But lets' face it, anyone doing a lot of milling shouldn't be looking at $50 vises. My biggest complaint is the long axis handle extends 1.75" below the base (see picture). I would have preferred to mount the vise directly to my press but I've had to improvise to make room to turn the handle. This only seems to be a problem on the smaller, 3" vise. Again, if you're planning on doing a lot of milling, these vises are probably not for you. While better than just using a standard vise, you'll still have to go slow to get accurate passes. Either that or do a bunch of upgrades to fix all of the problems. I'm still very happy with it and am glad I bought it.

Looking at this vise just out of the box, putting the handles on it, it appears to be a real solid piece of equipment and at $42.50 this is a terrific bargain considering what it can do. You can actually mill a straight cut in a piece of steel or other material with an end mill bit, etc. with this moving vise. What a terrific bargain for what this machine can do! So far so good. Make great slots for bolt action receivers, and can slot an ejection port, etc., make a slot in a flat piece also. Good slotting tool for pen gun makers. No more sloppily cut slots with this machine.

It is cheap, so have low expectations. I took it apart to clean all the guides and ways, then I polished them all carefully, the steel slider strips need polishing too. Deburred all edges and corners. I did find that the crank handle stops the slide from moving the full travel, so I did a lot of grinding with a dremel to cut away where the handle hits the vice itself. Now I can move the slide to halfway and beyond on the slides. It is messy to polish or grind cheap cast iron. Don’t try to clamp down on anything too hard, it will crack this vice, it is to hold items needing some work on them. Also don’t rely upon the graduations, I have no idea what they measure….. As a basic simple cross slide vice, with some work, this works well enough. It is not for professional or heavy use, it is an occasional job type tool, which it will perform adequate doing.

No Quality, No Standards with this Vise It seems to be a Kids DIY attempt at building a vise, or maybe even a stage 1 prototype. - Randomly placed screw holes, some without threads - Worm Drive screws are slightly warped with crud-filled threads - Machine Marks all over the place - The sliding surfaces are neither flat, nor smooth - The contact points that handle the torsional stress from cranking the slide adjustment handles are held in place by a screwed on metal plate with a hole for the worm drive screws to protrude through. The worm screws are then held in place on the outside by tight fitting aluminum bushings held in place by set screws in a randomly drilled screw hole. These aluminum bushings are positioned against these steel mounting plates and rotate with the worm screws. This Means the bearing surfaces are aluminum pressed against steel. Not a real good bearing surface. - The cross-slide dovetail tension adjustment is done with 3 screws pressing on a cheap steel-flat cutoff which looks like a kid used a hacksaw to make the cut. There's 2 of these flats, one for each axis, and neither are cut square, neither are flat, and they certainly aren't smooth or consistent. I could have done better by grabbing some steel-flat bar from a big-box store and randomly cutting it with rotary tool cutoff disk. I had to spend some time (a few hours) with a die grinder, a pencil die grinder, a drill and some emery cloth , along with 2 rolls of shop towels, brake cleaner, barrel brushes, brass brushes, assembly lube and white lithium grease. If I wanted to build a cross-slide vise from scratch, I could have just bought a chunk of steel instead. Come to think of it, that's exactly what I did when I bought this, just a chunk of steel in a box. I could go on, but hopefully this gets the point across to readers.

I read many reviews on this vise but My experience was very good. First all I had to do was tighten everything and give it an oiling well with synthetic 10/30 motor oil and this baby worked just fine. There is a little slop in the cranking of both operations but not enough to bother anything at all. I looked at 20 other versions and this one is the best by far. I recommend it. It is a very good buy and will satisfy just about everybody. Thanks for building a worth while piece of hardware. S Thompson, Oregon

Product is for small job only.

Not accurate, I wish the quality was better

So after reading all the reviews and sitting on the fence for a while about weather I should get because of the negative reviews! I went ahead and rolled the dice! lol. Jackpot I got maybe one of the good ones!! I’m a jack of all trades and have my own woodworking shop and work on all my machines. I’m not a machinist by trade but do know how to do pretty much everything well. After unboxing yes you have to dial everything in as mentioned in a lot of the reviews!! That said to be fair for the price I’m giving it 5 stars! You get what you pay for. I put 30 minutes in to it and it’s pretty true. Not perfect or spot on but pretty dam good!!! If you are a machinist and need one you’re probably not going to want this or I would not be getting you to do work for me. Lol So all you beginners this is worth every penny!!!

This is a decent cross-sliding vise for the price. However it is not perfect and that is why I gave it 4 stars. You will need to take it apart and do some finishing work with a file to make it as good as it could be. Also the top vise screw is mounted in an awkward position for my bench top drill press. I was able to take the top slide off and reverse it (you will need a tap and die set) so now it is perfect for my needs.

well made