Palmgren Tilt Vise

[Pete Burne]

My nephew had problems with a $400 Palmgren he bought at work (horrible tolerances).

Called Palmgren and they acted like this is the first time it ever happened.

He finally gave up in frustration and trued up the vice himself. Typical Chicom; "some modification required'

Pete

[GRH]

I find this vise to be less than desired.
a lot of people "knock" the Chinese but the quality here is terrible.
The surface that the moving jaw slides on relative to the base varies from .002" across the way surfaces (2.5" jaw width)to .006" across diagonally (length of way)and does not repeat when you tilt the vise up and then bring it back to it's fully down position. The problem appears to be that the fit and the alignment of the pivot pin is off. I was going to fly cut the
sliding surface but when I found the repeatability problem decided not to.

Just thought I would mention this.

Graeme

[YOOO VINNY]

I have the same vise on one of my drill presses.
In all fairness, you wont find anything like a precision angle vise for $69.
I'm truly surprised you'rs is within .006"
I'm sure mine isent that close, but it's about 10 years old and beat to death too.

I've been debating adding one of the Wilton 3 axis tilting vises to the shop.
But again in all fairness, for the under $500. price, I'm not sure how "precision" that would be either. And I've no experience with any of the Wilton products, they appear to be made in China also.

If you need precision, going for a sine plate would probably be you'r best bet.

Cheers, YOOO VINNY

[This message has been edited by YOOO VINNY (edited 03-04-2006).]

[Your Old Dog]

Just googled palmgren and found this on their site........

" Accuracy
The jaw surfaces on all Palmgren vises are square to at least 0.002" (.05 mm). All vises have a minimum of 0.002" (0.05 mm) jaw deflection at 2,000 lbs (907 kg) clamping pressure; additionally, the bases and beds are parallel to at least 0.001" (0.025 mm). "

If you think your vise is something other than advertised spec's then send that puppy back for a good one !

[This message has been edited by Your Old Dog (edited 03-04-2006).]

[J Tiers]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by GRH:
I find this vise to be less than desired.
a lot of people "knock" the Chinese but the quality here is terrible.

</font>

Probably that IS the chinese quality "a lot of people" knock....

Palmgren went offshore a while back.... for most all their stuff, if not all. So have everyone else and their cousin Bob.

Was at Home despot and Lowes, and other places last night.

In what we were looking for, looking at US named brands, NOT ONE SINGLE STINKING PRODUCT was made in USA. A couple were "assembled" in China, but EVERY ONE OF the rest were flat-out made in china, except for one made in Thailand. We didn't buy anything.

Palmgren ran to china along with everyone else.

[Evan]

bump

[TECHSHOP]

I wish that all the manufactures did like General of Canada. Retail their Asian imports under a different, clearly marked product line. I don't like to purchase PRC made stuff, and I am really miffed when I pay "Top Dollar" based on prior experience or a good reference, only to find a "quality sell out" riding on a manufacture's "Well Known Good Name". I do not like it when I purchase tools and machinery, and I truely dispised when I sold tools and machinery. Does anyone really wonder why the USA is returning to an auction mentality?

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Today I will gladly share my experience and advice, for there no sweeter words than "I told you so."

[gmatov]

You gotta love the Chinese tech writers, huh?

"Accuracy
The jaw surfaces on all Palmgren vises are square to at least 0.002" (.05 mm). All vises have a minimum of 0.002" (0.05 mm) jaw deflection at 2,000 lbs (907 kg) clamping pressure; additionally, the bases and beds are parallel to at least 0.001" (0.025 mm). "

So, I guess you go to them with a gripe, they ask what's the problem, you say it's .010 out of square, they say, yeah, so, we said they'd be at least .002 out of square, you're good to go.

What're you gonna do. When there was a boow, prices were rising so fast you could make money buying a Bridgeport and selling it as soon as you got it for a fat profit.

So, someone went to Taiwan, had 'em made cheaper, not better, not even near as good, but a lot of people learned to do good work on them, regardless. Harder to do, but you could still make a litle money.

A lot of our biggest companies did the same thing.Rockwell Delta went to Brazil to make a homeowner quality machine, cheap green castings, less than a 1/4 the cost. You could afford to plane a board again.

Taiwan even got to cost too much, so the Taiwanese manufacturers went to China, which is where we are today.

Some ot this stuff has good enough metal in it, for the purpose, that you CAN make it accurate, with a little work. Some is such bad metal you will forever be retruing things.

Still, it is the best a lot of us can afford, or can justify spending on a hobby type shop. When you graduate to production for a living, you can buy used US made and rebuild.

I don't like buying Chinese. But what alternative with the prices as they are? Look at cutting tools, for an example. They are using our technology, sold to them by our machine tool and machine tooling makers. The owners here are still making money, without having any peons on the payroll.

Disgusting, but it's life, 'specially in the present regime's era.

Cheers,

George

I must admit, in the offshoring debate, they say it's just the tech support and the knowledge workers and the like that are affected. The REAL gotta be here people are safe.

In California, the Medical Insurance companies are offering a reduced premium if the people will go to a hospital across the Mexican border for treatment.

WOW, Doctoring can be outsourced!!! Mebbe VPs will be the next to go, then the CEO, then the Board, and all that's left is the stockholders. And, most of those will be Chinese, too, with a 400 billion dollar trade deficit.

That's not too political, is it?

[IOWOLF]

Doesn't Palmgren still have a lifetime warrentee?

Also,SPEND the money and get a Kurt or at least a Kurt copy, You will not be sorry.

------------------
The tame Wolf !

[J Tiers]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Disgusting, but it's life, 'specially in the present regime's era.

</font>

It's not like any of the other opposing liars have been any better.... much of the current outsourcing actually started under Clinton. We are just seeing the results now of foundations laid 10+ years ago.

And, it has been going on one way and another for about 40 years; Japan, Korea, Mexico, china. The chineap stuff is just a lot cheaper right now.... but I look for that to change.

Saw some data that indicates china has over-capacity, which means some investment won't be paid back, and there is even a possibility of a slump/recession there, despite the apparent boom.

The chinese government is also now changing from a "growth at any cost" policy, to a policy with more employee rights, better pay, environmental protection, etc, etc. This was recently in the news, although buried.

If it works out, there may be a re-alignment of economic flow.

I have NO problem trading with china. But it has to go both ways. And I don't mean just scrap, ore, and logs to china and finished goods back to us.....

My employers used to sell several million bucks worth of my designs (made here) in china per year. When the chinese thieves started copying and diluting our brand name with in-country built trash (that had our name on it), the bottom fell out of that.

[This message has been edited by J Tiers (edited 03-07-2006).]