Milling Vise: Bridgeport vs. Kurt?

[Tundra Twin Track]

Check out GERARDI,they not cheap unless you get lucky!My freind got a 8x12" Gerardi for $275 at Auction new price is $3200,the 8" Kurts brought $500.

[Dan_the_Chemist]

I got a cheap Bridgeport vise at auction. The funny thing is that it also had a small plate that said "Kurt" on it. I wrote to Kurt and they wrote back and told me that they had an OEM relationship with Bridgeport for several years. For a while the nameplates only said Bridgeport, and for a while they had both nameplates on the vise - BP and Kurt. I had one with the two nameplates.

Fortunately the rebuild kit for Kurt vises fit and worked perfectly. Some scraping, some repainting, and I have a lovely Kurt vise that cost me around $100 (total) and a lot of elbow grease.

[DATo]

I spent most of my career working with the Bridgeport vise and it took some time to get used to the Kurt. I don't know why. I guess I was just used to the Bridgeport like an old friend and didn't want to give it up, but now I wouldn't trade a Kurt for a Bridgeport. The Kurt offers many advantages not available in the Bridgeport for set up that I didn't readily appreciate at first.