Opinons on what self centering vise to get for my 4th axis.

I am looking for a self centering vise for my new Koma 4th axis and I must admit I am bit overwhelmed by the choices and was hoping for some opinions on what to get.

It's the Koma RWE-200R and it came with an 8" chuck but I have a number of possible jobs that would require a vise. Looks like I can fit a 10" faceplate on it so I think that means either a 4" or 5" width jaw vise? Max opening seem to be in the 4" - 6" range.

Looking at units from 5th Axis (V562), Raptor, Shunk, Kurt, etc. They all seem to fall in the $ - $ range which seems steep but I don't see any cheaper units to use short term until I can get jobs to pay for the more expensive ones. I am open to any weird alternatives that will work without being a nightmare for setup.

I did see Orange made one that is only $600 but that must be wrong to be that price. Says it isn't self centering but semi self centering.

I need it to be able to be used like a normal vise so avoiding "dovetail only" or TalonGrip only types.

Thanks for any recommendations. The Orange is probably a good option for you.

The deal is that it is not self-centering and it works like a normal vise in many respects. The fixed jaw sits in serrated groves and gets adjusted to the desired opening. Both the jaws are pulled into the vise By a scaled-down version of Orange’s carrier system.

The only real downside is that it is slower to set up than a “real” self centering vise as you need to do some fiddling to get the fixed jaw into the right position so that the stock is centered. Once you do however, the Orange is just as fast to change parts. It is also way more rigid than any other self-centering vise and has absolutely zero float.

I was one of the beta testers and I liked my Orange Delta a bunch. Another big plus is the ease of fitting soft jaws and the low cost of consumables. Having said that, when I go to bang out prototypes with a lot of one-time ops, I still reach for my Lang vises as I want to avoid fiddling with jaw adjustment. For anything over 10 parts though, the Orange wins with its fixed jaw and Talon stop. Lang is the gold standard but they are pricey. We put a zero point plate on the 4th and then another on a pallet on the table, so we could take one part from the table to the 4th and even over to the 5-axis without removing it from the vise, and it always repeated to zero with immeasurable deviation. We then built our specialty fixtures with the studs in them. Pretty slick setup. But not cheap.

I would tell you to avoid aluminum bodies.

I am looking for a self centering vise for my new Koma 4th axis and I must admit I am bit overwhelmed by the choices and was hoping for some opinions on what to get.

It's the Koma RWE-200R and it came with an 8" chuck but I have a number of possible jobs that would require a vise. Looks like I can fit a 10" faceplate on it so I think that means either a 4" or 5" width jaw vise? Max opening seem to be in the 4" - 6" range.

Looking at units from 5th Axis (V562), Raptor, Shunk, Kurt, etc. They all seem to fall in the $ - $ range which seems steep but I don't see any cheaper units to use short term until I can get jobs to pay for the more expensive ones. I am open to any weird alternatives that will work without being a nightmare for setup.

I did see Orange made one that is only $600 but that must be wrong to be that price. Says it isn't self centering but semi self centering.

I need it to be able to be used like a normal vise so avoiding "dovetail only" or TalonGrip only types.

Thanks for any recommendations.

i got 3 of those orange vises and they are amazing! no complaints about them at all, especially for the price, cant beat em! Looks like I need to take a hard look at those Orange vises. I am not doing production at this point so a little fiddling to set up a part isn't horrible. And at half the price it's the difference between me ordering it today or having to wait and I really want to try to move on these jobs.

Sounds like it's kind of like soft jaws on a lathe? You need to go through the hassle of cutting new ones to get started then you can swap parts? Only need to recenter when you change parts size?

I have not used a self centering vise but I have some concerns about the repeatability of position. When I zero my work reference using the vise, I would never reference the movable jaw.

That's what I was wondering about, I always use the fixed jaw. It would be handy if it would repeat, a person could set the dro to zero/ zero and forget about it.

That's what I was wondering about, I always use the fixed jaw. It would be handy if it would repeat, a person could set the dro to zero/ zero and forget about it.

It can be indicated to center on a manual machine very easily, just clamp down on a gauge block, use an edge finder and then move in half the gauge block thickness..... Might be a good Idea to have one to make drilling cross holes and milling keyways a quick simple job if you were doing them all the time.... They are very small compared to a Kurt 6" you could leave it screwed to the table all the time if you have a large 42" table like mine... I’ve had one for about 15-20 years, I’ve used it exactly 3 times, once when I got it, once when I thought I would need it (I did not) and once where it was a slight benefit, but nothing I couldn’t have done without it. So $400 divided by 3 is $133, each time I used it. I would have been better off buying more end mills.