20 Best Cross Slide Drill Press Vise (2023 Updated)

Would have given it 5 stars but it came with the handle broken off the clamp adjuster screw. However, contacted the manufacturer # listed on the box and i just a couple of days got a replacement screw.

Took about 5 minutes to change and went to work. Sure beats having to return and wait for a replacement. Great minuscule adjustments in both directions.

This cross slide vise is meant to be a precision tool but is just not. One of the handles is drilled and tapped crooked. This leads to choppy milling. There is no smoothness at all. Not such a good piece.

First time I ever used one, so may no be the best judge, but I like it. I mounted it to my drill press and use it move to drill multiple holes in some metal I’m working with. With a regular vice, I have to keep loosening it, moving it, then tighten it back up.

Don’t do that anymore, once in the vice, it’s good.

I was expecting “Made in the USA” quality. Didn’t get it! The vise came unable to slide in either direction and every threaded rod and hole were filled with metal chips form the machining process. All surfaces that are supposed to slide against each other are “rough” and should be machined to a smoother surface.

The 2 flat metal bars that allow for slide adjustment shift if you run them near the end of their travel and make the slides bind up when they do. Also, one of the large slide screws disengages if you run it to near the end of travel.

After disassembly and hours of cleaning, sanding, and polishing I find the vise will work for my limited drill press needs. Would I recommend it? Not so much. A little extra cleaning and polished sliding surfaces would go a long way in making this a good vise.

The screw run off is a minor issue and would be easy for the engineering department to fix. I’ll be fixing mine and the binding of the flat bars issue when time allows. I was happy to pay more for the USA quality but I feel like I could have saved some money and gone with an off shore vise.

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have taken me any more time to make usable. Even if they are outsourcing these to China they should demand better quality or finish the job themselves before it goes out to a customer.

I purchased this 2 axis vise and received it very fast. The package was very protective for this vise. I took about 30 minutes to complete assembly and make final adjustments to the gibs on both axis.

The movement is smooth and precise with less than. 3mm backlash on either axis. BRAVO. I highly recommend Wilton Vise. If there was one change I could make, it would be to have decimal increment dials instead of metric.

First off, I do appreciate this product for it’s quality at the given price point. There were a few issues I had right away before ever using it. If you are willing to spend some time working out the kinks and refining this vise, it’s pretty good.

First I didn’t approve of the deep tooling marks on the sliding surfaces. They took some stone work and UHMWPE tape to slick them up and tighten the gib on the base and upper base for smooth and tight operation.

One lead screw bracket shattered when trying to lubricate the assembly, however this was my own fault. After building a new one and accepting the wobble and approximate machining of the lead screws, I could not keep the handle from coming off the upper base adjustment.

Expanding the ring inside the handle fixed this, and now the vise operates smoothly and remains solid.

I have always wanted an X-Y vise. I cannot count the times I have had to loosen a number of clamps to adjust a work piece so I could work on it. The X-Y vise is the only fix for this. When this vise arrived I brought it home and completely disassembled it to tweak it up.

I de-burred and polished all the matching surfaces and applied a thin coating of lithium grease. The Metal Injection Mold handles got ground down to hide the seams and I polished them up. Upon reassembly I setup up the rails so there was no play and locked it down.

I can spin all the handles with a single finger. This vise is a great deal for folks who know how to set them up. Have a look at the attached picture. Regards Mandziak.

Knowing that this vise is not a quality and precision piece of equipment, and having read the reviews, my expectations were low. Yes, I did have to disassemble and clean it and polish the mating surfaces, but after doing so, it performed flawlessly in meeting my objectives.

Just a little added quality control from the manufacturer and it would be worthy of a five star rating.

The Vise is sturdy and robust. For general not super tight tolerances it does the job. The biggest problem and actually quite frustrating is the fact that when it came to me I had to clean up and deburr tapped holes and edges.

Which I can do no problem but when you buy something it should never come like that. In essence I was sent an unfinished product and I had to finish it.

This angle vise is not a specifically a machinist’s vise. The insertion pin measures 2. 98mm, but the receiver holes measure 3. 22mm, leaving a greatest possible error of. 24mm. This translates into degrees as.

0026667 variance over 90 degrees, but much greater over a 15 degree increment, about. 016 variance. As such, it’s not a precision instrument. You could replace the pin by getting a steel wire or rod that was the correct diameter and flattening out the end to accept a hole for the supplied chain, but the question still remains whether the pin receiver holes are drilled accurately, as the receiver holes are stated to be drilled every 15 degrees.

The clamp can be set anywhere from 0 degrees horizontal to 90 degrees vertical in increments of one degree or less. An electronic protractor or inclinometer would give you the exact number you’re looking for in increments of a degree, allowing for your greatest possible error in manufacturing.

But the vise allows you to set it at whatever angle you like. The pre-drilled holes are just for a reference and perhaps as a fail safe in case the vise slips. though the clamp seems very secure when properly torqued.

This is very accurate for my needs, and for about $84. 00, it’s a reasonable price for what you get. As a woodworker, it serves my purpose very successfully, but as a machinist, I would never rely on a set of pre-drilled holes to determine the accuracy of my operation, and would check it with an electronic protractor or inclinometer or some other method for determining the accuracy of the operation.

First, Zoro did everything they were supposed to. Delivered quickly and in good shape. The problem is with Wilton. The Vise did not open and close properly. The set screw used to attach the sliding jaw to the screw was incorrect.

It is not tapered down on the end to fit in the groove. Result is binding and won’t retract. I ground a screw down and cut to length and it functions. Not right though. Contacted Wilton and got a case number and that was a month ago and have reached out 3 times.

Nothing! Just need a set screw! A shame, I bought another brand that was as advertised and will try to fab a set screw myself, I guess. Should work out of the box. Hard to recommend Wilton based on this, sorry.

Mostly ok. The fit of the screw threads in the female threads is on the loose side. The fit of the screw in the moveable jaw was just plain sloppy. Between the two, it was so loose it annoyed me enough that I made a bushing to fit between the screw end and the jaw before I ever used it.

The threads themselves I’ll just live with. It wasn’t that expensive. Maybe the jaw people and the screw people didn’t agree on hole size, probably off by at least a sixteenth in diameter. Someday I’ll measure it and update my review.

It was otherwise ok. I added a picture. the pen points to the bushing I added. The hole ID on the moving jaw is 0. 481, the OD on the screw end was 0. 413. That’s crap workmanship. The bushing OD is 0.

479. Much better. It’s a slight press fit on the screw so it stays put and doesn’t interfere with the little allen setscrew that keeps the screw in the jaw.

Unit was exactly as advertised. Vise worked well with the WEN 8″ drill press I purchased at the same time. The table of the drill press is almost exactly the same and the base of the vise. FYI this is a small unit and will only hold limited sized parts.

Only thing that would have been a great added feature would be some some type of bolts to quickly connect and secure to the drill press table.

This vise is very well made, especially for the price. I haven’t had much opportunity to use it thus far, and being new to using a device like this, I have much to learn. It came with no instructions so I’m having to figure it out as I go.

Nevertheless, I’m glad I bought it. I don’t think I’ll use it a lot, but it’s nice to have when the need arises.

Its ok. Just wish the jaws were higher. But it is only a 3 vise. I like the slots on each side of the base for additional mounting options

We purchased a year ago. Had to machine the removable jaws as they were not square or parallel to the base or each other. It was easy to fix but shouldn’t have had to. The rest works as good as the higher end brands that we have.

The Wilton 13402 vise is a precision tool, well built. The jaws have a step machined into each half to hold your work parallel with the table. The cam holds the work tight and the slide is fitted well.

If you need a high quality vise for your drill press / milling machine, don’t hesitate to lay out the coin for this one, you won’t be disappointed.

Spent more money then was in my budget but when I used it was more then worth it. Clamps tight and fast what more would you want from a vise

It’s an acceptable vise for home shop use. The slide system is held in place by bar and two hex screws on the under side. You have to leave them just a bit loose so the slide will move back and forth.

Therefore it has a slight bit of play. But for such a small vise, most people wouldn’t need massive force or clamping weight. it’s too small for that. So for holding and drilling small parts, this should work fine.

My vise wasn’t completely level and had a small rock to it. or maybe my drill table was the culprit. but i any event with light clamping pressure both surfaces flattened out and the press had no rock to it.

This would likely not be accurate enough for machining operations but for general home shop drilling, it works.

This is a great vice for the drill press. I am really impressed at the build quality. I thought I would have to take a file to the threads to get this vice to work smoothly, but the vice worked perfectly out of the box.

Removed the factory shmutz sprayed it down with ptfe – good to go. Wen is becoming my new favorite tool company. Great prices and the quality can compete with any other brand.

Cheap and does the job. What more can you ask for? Only use it for minor tasks, but happy with the purchase.

This vise must be tuned up before it can be used accurately. One of the purposes of using a drill press vise that has machined sides is to use it on it’s side. This vise had the removable work holding jaws protruding beyond the movable and fixed jaws.

These needed to be cut down until they were flush or slightly behind the fixed and movable jaw. This can be done with a mill, machine sander or even a mill cut file. Once shortened and placed back in position, the factory milled sides had to be de-burred which also kept the vise from sitting square while on its side.

Once this was done, combined with the jaw shortening the vise would sit square to a machined surface on both sides. The screws holding the movable jaw to the slide had stripped heads from faulty tightening at the factory and had to be replaced.

This was optional as it didn’t detract from use but wasn’t correct just the same. I use this for woodworking but it would never have close enough tolerances to be used by a professional machinist. I have six Wilton vises including a drill press vise with hold down ears was made in U.

S. A. and is over 40 years old and has always been perfect.

Nifty little vise – but plan on spending a couple of hours truing up the surfaces and deburing the corners. I would have given it a 4-star rating except for the threads were very badly cut and do not align with the threaded rod (the rod itself was quite good).

I sent constructive feedback to the manufacturer who politely blew me off. Too bad. A simple QA inspection and a tad higher production standard would have made this a decent value. It’s all there, but it is very poorly machined.

As it is, you can use it for light woodworking but don’t even think about using it in a shop.

This vice has all the problems that other reviewers commented about but it is way better than the other (different brand) that I returned. The jaws have some places where they are wider than the rest of the vice.

Unless you correct this flaw you cannot drill stock clamped in this vice while on its side and expect any accuracy. When you put oil on the ways, then open or close the jaws, you will see witness streaks where the jaws make contact with the ways and all of the places where no contact is made.

The jaws are quite difficult to open but fairly easy to close. I did not buy this vice to acquire another project and it is going to take more work to make this vice acceptable to me. I’m not trying to compare it to a Kurt or a Shars because it’s not even close to the same quality but then neither is the price.

These things come from China so you get just what you should expect.

Out of the box the cranks to move the x-y plane were terrible, ranging from stiff to very stiff. There was a lot of dirty oil also on the sliding surfaces that the sections run on. However, all it needed was to loosed the two allen bolts that clamp the handle close to the vice.

Also I cleaned and lubed the flat surfaces, and its smooth as could be now, one hand can easily position the vice. The allen bolts were just set off in the factory to one side and making it rub on the inner threads.

I’m leaving these allen bolts relatively loose now. HTH.

Spindles are sticky and dials are inaccurate for two directions. Solid and will work, but not smooth. Have read disassembling, degreasing, deburring and then relubricating makes a big difference. We shall see.

I have a very nice Ellis drill press. I rigged up several different ways to hold material so I could drill holes etc. for approximately 5 years. I recently purchased this Wilton vise and it is amazing!!! I bought a quick change tool post for my Sheldon lathe and used the Wilton vise to mill a T-nut to hold it in place.

I love it and wish I had purchased it years ago.

In looking for a cross-slide vise to help me position items on my drill press table, I noted that some of those that are for sale online cost only about $50. 00. The reviews on them were terrible, with descriptions of problems like ill-fitting ways (slides), screws that are not securely anchored, and so on.

Remarks included a “Made in China” label. Unlike those, this one from Wilton cost nearly three times as much, and with the brand Wilton, I thought it would be better. I am not disappointed. The ways fit well.

There is no rocking in them. All the surfaces that you want to be flat — the bottom, the ways, the jaw face — are machined flat and fit just right. The cross-slide ways are sufficiently tight that I keep the tightening screws loosened.

However, if the ways were to move too easily you can tighten them to your taste, as each one has three tightening bolts (like set-screws) tapped into its side. The turning handles for the cross-slides have a rotating grip so that the handle doesn’t slide through your fingers as you turn it — a very nice feature.

One jaw surface, but not the other one, has a vertical and a horizontal angle machined into it, for the holding of small round stock. (This has actually been thought out well: it is best to machine the angles in only one jaw face.

) These angles are only about 4 mmm wide, so large round stock may not be held so stably in this vice. The vise came with three Allen wrenches for use on its various adjustment bolts. The vice has slots on the edge of its base for bolts that will enable you to bolt it to your drill press table.

The bolts that will fit are 3/8″, but my table has 5/8″ slots, so I’ll have to use 3/8″ bolts with washers in the table slots. At their turning-handle assemblies, the jaw and cross-slide Acme screws are indexed with engraved markings.

The engraved intervals do not correspond precisely to English or metric measurements, but there is engraved on the screws (near the index marks) a 0. 1-mm adjustment gap, so you’ll know approxmately how far you are moving the jaw or slide.

There is slight hysteresis in the cross-slide Acme screws, which can only be eliminated by tightening their handle assemblies so tightly that the screws do not turn easily. Consequently, I have to leave the handles slightly loose, and cope with the hysteresis.

Thus, this is not a precision vise. The hystersis will have no consequences in my use of the vise — it affects only the measurement of how many turns of the handles I’ve made, not the cross-slide position.

There is no indication on the vise of what country it was made in. There is a small steel label attached to the top of the vise that says, “Wilton. ” All in all, this vise is well designed, manufactured with high quality, and fully functional for use on the table of a drill press.

It will make it easy to accurately position the metal items I need to drill. I expect it to last many years. I am very pleased with it.

When I saw the name “WILTON” I associated it with the Wilton Vises of yesteryear, the 1st Class #1 Quality Vise That was built in the U S A. I think Ho Che Min snuck in on the blueprints on this one.

It’a a little cheesy on the quality side, but it’s better than holding things in your hand while you drill. The base mounting on the vise does NOT match the table on the drill press (poor engineering all drill tables are standard) so I had to fabricate a custom mounting base to mount it to the table, which was in my best interest so you would have enough room to operate the bottom slide crank without hitting your knuckles on the table.

It’s a long way from the “WILTON” brand quality I used to know.

1st one was defective the holes for the attachment screws for the upper feed screw were drilled in the wrong places. Trying to turn screw needed two hands. On the second one the lower feed screw retainer was broke in half so used parts from one to fix the other the upper feed screw is still sticky at one end of travel.

Decent for the tasks required but as expected you gets what you pay for. Not highly precise and accurate with adjustments made, but will get the job done if one takes the projects slow.

This vice worked out pretty good for a few projects. Mounted to a drill press. The machine could handle light milling work. For heavier milling the vice showed it had a lot of play in the screws travel.

But I paid $20 so it was worth every penny.

We never expected to receive a precision 3 cross slide vise; but this piece is so out of measurements, very-very poorly finished, holes out of center, slides of different widths, and the material cut in such a gross-raw way, that 1 star is too much because it goes beyond comprehension on how neither any minimum quality control may have had.

We spent hours grinding and sanding this little piece of metal to make it workable, because we know sending it back will be a similar headache and thus can be used for clamping.

Definitely not the best on the market. Has a very gritty feel to it and comes with a very odd type of grease in it. Once I sprayed all the cheap grease out of it, it works decently for the price. If your not looking to spend a lot then I recommend it.

If it’s something you will use quite a bit then I’d get a better one.

Just what I need. This will not compare to expensive machining vises of great precision. They have a lot finer screws and much better tolerances. This vise does the job just fine for hobby work. The quality is rather medium.

If you want to mill within 1/16 inch, it should be great. You may have to adjust the ways. There are screws with locking nuts for this purpose. If you want to mill within 2/1000 inch, find a precision vise.

Not advertised as machine shop quality, and it’s not. It worked well enough to complete my home-style quality project, but a machinist would be sadly disappointed. DIY quality, if you’re not fussy.

I’ll admit that I was a bit suspicious about a 2 way drill press vice for less than $50. The item arrived quickly, with free shipping — pretty impressive for a heavy item like this. It fits the bill perfectly.

I’ve experimented with several drill press tables, vises and jigs for my full-sized, floor-mounted drill press. I expect this to become my favorite.

Great vise for milling. The only problem and its fixable with simple mod is on the one Axis that is shared with the clamp needs to be on same side. Besides that it works as expected. Remeber this is not a Bridgeport table it has play.

If your milling needs to be in spec to + or – 32nd then this will not hold that tolerance.

Large. Drill press needs tall neck. Otherwise its the cat’s meow. Not good for table top drill presses.

Requires disassembly, cleaning and light rework with a file before use. There is another similar review posted here that may add some detail.

I’m giving this 5 stars because it’s far better than I expected. It had some manufacturing schmoo in the ways/rails. I disassembled mine (more out of interest than anything else), which allowed me to easily clean it up with some WD-40.

I lubed it with dry lube to hopefully avoid shavings building up and getting trapped like it might with a heavy grease. I had a little bit of slop in one of the lead screws — I just added a nylon washer behind the handle on that screw and it took care of the problem.

I cut wood, so I don’t place a lot of load on it. Overall, the thing is accurate enough. The problem with this tool isn’t the vise, it’s that drill presses just aren’t stout enough to handle machining.

They will vibrate/chatter a lot and a self-holding tapered chuck isn’t the right setup for applying horizontal forces. I wear a full face shield and squint extra hard as a mitigation strategy.

Great vise, exactly what i was looking for and a high quality make it a joy to use so far. Heavy Duty manufacturing give me confidence this thing will last as long as i take good care of it. I lubed it with good quality lubricant on the threads and ways so operates nice and smoothly too.

This vise was well packaged and arrived promptly without damage. It required some minimal clean-up and minor assembly. I adjusted the gibs a little to take out the play in the adjustments and added a washer to one of the adjusting handles which removed about 90% of the backlash.

I mounted it onto a 3/4″ piece of MDF that I clamp to my drill press. This raises the vise sufficiently to be able to turn the lower adjusting handle. The vise is a valuable addition to my drill press; I have used it many times already and am very satisfied with it.

Wel I’m satisfied any tuning is easy to do it don’t need much. I would recommend it to those who sharpen ther own tools for machining.

Very pleased with this item. Please bear in mind I am not precision engineer, I am a wood worker mainly interested with wood turning. Now and again I have the need for a metal work lathe, but I cannot justify buying one, so I have converted my wood lathe into a metal work lathe.

To achieve this I purchased this simple compound table, a tool post and tool holder and a set of metal turning tools. OK, it not a Colchester or any other precise lathe but used very gently it works a treat.

Had to rebuild the table of course! Would recommend just adding an m6 nut to the handwheels.

The set screw when tightened on the inset binds the jaws. I can set on an extension location. I think that will work. I haven’t used them in practice though. The slots are the right size for me though.

All the others I looked at were about the same price and I figure their quality is about the same. If I need better I would have to look for a professional grade which means much more money.

Rugged but not precision. The sliding jaw is very wobbly and really doesn’t have any sort of machined sliding fit to the base (e. g. a “T” or “tapered way” like you will find in a real drill press vise.

) It will clamp a piece bar stock or a piece you wish to drill or work, but not very precisely because of the wobbly jaws. So, you can’t achieve really precise positioning of the work piece like you could if the sliding jaw was more constrained.

I wasn’t expecting too much for $17, and didn’t get it. It’s not my main drill press vise, I needed it for a special purpose fixture I am building and it will sort of fill the bill for that. I like to call these kind of make-believe tools “mock products”.

They appear to be the product they purport to be, but lack essential characteristics of the real thing. In this case that would be some modicum of precision. What did I expect from China, anyway?.

Easy to mount on the steel table I made. Strange that the rotating locks did not have a bar to tighten or loosen the bolts, but this is better. Use a old 18 mm box wrench and just leave it on the bolts to adjust.

The quick adjust function is great and works smooth. Kind of small anvil pad to work with but is there and does the job. The hammer tone paint is alot stronger than I thought it would be, hasn’t chipped yet.

The jaws open alot farther than they are wide, bonus. the rear jaw sits out past the edge of my table, another bonus. Good grip with little pressure applied to vise jaws. Good buy so far.