Sherline uses a “screwless” vise. They’re pretty proud of the benefits of this design, but IMO it’s hard to use. More often than not my part isn’t as secure as I’d like it to be - so I take lighter cuts and spend beaucoup extra time milling.
Does anyone know of a 3rd party alternative for this vise? 2" wide jaws would be plenty - swivel and tilt are not mandatory.
Yes, it does get hard to use, especially when the lower chamber gets crapulent. It does need to be cleaned out once in a while. What is good is that one can go from wide open to nearly closed without the labor of a lot of screwing. And there is no need for a lever handle for which there isn’t clearance for in the Sherline design.
The Penn Tools vise could work and is fairly cheap. The Busy Bee looks interesting; but I don’t think that the handle shown can clear the y axis saddle, and while it looks like a rotary vise the center of rotation axis appears to be fixed at the back jaw of the vise, so might be less than a real rotary vise, functionally speaking.
For me, the biggest issue is getting the jaws in a sweet spot relative to an “adjustment slot”. And frequently I have to completely open it up to move it to a different adjustment slot in order to move the jaws something trivial like 0.030". Yeh, following the directions helps (the 45 degree to 60 degree business) but still …
Bob and I found a different vise in the drawers where the small lathe and mill tools are that seems like it could be used. Just a heads up about it 
Thanks. Bob showed it to me on Sunday and I forgot to mention that. It’s a Micromark vise. We were able to clamp it to the bed with the side clamps (name?) that come with the Sherline vise.
Kurt, IMO…is the best vise out there
Agree. Do they make one suitable for a Sherline mill? I wasn’t aware of one that small.