PCB Vise with Standard Nylon Jaws

This review is for the "Stickvise PCB Vise with the Teflon Jaws". Having finally had an opportunity to use my Stickvise to assemble a PCB I have to say this is a wonderful little product. It holds the PCB level with the bench-top, and has a very firm grip so that the PCB does not slide around as one solders components in place. An added advantage is that it can be easily flipped over to insert components without having to remove the PCB, although with the spring tensioners it is very easy to pop out the PCB, add components, and pop it back into the vice jaws. It has enough clearance that most components will clear the bench, but if one needs more room the addition of standoffs allows for holding a PCB further from the bench-top. The standard height however is great for soldering as it is when the components fit. Highly recommended for assembly/testing of small to medium sized PCB's. If you are wondering if you need one, well, if you are here looking at it, and you do any assembly/testing, then yes, you do need one. It is hard to describe just how well this very simple looking tool works, but it works really well and is well worth the cost to purchase it.

Highly recommended.Very easy to use, works exactly as advertised.A very well-designed simple tool that works in a flexible and intuitive way.This is now one of my all-time favorite tools.If there were a 10-star rating, that would be my choice.I see that others have complained about the plastic jaws..Part of the beauty of this device's design is that a variety of jaw designs can be used.You may have to fabricate them yourself for a specific need, but they can't be everything to everyone.Different users have different needs, and the creator of this product had to have an entry-point to bring this to market.Notice, there are optional high-temperature jaws sold separately for this tool (here at Amazon).Even at an additional ~$10 cost for that option, this is still good value for the money in my opinion. There is nothing on the market to compare to it.Visit the stickvise website for more info.My thanks to the creator of this very useful tool.Updated to add 2020-02-02:and then it occurred to me.The creator of StickVise has some tips on his site to demonstrate how easily you can add a little height/vertical clearance under the jaws.A perfect way to easily add/subtract height is to use a spare/replacement set of StickVise jaws as a spacer.I ordered a set of high-temperature (PTFE) replacement jaws and so I have the original StickVise jaws on hand.Inserting the original jaws underneath the high-temp jaws doubles the jaw height. Just right for me.You can just use washers or hex spacers and that'll do the job.Having the 2nd set of StickVise jaws keeps it a very polished pro-grade tool.Go StickVise!

Do you ever use a thing and think "whoever designed this actually understands the problem?" That's the story here. This is an incredibly simple and invaluable tool that, once you add this to your kit, you will never give it up. I bought one of these four years ago and it has not left my portable kit since.It is an incredibly simple idea executed extremely well. The construction quality is extremely good and unless you do something radically bad, this thing will probably outlive you. You might have to replace set or two of jaws, but that's it.I've used some of the recent knockoffs that try to make this design bigger or stronger, and while they do succeed at that, it loses that simplicity and versatility that this has. Unless you need to hold much larger and heavier parts, you probably want this one.

Holy smokes, this thing is brilliant. I've been soldering with my boards in little quick-grip clamps for a long time because I wanted something low profile and easy. I know little PCB holders and stuff exist, but they always seemed... fidgety and low quality. Things like the Panavise are great, but they're pretty tall. This guy holds your board right on the desk, and the spring-loaded jaw makes it great for low-run production work since you can just swap out PCBs really fast. I also love that they publish full specs on their site for customizing. I'll probably get another and slap some standoffs under the jaws for working with boards with switches and such mounted.The aluminum is well finished, and the parts align very well, generally. The only issue I have is that the back clamp portion sits just a tiny amount higher than the jaws, allowing the whole vise to rock slightly. It doesn't really hurt the functionality of the vise, but it's noticeable.I do wish there was an option to either buy it without jaws, or just get it with the teflon jaws pre-installed. I suspect the nylon jaws are cheap enough to make that it makes more sense than having to manage more products, but I really don't need them.