PANAVISE 396 Wide Opening Head PANAVISE

This vise is really amazing. It does exactly what I want it to do. There is one problem: There is no way to quickly open or close the jaws (like the slide mechs in quick-grip vises/clamps), so you will spend a fair amount of time cranking the very small clamp wheel. Other than that it is built well and performs excellently.

This is a solid modelers vise. It has a nice weight to it, though I recommend screwing or bolting it to a board for more versatility than fixing it to a bench or table. With a board the model can be moved around without adjustment. The rubber grips on either side hold a model reasonably well, however, it is just one point of contact and if pressure is applied to either end of the model, unless the grip is very tight there might be some rotation in the model due to the single point of contact. For more delicate models that should not be gripped too tightly, perhaps consider two vises carefully attached to a board, so less pressure needs to be applied by the vise grips. The wide opening of the vise I found very useful, as so many vises barely expand this far. Recommended.

This is a very handy tool for working on small items. I have used one like it for years with the smaller vice head. It swivels to almost any position for ease of access and clamps into place solidly. The wide opening head allows for working on bulkier objects. This is well worht the money spent.

My main use is to hold circuit boards for soldering. But there are many other uses. Panavise has been around a long time and their quality has never cheapened.

I used this model 396 PanaVise decades ago at work, and wanted one for home use. I ordered this one. It arrived with a non-concentric connection between the threaded rod and the crank handle, This made it impossible to turn the crank to open or close the vise jaws without using two hands. The crank would jam at the same point at every revolution, and had to be forced past that point by holding down the vise with one hand and forcing the crank past the jam with the other. I figured this one slipped past QC, so I returned it and asked for a replacement. The replacement arrived... with the same problem. You can clearly see the threaded rod is not connected to the center of the crank, but slightly offset, causing the binding. This is a very inconvenient issue, but the neoprene jaws hold up to heat so well during soldering I decided to keep the vise and resolve to use two hands when opening or closing the jaws. I hope PanaVise can correct this production issue, as it's a remarkably good vise otherwise.

The base works very well but arrived with scratches, possibly someone elses return, which is typical of the stuff often I recieve from Amazon (grrrr) The 396 head works well but takes forever to make large changes to jaw opening width, it needs a release device so it can be quickly adjusted.

Love the ability to turn and swivel it in any direction. Holds securely, and it protects any object you want from scratches and unwanted bends as happens on metal jaw vises. Also a lot more portable than a regular metal vise. Looks sturdy enough.

I do some electronics some woodworking. But mostly diddling. It’s a good vice for what I do.

Brilliant product

Todo bien

PanaVise 396 is a very good product that is very convenient to use.

Pues por el precio yo esperaba algo mas sofisticado o por lo menos de mejores materiales. Me dejo mucho que desear este producto.

Which I had bough a better unit.