heckuva vice. well built

I'm very impressed with this vise and Yost. I own some very high end Swiss vises and a Wilton bullet vise from World War II which I highly value. The Yost vise comes from the box clean, smooth, and beautifully finished and stands-proudly alongside these other premium vises as a quality product. Not oily and crude as you might expect at this price point. It is compact and is similar in look and feel to my bullet vise. I paired this with the Yost 4 inch aluminum jaw cap so I can have smooth jaws without magnets, I can't use magnets as they have their own risks around things I work on. That's also a great product and really like how you "shape" and bend the caps with a hammer to your vise so they stay in-place yet are easily removable. Add to all of this that there is real customer support at Yost. I messaged them on their website about smooth jaws and they pointed me to the aluminum jaw caps. I do have one comment for the new owner of this vise. The rotating base arrives very tight. Probably to stop it from loosening in shipping. The swivel vise base lockdowns do loosen as any other bolt (aka righty tighty, lefty loose.) Take your time to loosen these, I needed to gently work them loose using a screwdriver and prying a bit against the vise.

I have it bolted to my tool box at work and love it. Strong and robust. Only gets 4 stars because like others have said you need to take it apart and clean the threads and re grease every thing. Odd why the manufacturer leaves all the swarf from machining then slaps grease over the swarf creating a grinding paste and causing the jaw to jam occasionally. Clean it up, re-lube it and it will be smooth as silk..

It is pretty nice for it's size but it is smaller than I expected and not quite as sturdy as I may need for what I had planned for it.

If you bought a cheaper vise, and are now regretting it, this is a nice upgrade. Great for small projects, nice anvil on the rear.