Review on 🔧 Yost Tools YEV17 End Vise: Enhance your Woodworking Projects with Precision and Stability by David Fisher

Using this device to make a rear vise will drive you crazy. I am a carpenter with experience (40 years) and I have a professional workshop. After 5 days of studying, measuring, and cutting wood, all I can think of is a trash can full of wood shavings and sawdust, lots of chunks of wood, and two sets of guide block clamps that won't align. The first time I could see the guide rails weren't straight. Yost took my word and photos quickly and expedited (FedEx'd) the replacement. When I mount the guide blocks, steel guides and slide plate with finger tight screws, everything sits flat on the surface and the plate slides smoothly. However, when tightening the screws of the assembly of the racks, the plate sticks and does not slip. Because the guides and skid plate were firmly attached to the wooden vise blocks, I couldn't get the guides to plane. The assembly does not sit flat on the surface, sways side to side, and lifts a corner more than 1/16 inch. Eventually I realized that the guide plate wasn't flat either. With the plate on the planer table, one corner is 1/16 inch higher than the other three. It is also recognized that the grooves of the guide rails have different depths from side to side and from end to end. Maybe I'm picky, but I want the vise to slide straight across the countertop and back again. From my measurements, my newest guide blocks are in the .002 range wide and as square as I can see with an engineered steel square. The mounting block screw holes are also within 0.002 of vertical. I don't think it's my woodworking skills, it's the warped, bent and poorly finished metal parts in this vise. I'm very frustrated as I designed my workbench around a vise and don't know what to do next as I don't feel like I can get this hardware to work properly.