Disassembled on the advice of other reviewers, cleaned of transit grease, lightly oiled and reassembled. Guess what. This works pretty well. As you would expect from a cheap vise, the drives have a lot of play, maybe 15 degrees. Also, the wedges aren't perfectly parallel, so they get a bit stiffer towards one end of the stroke. But there's no wobble or eccentric motion in its range, at least not enough for drill-mill class operations. Don't expect Bridgeport results at this price point. But all I had to do was cut a couple of slots in the 1/4" aluminum mounts, that was fine. The main downside is that the replacement threaded shafts tried to get out of the box when they arrived. If they were secured, they were not secured well enough as both tried to pierce the box but it survived the delivery.