Review on PanaVise 217 Circuit Board Holder by Polo Bradley

Received a Panavise 217 today. I already had an older version of the larger 315 and it works great. I wish I could say the same about the Panavise 217. Mind you, the construction is solid, the parts fit together as intended, etc. However, the 315 has screws that hold the levers in place during use. The 217 has these little spring loaded swing arms that somehow have to keep the arms from sliding down the main beam. You are completely useless. You can compress them (according to the instructions) if you want, or leave them uncompressed. It does not matter; Levers slide freely on the support rod. I will say that when the PCB is pressed against the bars they create enough tension to mostly hold the PCB in place. But even if the board is firmly clamped in the levers, a slight pull on the lever will pull it back and expose your board. seemed to help. a little. I have never been disappointed with a Panavise product. But that arm locking mechanism just doesn't work. I don't know if it's poor workmanship or what, but I would replace that little lever locking mechanism with a screw system like its big brother. It's not useless, just disappointing. Good, clean workmanship used to be a trademark of Panavise products. Unfortunately, something seems to have changed. UPDATE: I noticed that the locking mechanism in both levers has burrs from the casting process. I took a picture, disassembled the levers and filed down the burrs with a small round file. I also saw that the locks were covered in clear green mud (probably some type of Loctite used in production). I removed this with acetone and a gentle file, then reassembled the hands. NOW the hands are fixed as they should be. I'm leaving my rating at 3 stars because everything I've done had to be done at the factory. It's still a quality control issue.