My dad has been using this mini vise for over a year now Decade and I love it so much I finally had to get my own. Whether you are soldering, building models, working with small appliances, or assembling or painting small crafts, I would not recommend this vise. The plastic clips are soft enough not to damage most things and when I need guaranteed softness I just put a microfiber cloth between the clips and the item. The base is heavy enough that you don't have to screw it into anything, but you can do it. I use it mostly for soldering small circuit boards and P2P wire projects, and it's immeasurably better than one of those crappy "helping hands" with alligator clips and a magnifying glass. Easy to set up and use, versatile, well built and extremely useful for crafting/crafting/building/building. Get one! Get two!