Review on Pony Jorgensen 1716 Bench Hold Down: Secure Your Workbench with Ease by Dushawn Walker

Got this the other day. Played a bit with him on two different benches. Seemed to work pretty well. This is very heavy equipment. The first thing I noticed was that the shank was hexagonal and not round. It did leave marks in the dog holes on my workbench, but it didn't appear to be any damage other than cosmetic damage. He held each workpiece fairly securely. This is a type of specialty tool and is best used for large or thicker work pieces where an 8" or 12" clamp may not fit through the countertop. 2 relatively small problems. First, as with all cast iron mounts, you must sand the painted stem to remove the shine and roughen the finish. Didn't hold up at all until I did this, but then it held up very well. The second problem concerns the face. It's not flat. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but it does reduce the surface area in contact with the work piece and thus reduce fixation. Not the end of the world. I'm going to stick a leather pad on my face and that should solve the problem. Overall, it's a solid, if somewhat specialized, tool. If you're working with larger components and have enough under-table space for a 16-inch shank, at just over $20 it's pretty hard to beat.