Stanley Maxsteel Multi Angle Hobby Vice
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- This Stanley grip features a full 360-degree swivel ball for easy adjustment.
- Its screw clamp attaches easily to most work surfaces.
- I use it everyday to handle electronics, builds, and crafts.
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I’ve always said that good tools make jobs easier. This is why I highly recommend getting decent tools wherever possible.
Buying the very best you can afford at the time is rarely a false economy.
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But sometimes there’s a tool that completely changes the way you work, and you wonder why it took you so long to get one.
This is how I feel about my Stanley Maxsteel MultiAngle Base Vise. It’s an invaluable tool that goes a long way for me in the workshop.
I’ve been using “helping hands” for years for things like soldering or other fiddly work, but I’d never bought a vise before because I didn’t think I needed one.
In my head, they were big, bulky, industrial-looking steel objects affixed to a bench. My granddad had one, and I didn’t think it was suitable for the sort of work I do.
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I was so wrong.
The Stanley Maxsteel multiangle base vise ticks all the boxes for me.
A super versatile vise for electronics work.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
It’s small, yet really tough, able to handle big jobs. Don’t let those small jaws fool you — you can really clamp them down when you need to.
It’s also highly portable and can be clamped to a bench, the back of a truck, or even a table, thanks to the soft jaws on the clamp.
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You can swivel it to pretty much any position or angle to suit where you are and what you are doing.
The jaws are multipurpose — tough metal when you need to bite down, but with the option for a soft, rubber coating when you want to protect the item being held.
Metal jaws come with soft, rubber covers.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
For the current sale price of $48, this is a great vise, perfect for my needs. It can hold a variety of items, from circuit boards to car components to hunks of wood I need to work with. And I’ve clamped some really big stuff in this vice, and clamped it really tightly, and the vice shows no signs of loosening up or weakening. It’s really solid.
So why is it a game-changer? Because it’s so very versatile.
Also: This has replaced my multitool for a fraction of the cost
Coming back to my granddad’s bench vise. That thing was big and bulky and attached to a bench, and suited to heavy-duty use.
You couldn’t move it around; it didn’t have the cool swivel mechanism or the soft rubber jaws, and you definitely couldn’t use it for delicate work (I can’t imagine clamping a circuit board with it).
ZDNET’s buying advice
The Stanley Maxsteel vise does it all. It’s small enough to be portable (it fits easily into a medium-sized toolbag), tough enough for heavy work, and delicate enough to hold easily-damaged items. Plus I can take it with me on jobs, and it can be out away when not in use, thus saving precious bench space.
It’s also replaced a number of other clamping tools that I used to use — from my helping hands to clamps.
It’s simply made my life so much easier. Do yourself a favor and make your DIY life easier too!
Stanley Maxsteel multiangle base vise specs
- Totally adjustable and lockable positioning achieved with a full 360-degree rotation swivel-ball design
- Easily attached to most work surfaces with an integral screw clamp
- Durable cast aluminum and steel construction
- Removable jaw pads protect surfaces from marring and damage
- Ideal for arts and crafts, model building, and electronics
- Jaw width: 2.5-inch/63mm
- Max jaw opening: 3-inch/75mm
- Weight: 3.65 pound/1.56 kg
