Putting the wooden runners in it really made the difference I think. They fit tight but slide easy and they keep the jaws from wracking or binding. I can even clamp something on just one end of vise without the jaw wracking, now if I really need to clamp real hard on something on just one corner of vise I'll still put a scrap of similar thickness one other side to balance out the force. I thought oh well I'll give this a try when I started on it and I thought it would work but not be that great, turns out I was wrong and it works beautifully I didn't know what I was missing all this time without a good vise. I would always work around not having a good vise by using clamps and stuff but that gets old and lately I've been wanting to get back into cutting dovetails by hand and not having a good means to hold my work made that a frustrating endeavor. Just trying to cut the tail board in the harbor freight vise was almost impossible. The jaws on that thing didn't close up anywhere near parallel and I would have to crank as tight as I possibly could and the board would still move and that was just sawing down to my line for the tails with the board vertically in the vise. With this one I just made I can beat I end of the board with my hammer and it don't want to move. Made the jaws out of white oak laminated up to around 2 1/4 thick so it can take some real force.