Hakko Omnivise PCB Holder (C1390C)

It was the other users reviews on this product that finally made me swallow my financial pride and pull the trigger on this thing. But I swore to myself that if this thing wasnt absolutely, jaw-droppingly amazing, it was going straight back into the box for return and I was getting my $80 back. Amazon has free returns and Im not afraid to use it! The package arrived this AM and the box is already in the trash. The vice is on my bench and I spent the morning reworking boards... and kids... let me say this: Youll pry this out of my cold, dead hands. All of the hype in the reviews is true. This product has honestly turned my frustration at holding PCBs still for rework into an absolute joy. Its a fist-sized, heavy, stable chunk of metal that is so simple in design youll smack yourself in the head and go why didnt *I* think of this???. Its just a heavy metal base, a couple of glorified washers with neoprene disks attached, and a big knurled metal screw that holds it all together and makes it clamp-down on the edge of a PCB. Thats it. Nothing more. Dirt simple. A grade-schooler could have engineered this. AND IT JUST WORKS. You want one of these. Yes you do. If you do board (re)work, just get your wallet out, close your eyes, swallow your pride, and click buy it now. There. All better. Yes, it is durned-Skippy expensive for what it IS, but its dirt cheap for what it DOES. I gave it 5 stars for its performance (should really get 6 stars), and 4 stars for value (because honestly, this thing is massively overpriced as there isnt maybe $10 in parts, labor and engineering and overhead in this whole thing). But I guarantee youll love it once it hits your bench. Its something that you can pass-down to (or perhaps throw at? lol) your grandkids. There is nothing to wear-out or maintain. It just sits there, solid as a rock, being a dirt-simple and amazingly effective PCB vise.

I have used this vise at work for over 12 years. I decided to get one for home recently. Unfortunately, they cheapened the design such that it is no longer a vise, but pliers. For me the critical thing was that both clamping plates are parallel to each other no matter the the thickness of the material being clamped. The old design had a nut on the main bolt which held the top plate with the rubbery material in place. Even though it was loose, but not too much. The new design removed the nut and replaced it with just a small E-clip retaining washer. There is about 5 mm play in between the washer and the top plate. The top plate is so loose, that you get a wide swinging of the top plate. If you want to clamp material even as 10 mm think this really become pliers, one edge of the top round plate sitting on the edge of the bottom cylinder while the other edge of the top plate is clamping your material at an angle, like pliers. Since I liked the style, I decided to modify it to actually create a vise. Here are the steps: 1. I replaced the top washer in between the top plate and knob with one with much bigger diameter. I used SAE washers and enlarged the center holes to make them snug 8 mm in diameter. 2. Placed two washers at the bottom of the top plate. Second one is not visible in the picture since it fills the hole in the rubberized material. The other one is there to fill the space to reach the M8 x 1.25 thread since the thread ends early to accommodate the E-clip. The second washer must be made less than 15 mm in outer diameter to drop into the hole in the bottom cylinder. 3. That was not enough to reach the bottom nut, but instead of adding another washer I backed drilled the M8 nylon locking M8 nut for about 0.8 mm to make it all work. The M8 x 1.25 nylon locking nut replaced the E-clip and I was able to fine tune the play of the top plate. After lubricating the whole thing with PTFE there is no side wobble play in the upper plate while it still freely rotates and I have an actual vise. It took about 1.5 hours to modify two of them. Not worth the price without modification.

I dont know what took me so long to get one of these mounts. I have some of the other styles, but I kept seeing this thing being used in YouTube videos that I subscribe to. Now that I finally have one for myself, its amazing. If you do any kind of soldering, its a must have.

This is a hefty little tool that was very well designed. The product picture made me think I was going to get a pretty big unwieldy tool to hold PCBs to solder. But, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasnt at all as big as I thought it was going to be. Although this is small, it packs just the right amount of weight to it to hold most anything needed. Upon receiving and just looking at it, I was trying to figure out how it actually worked. Once I unscrewed the top and saw how it held the boards, the only word that came to mind was genius. I have used all sorts of holding tools, from those that are spring loaded and clamp the ends of a PCB, to simple helping hands type tools. This picks up all of the short comings and packs it into a simple, but powerful tool. Now it is much easier to hold those odd shaped boards that were just impractical in most other holders. You can even pair this up with another Omnivise if you need to get that extra support for the much larger boards. So far, this holds up well to a reflow heat gun and a decently high wattage soldering iron. It has settings to elevate the board, but I rarely have a need for that. It also holds the board low enough that I can still get it under a microscope for inspection. Overall, I wouldnt hesitate to buy another one of these shall the need arise. Would highly recommend!

We use this vise daily. We even purchased a second for those larger board projects. Great product would buy again... [...]

Works well to hold small light parts securely while working on them. Well built but overpriced in my opinion for what it is.

Best board holder money can buy. I havent found a board that this wont work with. Order two for larger boards.

Very good product. Recommended

Very heavy and customizable vise.

This holder is built to last. This is assuming that the washer holds up against heat and pressure over the years. The form factor and concept is the best I have seen for the purpose. I like that it is heavy enough to serve as a solid mount for soldering and inspection. Ease of use is efficient. It does cost too much; however, I believe that it would not be easy to make the product for less and still turn a reasonable profit for a top of the line item. If I go to larger boards, I may even buy another one, since two of these could be used to firmly hold a large board. I also like that it doesnt take up much room on my bench when not in use.