A Truly Great Holddown
When I first tried the holddown it only seemed to work for certain thicknesses of material and it was chipping the upper surface of my bench around the 3/4 inch holes.  So, the first thing I did was to use a 1/8 inch round over bit in my trim router to quickly round over the top edge of each hole.  Then I used a 1/4 inch round over bit to round over the edge of each hole underneath the bench.  This solved any chipping problem and most of the holding difficulties--but not all.  So, I took another look at the holdfast. It turned out that the shaft of the hold fast was very smooth in those areas where friction was required for the holdfast to do its job.  So, I used a file held perpendicular to the shaft to do a little roughening.  These changes took no time at all and improved the quality of my bench and my ability to hold almost anything.  It works great.  I wish I had purchased one of these much sooner.  I'm saving my pennies to buy another one.  If you have any doubts, put them aside and purchase this thing.  It is a great tool.
Rating: 5 stars