This is one of the most useful tools I ever purchased. Great for plumbing, woodworking, metal grinding, anything that would make the job easier by having a secure and quick clamping mechanism.

The center mounted step is what ratchets the movable jaw towards the front stationary jaw. You can also grab the movable jaw and pull it past many ratchet points by hand to get it closer to the work piece quickly and then use the step to tighten the vise. The yellow flat lever on the front locks and unlocks the vise. The top also has a small anvil area where you can place something and beat on it, like when needing to drill through steel and you first need to use a center punch where you want the hole to prevent the drill bit from walking; then clamp and drill.

The jaws are waffle cut aluminum so it's possible to clamp on round dowels or pipe securely in either a vertical or horizontal orientation. One of the images that shows a piece of square stock in the jaws could also be inserted rotated 45 degrees to present a diamond shape, vertically or horizontally.

When working with large sheet goods (plywood, sheetrock, particle board, etc) replace the normal ratcheting top with the much larger version. Both can be inserted into the base in either direction.