On advice of other reviewers, I disassembled, cleaned off the shipping grease, lightly oiled and reassembled. Guess what...it works pretty well. As you'd expect for a cheap vise, there is a lot of backlash on the drives, maybe 15 degrees. Also the gibs aren't quite parallel, so it gets a bit stiffer toward one end of the travel. But there isn't wiggle or eccentric movement through it's range, at least not enough for drill press milling class operations. Don't expect Bridgeport results at this price. But for me, just needing to cut some slots in brackets in 1/4" aluminum, it was okay.The biggest negative is that the spare threaded shafts were trying to come out of the box when it had arrived. If they were secured, they weren't secured well enough as both were trying to poke through the side of the box. It did, however, survive shipping.