Anant has reintroduced Record's super useful Holdfast at an irresistible price. The Anant Bench Holdfast works much like traditional workbench hold downs by clamping work directly to the bench wherever you can drill a 15/16" hole, but it is much more effective than the single piece iron types. Once you have positioned the Holdfast over your project, an acme screw forces a pivot arm down with enormous pressure exactly were you need it. The clamp pad also pivots to accommodate odd shaped parts. You will want to use some scrap wood or glue a piece of leather to this pad to keep it from marring your work.

The Anant Bench Holdfast has several mounting options. If your bench top is at least 2-1/4" thick and made of hardwood, just drill a hole wherever you like. For softwood and thinner tops, an iron flange is included to mount either flush with the top of your bench if it is at least 2" thick or surface mounted to the underside if it's thinner. Of course, you could choose to use the flange on either side of hardwood benches as well. Throat capacity and maximum height are 8".