Often when using your router table or other tool with a table/fence the piece you need to work is too small to safely hold by hand. There are several types of small piece holders on the market. The one I tested is the Small Piece Holder from Shop Basics.

            When it arrived there was very little assembly required and the directions were very minimal. But to be fair this is a very basic model and it’s use is pretty straightforward.

            Going over the construction I found that it was very easy to torque and twist the frame. I think some additional support would help stop the holder from bending from frequent use, or I should say misuse. The tolerances in the adjustments are a little sloppy. The $25 investment isn’t so bad so I really shouldn't expect the quality of an expensive tool.

            The small parts holder is for use with a table saw, jointer, drill press, bench top sander, or on a router table. When cutting on a table saw the adjustable angle guide can be set from 0^o to 45 ^o at 5^o increments. The scale could use a few tick marks between the 5^o lines, a simple thing but it’s not in the design. I suppose you can use some kind of protractor to adjust it if you need a more exacting angle measurement.

            The holder can accept parts up to 10” wide piece down to at least 1-½ ” long to be firmly held by the adjustable edge clamping jaws, anything smaller and I found that it really didn’t hold the piece as steady as I would have liked. But with that said, I found that pieces longer than 1-½ ” were held tightly enough.

            So to sum things up, I found a few things lacking like the broad increments on the angle guide, the strength of the frame but these don’t make the test a failure. I liked the whole concept of the small parts holder with the added safety we could all use in our shops. So over all I found the Shop Basics Small Parts Holder adequate for the job it was designed to do. The affordable price is nice, at around $25 making this an easy investment. Mine now hangs on the wall always ready to keep my beloved fingers on my hands where they belong.