Spiffy hand tools

[Enzo]

Elsewhere, we mentioned the GC9337 burnisher, so I thought maybe we might explore other little useful tools.

In no particular order, I keep at hand:

O-ring seal pick. Looks like the dental pick your dentist uses. I have had my OTC pick for decades. I have yet to bend it or break it. The pointy end is great for pushing into an eyelet full of wires while the solder is melted. It shoves the wires aside and makes a hole for the new resistor you want to install. The point is good for shoving down beside tube socket pins to tighten them. It helps pry leads twisted around terminal strip or turret conections. The curved end looks benign, but there is a tiny notch in it just near the end, so it is a spring pusher. Another use is fetching a nut out from under a board. I can put the point through the nut and turn it and get the thing out of a tight spot. A million uses.
Amazon.com: OTC 7312 O-Ring and Oil Seal Pick: Automotive

15mm deep socket. It fits the large plastic nut on a Cliff type jack. A deep socket is easier to grip, I just use the socket by itself. I can tighten it more than enough without a ratchet. ( I also keep 1/2" and 9/16 nut drivers nearby for jack nuts, and 9,0,11mm nut drivers for pot nuts.)

A cheap plastic caliper/micrometer. I use this ALL THE TIME. Is that a 12mm or 14mm control? Is that a 10mm or 11mm nut?
6" Utility Caliper

Automatic center punch - the spring loaded thing that you push down and BANG it makes a center punch hole.
Search results for: 'center punch'

Piece of tubing with about 3/16 inside diameter. I am not sure exactly, I have one brass thinwall with OD of 3/16 and a plastic one OD 1/4". In any case, you know those plastic points they mount circuit boards on? It pokes through a hole on the board, and a little barb snaps out to the side to hold the board. Instead of squeezing the barb with pliers, just push this tube down over the thing, then pull up on the board.

A little container of #56 drill bits. Or something close, I don;t see it as critical. I use them with my Dremel or even my battery drill to make holes in circuit boards. Sometimes I need to move a part to avoid a damaged/burnt area, or a different lead spacing new part. But also, when a crack is running across a board, a hole drilled at the end of the crack is a strain relief that stops the crack from moving any further. 1/16" is way too big, often.

A little 1/4" drive hand ratchet, also serves as a 1/4" hex wrench. good for close clearance work.
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/96-255

A set of tiny "jeweler's" screwdrivers. Handy even if only to tighten the little screw on my glasses.

Brush eraser. bear with me. These come in brass, stainless, nylon, but the one we need is the fiberglass. This thing started life as an ink eraser for draftsmen, it abraded the paper away. But I use it a lot on circuit boards. It neatly takes the green solder mask off the copper traces when you need that. But the fiber is softer than the copper, so it takes off the lacquer, but doesn't harm the copper. It also shines up oxidized connector pins, or edge conectors on boards. It cleans sliding surfaces like on a variac or rheostat. Now it IS fiberglass, so resist the temptation to run your finger over the end of it. I aksi use it to help remove stubborn charred areas on circuit boards - it is one step before Dremel grinding.
E111/C Metal Body Coarse FybRglass® Eraser

OH that is enough for now.

[The Dude]

OK. I'll bite. Anybody know what this is for?



P.S. Sorry for the bad out of focus pic.

[g1]

OK. I'll bite. Anybody know what this is for?

XLR pin numbering reminder? Now where's the jig that reminds you to slip the strain relief onto the cable before you solder the end on? (I suppose you could nail a short piece of cable with strain relief on to that board)

Edit: I bet that holds the ends for soldering even better than mini vise-grips too!

[big_teee]

I have several of these circuit board picks and use them for many things.
round like a ice pick on one end and a square reamer on the other.
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/c...image_9092.jpg
And I have several of these cheap meters.
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/c...mage_23332.jpg

[Enzo]

LOoks like a soldering jig. Maybe someone was making cords?

We used to have a block of wood in the shop, it was a hunk of 4x4" with a flat piece of thin ply as a base. Had a 1/4" female and a 1/4" male on one side, m/f XLRs on another, RCAs on a third side, and MIDI jacks on another. We used it to hold the connector when soldering one to the end of a cable.

[The Dude]

XLR pin numbering reminder? Now where's the jig that reminds you to slip the strain relief onto the cable before you solder the end on? (I suppose you could nail a short piece of cable with strain relief on to that board)

You're killin' me G! Actually, as you've probably guessed, it's a jig for making/repairing cables. Yes, it's quite crude, but I've built and/or repaired thousands of cables with this thing. Seems like an obvious "helping hand" to me, but I do still occasionally see techs wrestling with a solder iron, solder, wire, and connectors with two hands. It beats having to take off your shoes.The hole in the middle is for 1/4" jacks.

Oh, and by the way; I wrote the numbers on there because I'm old, blind, my memory is failing, and............hmmmm........forgot what I was going to say.....

[Enzo]

Oh, I can never remember which one is pin 1 either.

[eschertron]

O-ring seal pick. Looks like the dental pick your dentist uses. The pointy end is great for pushing into an eyelet full of wires while the solder is melted. It shoves the wires aside and makes a hole for the new resistor you want to install. The point is good for shoving down beside tube socket pins to tighten them.

!!! You have just made my next project MUCH easier. Thanks a million!!!

[Chuck H]

I use (or have used) most of those tools. The dental pick resides on the small shelf that holds my dozen "most used items".

Also good to have is a dental MIRROR!!! That small mirror with a bend in the shaft. Good for all manor of inspection.

I made up a half dozen alligator clip leads. That is, a sixteen inch piece of 1000V, silicone insulated test lead wire with an alligator clip on either end. Couldn't live without 'em.

A curved soldering iron tip!!! It's the standard pointy tip but I put a 90* curve in it so that I can reach around $h!t without the need to take EVERYTHING apart all the time.

A Formica work surface!!! Tough as nails and allow me to DASH solder off the end of my iron without consideration. It just chips right off for discard.

A 1/4" phone jack installed on my signal generator (so I don't need to look for the special cord with the banana jacks on one end). Alternatively you could just make a short banana jack to 1/4" female phone adaptor!

Here's a good one... A hole in your work bench right over the trash bin!!! When your done working just sweep into the hole!

Clasp lamps for when you need odd angle lighting!

A small shelf at the bench, up and out of the way to the left or right but easily accessed, with a small bowl for screws, extra reading glasses and a pad of paper and a pen for notes!!!

A designated place to drop components you either decided not to use or have removed but may keep so that they can be sorted after the project without gathering them from random locations on the work bench. Perhaps another small bowl on that little shelf.

A "Do not disturb" sign for the door!!!

Edit: Ok, I got a bit off topic. But I'll stand by the "Do not disturb" sign.

[Mick Bailey]

One of my favourite tools is a 'dumbell' cycle spanner - Cyclo brand. 10 sizes in one wrench and pretty much fits any switch/pot nut on any amp or FX pedal. I have two - metric and imperial, but find that they're pretty much interchangeable.

Cyclo Dumbell Spanner - Metric | Evans Cycles

The other items I use a lot is a set of wooden blocks for raising and stabilising an upside-down chassis, especially if the tubes are fitted.

A handy thing always to hand is a syringe full of SMD rework flux. Not only for SMD, but good for any reflow work where the solder/pin/track has overheated, especially on through-plated boards.

[jamesmafyew]

Also good to have is a dental MIRROR!!! That small mirror with a bend in the shaft. Good for all manor of inspection.

+1. Most amazingly useful tool. Find cracked solder on the backside of a PCB without removing it from the amp! Huge time-saver.

[g1]

Yes, I also find the dental mirror quite useful. The one I have has adjustable tilt and is extendable like a radio antenna. And another just like that with a magnet rather than a mirror. Great pickup tool, also the cable type pickup tool with the claw on one end and the thumb trigger at the other end.


Also a flex shaft for screwdriver bits can sometimes come in handy.

[Mick Bailey]

A white LED + resistor shrink wrapped one end of a lead and a 9v battery clip on the other. Really good for shining through a double-sided PCB to see where the traces run.

An interesting tip I read the other day was the use of a vibrating hand engraver (are these used to engrave vibrating hands?) with an eraser instead of the engraving tip. Used to vibrate a board where other methods fail to detect an intermittent.

Or possibly to create one where one previously didn't exist