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Vintage Test Gear and Workshop Equipment For discussions about vintage test gear and workshop equipment such as coil winders.

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Old 5th Aug 2020, 10:16 pm   #1
beamcurrent
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Default Identify Unusual Tool (general purpose reverse tweezers)

This was given to me by an ex colleague and it is best described as a pair of reverse tweezers and I wondered what it's original use was?

There are a number of possibilities perhaps a Hellernam sleeve expander.

But it is a quality item sold by RS and has the number 545.193 I do wish I had kept old RS catalogues and I would have been able to look it up and see what it was sold for.

Do old RS catalogues exist on line?

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Old 5th Aug 2020, 10:21 pm   #2
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

I've seen similar things sold for heat-sinking transistor leads when soldering, back in the old Germanium days.

David
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Old 5th Aug 2020, 10:28 pm   #3
60 oldjohn
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

I would say David is correct I had a pair a long while since.

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Old 5th Aug 2020, 10:37 pm   #4
M0TGX Terry
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

I have a very similar tool, made of aluminium and labelled A.N.T.E.X Precision. It's a heatsink for use when soldering heat sensitive items (eg transistors etc) . I've had it for years and I find it works quite well. I think I bought it at the same time as my 15 watt Antex soldering iron, in the early 1970s.
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Old 5th Aug 2020, 11:18 pm   #5
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
I've seen similar things sold for heat-sinking transistor leads when soldering, back in the old Germanium days.
Definitely correct. I still have mine, although I haven't used it for years.

Roger
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 12:33 am   #6
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

They are in the July- October 1980 RS catalogue, "Reverse action tweezer", £4.38. A set of precision tweezers I bought from RS a few years ago, code 537-287, has two of them in different sizes. Useful for retrieving small items.
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 12:33 am   #7
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

I use similar tweezers to hold 'modern' surface mount ICs - the ones which only have pads on the bottom, not leads on the side - in place while I hot-air wand them.

Obviously this only works when the tweezers are long enough to reach the device from the PCB edge so I have them in various lengths.

The tweezers keep the part exactly in position, stop it from blowing away and the light pressure helps the device to sit down on the PCB pads as soon as the solder goes liquid.
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 1:01 am   #8
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

Such reverse-action tweezers were sometimes used to handle silicon wafers at Plessey Caswell. Having picked it up, you can relax your hand, so less likely to drop it.

B
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 8:23 am   #9
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

The ones in the photos attached to the first post have thick, flat business ends.

fine-pointed reverse tweezers are sometimes used for handling small surface mount 'chip' components though they have the propensity of involving you in an involuntary game of extreme tiddlywinks.

I think Bib made some of the heatsink type as well as Antex. Antex were all marked with their brand, which would have been obvious.

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Old 6th Aug 2020, 9:05 am   #10
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

I recently bought a set of tweezers from Rutland https://www.rutlands.co.uk/ . They had them on a clearance offer deal. Along with a range of ends, there is a reverse tweezer. It is steel, so not much use as a heatsink.

Although I do have an aluminium one from back in the day that occasionally gets pressed into use.

And I have a conductive plastic reverse pair for my electrostatic mat for handling stuff that is static sensitive.

Craig
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 12:02 pm   #11
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

Thanks for the suggestions, a bit more information

It is made from stainless steel and quite substantial. The tips are bent outwards as if to stop something slipping off, which is it's most interesting feature.

I was
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 12:24 pm   #12
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

A bit of searching brings up various "reverse" tweezers for use in jewellery, modelling, watch repair etc. I don't know how effective they would be as heat sinks as described above.
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 1:28 pm   #13
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

They were called "thermal shunts" back in the 1970s.
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 9:12 pm   #14
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

The thermal shunt versions were / are aluminium as many have stated. These, being stainless, aren't thermal shunts, but simply tweezers you rely on the spring action of them to hold whatever you are gripping. Saves having to concentrate on maintaining the grip, with your less than best hand (in my case my left hand being right handed) while concentrating on what your other hand is doing such as soldering in a confined space. I have some thermal shunts somewhere. I have used the reverse tweezers and very useful, but if I do have a pair of my own, I'm not sure which box they are in.
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 9:26 pm   #15
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

I recall being taught to use something similar in "Vet Med" classes some 45 years ago; we also used proper locking artery-clamps where you really didn't want the clamp to slip-off and high-pressure blood to squirt everywhere.

[it's worth noting, as a source of cheap-and-high-quality forceps/clamps/blunt/sharp-seekers/sounds, that as part of 'infection control' procedures in hospitals these days, standard sterile instrument-kits are provided for operations. Once the kit is opened, all the instruments inside are deemed unsterile and even if they're not used in the actual operation they must be disposed-of rather than re-used in a clinical situation. I've got a good selection of 'clinical waste' tools here. Make friends with a theatre-technician/dentist/veterinary-surgeon!]
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 8:58 am   #16
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

RS 545-193 are in the October 2011 catalogue (last one I was sent) simply as general purpose reverse action Tweezers.

Actually I have just looked and they are still in the online catalogue.
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 10:02 am   #17
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool

Thanks Barry, I did search RS online but failed to find them. Those are the ones. Need to try harder!

The pair I have have been shortened for some purpose , so the mystery of what they were modified for remains but we know they were originally general purpose reverse tweezers.

Thanks

Brian
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Old 9th Aug 2020, 10:21 am   #18
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool (general purpose reverse tweezers)

I seem to have acquired quite an assortment!
There are maybe another 3 or 4 in my outside workshop.
My other hobby of model railways is also shared in my indoors workshop.
The 3 at the top in picture have a sleeve over the tips as they are extremely sharp.
I ended up buying one of those at Lincoln hamfest when sorting through a rummage box and it became painfully attached to my finger!
The red and black ones are described as "pin insertion tool". I think for the military type multi pole connectors with the gold plated pins?
Rob
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Old 27th Sep 2020, 1:42 am   #19
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool (general purpose reverse tweezers)

In Oz, they are not particularly rare, & are sold in "El Cheapo" tweezer kits at electronics shops like Jaycar & Altronics, plus, if memory serves me correctly, Bunnings (large hardware chain).
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Old 27th Sep 2020, 9:04 am   #20
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Default Re: Identify Unusual Tool (general purpose reverse tweezers)

I have one somewhere. Had forgotten all about it. I will now have to scratch about on high dusty shelves!
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