Best Tweezers etc

[Harb]

So where is everyone buying there best quality hand tools from....ie....tweezers etc etc.....I am sick of low quality crap and want to just but the best made stuff

[D3f1ant]

Ideal-Tek.
I have a lot of different ones but if I had to pick just one for general purpose smt assembling SM108 are nice and versatile.

[julian1]

I have a vintage set of swiss/german watchmaker's tweezers that I quite like. Forged and machined and probably fifty years old. They come up on ebay from time to time.

[Harb]

I will have a look around.........I had some great old ones but they have been lost over the years and in recent times the newer stuff is just rubbish......

[amspire]

The last lot I got were some assorted Vetus Tweezers:

http://www.vetustweezers.com

But I didn't get them from that site - they are Chinese made and are very cheap when you buy them from China (ebay, Aliexpress, etc).

For example:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Freeshipping-8pcs-lot-Different-size-Vetus-ESD-Tweezers-Tweezer/839661186.html

or carbon fibre tips:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1set-8pcs-Vetus-ESD-Tweezers-Interchangeable-head-antistatic-carbon-fiber-forceps-head-ESD-259-259A-242/32576963392.html

I wouldn't call them the top quality, but they are actually pretty nice to use. I ordered the plain stainless steel ones but they accidentally sent the ESD coated ones instead. I decided I liked them, so no problem. They are very usable, but at the price, also disposable. You can buy them individually or in sets. At the price, you can have a good set for $10 easily.

I use the ESD-13 a fair bit - these have thin broad tips and you can get a very strong grip on SMD parts.

[janoc]

The last lot I got were some assorted Vetus Tweezers:

http://www.vetustweezers.com

But I didn't get them from that site - they are Chinese made and are very cheap when you buy them from China (ebay, Aliexpress, etc).

For example:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Freeshipping-8pcs-lot-Different-size-Vetus-ESD-Tweezers-Tweezer/839661186.html

or carbon fibre tips:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1set-8pcs-Vetus-ESD-Tweezers-Interchangeable-head-antistatic-carbon-fiber-forceps-head-ESD-259-259A-242/32576963392.html

I wouldn't call them the top quality, but they are actually pretty nice to use. I ordered the plain stainless steel ones but they accidentally sent the ESD coated ones instead. I decided I liked them, so no problem. They are very usable, but at the price, also disposable. You can buy them individually or in sets. At the price, you can have a good set for $10 easily.

I use the ESD-13 a fair bit - these have thin broad tips and you can get a very strong grip on SMD parts.

Do the tips of these tweezers bend out of shape over time?

I had that problem with cheap tweezers - the sharp pointed ones can become useless over time because the tips don't touch properly anymore and if you try to straighten then out, you are risking breaking the tip off completely.

I have also bought a pair of titanium tweezers for that reason - those don't bend but they are also fairly "weak", not as "springy" as the normal steel ones, so they feel weird to use and it is difficult to apply much force with them.

For SMD work the best tweezers I have found so far are a Pros'Kit pair with L-shaped "foot" at the end of the tip (straight tip but the end has a little "foot"). That works well for grabbing things like SMD passives by the sides.

[nctnico]

So where is everyone buying there best quality hand tools from....ie....tweezers etc etc.....I am sick of low quality crap and want to just but the best made stuff

I have a couple of Erem tweezers. I'm using the 7-SA shape the most for SMT and even with some abuse it is still perfect. Not cheap but well worth the money.

[rob77]

i'm very happy with Vetus ESD-14 and ESD-15. don't buy them on ebay or from china - those are fake. i bought mine in a local brick-and-mortar shop, and for the sake of curiosity i bough few fakes from china.. while the fakes are usable, they are still much worse than the real deal.

[amspire]

Do the tips of these tweezers bend out of shape over time?

Many of these tweezers have fine points, so it certainly is possible to bend the tips, but it is also possible with all the tweezers to hold smd parts very firmly without damaging the tips.

Just did a test by putting the ESD-15 tweezers sideways on a scale. Applying a force between the fingers of 1.6kg is fine. I didn't go to the point of damaging the tweezers so that is well below the point at which the tips would bend. With the ESD-13 tweezers, I could comfortably apply 3kg of pressure without the risk if tip deformation. This tip is still thin enough to get into small spaces and the rounded profile makes it handle small objects easily. They work fine if the object is not centred.

There is no sign of scissoring in these tweezers, so when you apply a fair bit of force, there is no twisting evident.

Now I do have other tweezers with stronger tip profiles that are much more likely to last 30 years then the fine tip models, so all I can say is that if these are looked after, they keep working fine. The HRC40 Stainless steel seems to be a good compromise of strength and flexibility. At the price, I can afford to buy spares. The ones I purchased were:

1 x ESD-15 Curved Tip (250G closing force)
1 x ESD-13 Broad Tip (250G closing force)
3 x ESD-14 Fine Tipped Broad body  (190g closing force - The fingers are only about 33mm from the tip)
1 x ESD-12 Normal sized Fine Tip (300g closing force - The fingers as 50mm from the tip)

I have only been using them about 4 months and have no damage yet.

[amspire]

i'm very happy with Vetus ESD-14 and ESD-15. don't buy them on ebay or from china - those are fake. i bought mine in a local brick-and-mortar shop, and for the sake of curiosity i bough few fakes from china.. while the fakes are usable, they are still much worse than the real deal.

I was wondering about that.

I gather all the Vetus tweezers are Chinese (even if they claim "Swiss-type" quality) so I am not sure how to tell if my Chinese one are are less genuine then yours.

Any chance of showing the difference between them - as a guide to us?

I think this may be the manufacturer, even if some of the tweezers have "SWITZERLAND STANDARD" engraved on the tweezers.

http://www.peakwin.com/english/eqipment.html
 

[eliocor]

As others, I suggest you to buy tweezers made by Lindstrom.
Just to look at their quality, please check the pictures I posted in this thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/on-ebay-lindstrom-tweezers/

[Someone]

The last lot I got were some assorted Vetus Tweezers:
http://www.vetustweezers.com...
I wouldn't call them the top quality, but they are actually pretty nice to use. I ordered the plain stainless steel ones but they accidentally sent the ESD coated ones instead. I decided I liked them, so no problem. They are very usable, but at the price, also disposable. You can buy them individually or in sets. At the price, you can have a good set for $10 easily.

I use the ESD-13 a fair bit - these have thin broad tips and you can get a very strong grip on SMD parts.

Do the tips of these tweezers bend out of shape over time?

I had that problem with cheap tweezers - the sharp pointed ones can become useless over time because the tips don't touch properly anymore and if you try to straighten then out, you are risking breaking the tip off completely.

I have also bought a pair of titanium tweezers for that reason - those don't bend but they are also fairly "weak", not as "springy" as the normal steel ones, so they feel weird to use and it is difficult to apply much force with them.

For SMD work the best tweezers I have found so far are a Pros'Kit pair with L-shaped "foot" at the end of the tip (straight tip but the end has a little "foot"). That works well for grabbing things like SMD passives by the sides.

Its a multi faceted issue, there is no one single characteristic that makes a strong tweezer but many necessary conditions. Even taking a good quality design for a strong tips stainless pattern 00:
https://www.dumonttweezers.com/Tweezer/Tweezer/446
another manufacturer will make many different versions similar but not the same:
http://www.aventools.com/product/accu-tek-tweezers-oo-sa/
http://www.aventools.com/product/technik-tweezers-oo-sa/
http://www.aventools.com/product/e-z-pik-tweezers/
When you look at all of these side by side the differences are enormous, not clearly visible in the picture are the thickness of the blades and how close they approach the tips. The closing action of the tips varies from a clean parallel approach where you can pickup a hair anywhere from the tip backwards 1cm or so, to tweezers that just touch at the point of the tip and no more. This is before you consider that "stainless steel" is a very broad term that applies to a lot of different alloys which span a huge range of strengths and characteristics:
https://www.dumonttweezers.com/Home/Alloys

But the simple part is, if you're bending tips then you've exceeded the strength of the tool. Tweezers are for handling fine parts, not using a levers, screw drivers, or spanners (even though the toughest can do these things fine) so you should lean to use appropriate tools within their capabilities. The finest tips look all well and good but they offer few advantages for electronics when you can handle 0603 (0201 imperial) parts with a "heavy duty strong blades tapering to a regular strong point" (00 pattern). There are a very wide range of styles available but as above there is little consistency in the final result, it pays to actually touch and feel a range of products before settling on a long term choice:
http://www.aventools.com/product-category/hand-tools/tweezers-quick-test-tweezers/precision-tweezers/
https://www.dumonttweezers.com/Tweezer/TweezerStyleList/31

[rob77]

i'm very happy with Vetus ESD-14 and ESD-15. don't buy them on ebay or from china - those are fake. i bought mine in a local brick-and-mortar shop, and for the sake of curiosity i bough few fakes from china.. while the fakes are usable, they are still much worse than the real deal.

I was wondering about that.

I gather all the Vetus tweezers are Chinese (even if they claim "Swiss-type" quality) so I am not sure how to tell if my Chinese one are are less genuine then yours.

Any chance of showing the difference between them - as a guide to us?

I think this may be the manufacturer, even if some of the tweezers have "SWITZERLAND STANDARD" engraved on the tweezers.

http://www.peakwin.com/english/eqipment.html

some of the "fake" ones i have have visible asymmetry in them and the tip tends to bend a little under bigger force. some of them have smeared marking (looks like messed up screen print, possibly a reject from production ? ) otherwise can't tell the difference - tips perfectly symmetric and behaves nicely under higher force applied. and all of them from different sources have the marking printed by a different font - so they're definitely not coming from a single manufacturer.

[mmagin]

My nice tweezers I got recently as a gift (I was feeling cheap but my wonderful parents were like "what do you want for Christmas?"): Aven 18069TS angled tip, quite well made, doesn't have a very strong springyness, as commented above with titanium.  I'm still getting used to them, but they've done nothing to disappoint me.

Good cheap stainless tweezers in the usual straight pattern: Hakko CHP 3-SA

I also have a fairly nice pair of VOMM stainless steel tweezers which have angled flat tips which I have used fairly heavily for SMD soldering.

I would certainly say those Hakko tweezers are the cheapest (< $7 USD) of any tweezers I've ever used that weren't trash.  I haven't yet figured out conclusively if I prefer pointy or (fairly small) flat ends, nor whether I have a consistent preference for angled or straight ends.  Angled ends help me rest my hand on the table for steadiness, certainly.

[mtdoc]

Tweezers?  Aren't those the things that women use to pluck their eyebrows?  

If you want to find high quality fine Forceps I would look at Dumont (Swiss), Miltex (German), Tiemann and Aesculap (both American made I think).

[helius]

Vomm and Tronex are other good industrial tweezer brands.
Tweezerman makes the hair-plucking type of tweezers, but they are excellent quality and could be used for some electronics work.

[Rerouter]

The green "non magnetic" tweezers sold by Jaycar (in Australia) are my absolute favorite for anything precise they do wear and bend over time (4-8 months), but at $4 a pair, i keep a healthy supply of them,

[Gromitt]

Tweezers?  Aren't those the things that women use to pluck their eyebrows?  

If you want to find high quality fine Forceps I would look at Dumont (Swiss), Miltex (German), Tiemann and Aesculap (both American made I think).

Aesculap is German I believe.

[rob77]

i'm very happy with Vetus ESD-14 and ESD-15. don't buy them on ebay or from china - those are fake. i bought mine in a local brick-and-mortar shop, and for the sake of curiosity i bough few fakes from china.. while the fakes are usable, they are still much worse than the real deal.

I was wondering about that.

I gather all the Vetus tweezers are Chinese (even if they claim "Swiss-type" quality) so I am not sure how to tell if my Chinese one are are less genuine then yours.

Any chance of showing the difference between them - as a guide to us?

I think this may be the manufacturer, even if some of the tweezers have "SWITZERLAND STANDARD" engraved on the tweezers.

http://www.peakwin.com/english/eqipment.html

some of the "fake" ones i have have visible asymmetry in them and the tip tends to bend a little under bigger force. some of them have smeared marking (looks like messed up screen print, possibly a reject from production ? ) otherwise can't tell the difference - tips perfectly symmetric and behaves nicely under higher force applied. and all of them from different sources have the marking printed by a different font - so they're definitely not coming from a single manufacturer.

a picture is worth more than a 1k words

[chefkoch84]

I recommend: try to get your hands on medical equipment tweezers. ( for stainless steel) The quality is awsome. The sometimes come up second hands on ebay and co - often never used stock from the military etc.

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk

[eliocor]

Quote from: rob77 on Today at 12:17:49
a picture is worth more than a 1k words

It would be MORE interesting if you can show us the quality of the tips of those tweezers!
Like I did with the Lindstrom ones, just to show their quality and finishing (all capacitors in pictures are 0402):


Lindstrom SM-108 SA after about 10 years of daily usage!!!



Lindstrom SM-100 SA: reverse action, very good to lock components/wires when soldering them



Lindstrom SM-108 SA: my preferred ones, near 0402 capacitors and 0603 resistors



Lindstrom TL 5-TA: titanium one, very sharp and extremely light (weight and touch)


Lindstrom TL 6-NC: Nickel super alloy, much resistant than SA. Very sharp and angled.



Lindstrom TL 7X-SA: reverse action, nice to lock very thin objects


BTW, the original poster was asking for BEST quality ones, not cheap chinese clones!!!

[HighVoltage]

I am also all for Lindstrom Tweezers
This is one I use all the time, the TL AA-SA-SL

[eliocor]

Even the 'SL' series, which are from the cheap line ones, are rather good!!!
But, if you want the BEST, do not buy the SL line...

[poorchava]

I'm mainly using Xytronic tweezers as my daily drivers. I prefer them purely because the force needed to operate them and their weight it the most comfortable for me. They are also rather cheap which is nice if anything happens to them (not that they are very delicate - I have a pair of 7-SA that are 8+ years old and are still going strong).

For high precision stuff I use Wiha #32326. Good, because the tip is pretty hard and does not bend easily.

I've had some Engineer and OHM tweezers, but I found them too heavy for my liking (admittedly, those were not super-fine tipped models, perhaps those are different)

I'm also using ophtalmological tweezers, as they have knurled tips, which is often handy (components don't slip).

[rob77]

Quote from: rob77 on Today at 12:17:49
a picture is worth more than a 1k words

It would be MORE interesting if you can show us the quality of the tips of those tweezers!

arranged them around 0402 capacitors and 0603 resistor , so you can see they're pretty usable for populating 0402 parts.