Helping hands good or bad?

[pickle9000]

I guess it depends on your point of view. I have received all as gifts, one day I decided to use them. Here is what I came up with.

...mike

[Mint.]

They are hopeless! I used to have one, fell over all the time when I poked it with a soldering iron! 

[pickle9000]

Which is why I ripped them all apart and put them back together, my way.

Have a look at the picture.

...mike

[IanB]

Heh heh, cute! I find helping hands both useful and also annoyingly fiddly. I would love some properly engineered helping hands devices with good, secure, finely adjustable arms; but I suspect if I want such a thing I will have to make it myself.

[MrPlacid]

I modified mine as well

[pickle9000]

I modified mine as well

Fantastic lego, I should have done that. Very Funny.

I also have a couple standard bean bags on my bench, I use them to keep things from sliding around. They work great. Love the lego.

...mike

[MrPlacid]

Thanks, my nephews like it too.

By the way, I came up with a trick to hold things bigger than the jaw using a shoelace string.

[David Aurora]

Heh heh, cute! I find helping hands both useful and also annoyingly fiddly. I would love some properly engineered helping hands devices with good, secure, finely adjustable arms; but I suspect if I want such a thing I will have to make it myself.

Agreed. If I had some that did what they were told, I'd use them all the time. But I don't 

The only nice thing about mine is the sponge holder in the base. Whenever I trim component legs I chuck the off cuts in there and use them whenever I need PCB jumpers. So the thing isn't COMPLETELY useless!

[Bored@Work]

Heh heh, cute! I find helping hands both useful and also annoyingly fiddly. I would love some properly engineered helping hands devices with good, secure, finely adjustable arms; but I suspect if I want such a thing I will have to make it myself.

Agreed. If I had some that did what they were told, I'd use them all the time. But I don't 

The only nice thing about mine is the sponge holder in the base. Whenever I trim component legs I chuck the off cuts in there and use them whenever I need PCB jumpers. So the thing isn't COMPLETELY useless!

If I find the inventor of unhelpful hands, and if it turns out he is already dead, I would ask for a court order to dig up his corps, put it against a wall, shoot it with a silver bullet, and dig it in again.

[Mint.]

Which is why I ripped them all apart and put them back together, my way.

Have a look at the picture.

...mike

Oh! So you added those metal weights to them?

[siliconmix]

you can't beat some bluetack

[mikeselectricstuff]

you can't beat some bluetack

Totally agree, plus a decent ball-swivel vice (clamp-down, not suction) for heavier stuff.
Lab retort stands and clamps are also useful sometimes.

 

[Mechatrommer]

They are hopeless! I used to have one, fell over all the time when I poked it with a soldering iron! 

that is called "immitation" helping hand. and i suspect just like others who gave the same comments about its uselessness. do you know people when you have immitation or not? i got mine from zerphtronix but any day if i need one more HH, i'll just get from nearest local store or ebay chinese. i believe it can be hacked, add some weight to it if not enough umphh.

picture below is my recent use of HH while painting some of my diy pcb (pls note the torch light is totally off the ground). and in relation with the following comments from the other thread. another important aspect for me that heavy clamp (i have one, but only for heavy stuff) doesnt have is portability. HH can be moved anyway very very quickly, and i believe it is meant for that, and i never scratch my pcb copper with the clipper, never have frequent need for soft cotton covering the clip either. but then i guess... YMMV.

ps: btw i find the magnifier on it is pretty darwinian useless though.

And again, the two of you are conveniently ignoring the other uses of helping hands. Yes, you can put things other than PCBs in the clips!

[David Aurora]

Heh heh, cute! I find helping hands both useful and also annoyingly fiddly. I would love some properly engineered helping hands devices with good, secure, finely adjustable arms; but I suspect if I want such a thing I will have to make it myself.

Agreed. If I had some that did what they were told, I'd use them all the time. But I don't 

The only nice thing about mine is the sponge holder in the base. Whenever I trim component legs I chuck the off cuts in there and use them whenever I need PCB jumpers. So the thing isn't COMPLETELY useless!

If I find the inventor of unhelpful hands, and if it turns out he is already dead, I would ask for a court order to dig up his corps, put it against a wall, shoot it with a silver bullet, and dig it in again.

 

[T4P]

I guess it depends on your point of view. I have received all as gifts, one day I decided to use them. Here is what I came up with.

...mike

OH man , T-862! How are you, loving it?

[pickle9000]

OH man , T-862! How are you, loving it?

It is very good, it does it's intended job. I bought this as a backup and when I retired (sold my business) I took this and some other stuff with me. It's fails in a couple respects. The actual temp readings are not taken from the board / chip. I just use a non-contact thermometer and adjust it to that. The melting point of the solder is best done by eye and is easy to see, I think this is true for most systems to reduce component damage. The soldering iron is Chinese but does control well and has a rubber cord, not that it ever gets used. It's over 2 years old and no problems at all.

I sound a bit critical but only because the other one I used was very expensive 9000.00+ usd. I think is was den-on but don't quote me on that. That said the big difference is that this is a manual machine and the other was semi automated. I have reflowed an entire 3x3 inch  board with no issues. That is as good as the other machine.

I would add that for one off's this is a fast machine, very quick setup. It does require a minimal amount of skill to operate. I certainly would not ever go without one now that I have one. A very handy bit of gear.

...mike

[pickle9000]

Sorry I forgot the picture. Read the post above for details, it's bga reflow machine.

...mike

[Hypernova]

I guess it depends on your point of view. I have received all as gifts, one day I decided to use them. Here is what I came up with.

...mike

OH man , T-862! How are you, loving it?

I got the 4-in-1 model and you can see the unboxing thread here

[pickle9000]

Mines probably a bit older, have you had any technical problems?

The build quality seems to be fine and bulbs are easy to get. The case is very heavy duty. When I ordered it I asked for a spare cable (the metal one for the lamp) and they just sent one with it no charge. Pretty nice actually, I'm pretty sure I was dealing with the OEM but it's hard to tell with this stuff.

...mike

[Hypernova]

The silicone seal around the preheater gives off a noxious smell when used, I spent 2hrs in a well ventilated area burning that in to get rid of it. You can see from the photo it was also missing screw but I found a replacement. The soldering iron controller seems to give ERR message all the time but since I brought the thing to work and we got proper irons there I ignored it. Possibly the oddest thing is the way the IR works. The temp setting is bogus, it's actually more of a 2 sec period PWM. Why they aren't using 100Hz PWM to drive it is a mystery to me.

[T4P]

The silicone seal around the preheater gives off a noxious smell when used, I spent 2hrs in a well ventilated area burning that in to get rid of it. You can see from the photo it was also missing screw but I found a replacement. The soldering iron controller seems to give ERR message all the time but since I brought the thing to work and we got proper irons there I ignored it. Possibly the oddest thing is the way the IR works. The temp setting is bogus, it's actually more of a 2 sec period PWM. Why they aren't using 100Hz PWM to drive it is a mystery to me.

Because of the way they switch the triac 

[jerry507]

I love them for holding wires to tin them. Basically the only good use for them as far as I'm concerned.

[pickle9000]

I'll reply about the rework station in the other thread to keep this one from getting (waaaayy) off topic. You can find it here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-chat/thoughts-on-this-3-in-1-ir-rework-station-*now-with-unboxing!!!*

[T4P]

I love them for holding wires to tin them. Basically the only good use for them as far as I'm concerned.

And solder them together, but my alligator clips go loose after some time ... I think epoxy might be involved in the next equation

[Hypernova]

If I have to tin wires I put them at the edge of the table and keep them down with something heavy.