Soldering Iron Tweezers

[bostonman]

In the past I've had to remove SMT components such as 0402 and 0805 resistors and capacitors to measure their value (whether to check if they are bad or to obtain the value).

Trying to remove them requires lots of back and forth causing excessive heat.

I was thinking of buying some soldering iron tweezers, but not sure if I'm wasting my money and/or if anyone has any recommendations about models to buy.

Another method would be to use my hot air pencil, but I've also had issues where component placement is tight and I run the risk of blowing away other components.

[wraper]

You can dual wield two soldering irons.

Another method would be to use my hot air pencil, but I've also had issues where component placement is tight and I run the risk of blowing away other components.

A non issue unless there is some extreme airflow. Solder surface tension holds components well. There is a problem if heat sensitive components are located nearby, like electrolytic capacitors or connectors.

[bostonman]

You can dual wield two soldering irons.

I don't exactly have two soldering irons, but how would I do that anyway?

[artag]

I was thinking of buying some soldering iron tweezers, but not sure if I'm wasting my money and/or if anyone has any recommendations about models to buy.

I love them. I don't often need them (I can usually heat small 2-terminal devices with a big blob of solder) but when I do, they're brilliant.

Mine are Metcal. They are nice and stable and the tips touch accurately. I have tried simpler ones where the tips were just bent metal with a screw into the end of the heating rod and found them less precise, and poor at conducting heat through the thin tips to the component so I'd look for a type where the tips have a solid thermal connection to the heater and can't twist unexpectedly.

I look forward to seeing what Miniware or Pine can manufacture.

[artag]

I don't exactly have two soldering irons, but how would I do that anyway?

I guess, like chopsticks ? Would maybe work with two really slim irons like a TS100 ?
What makes it easy on a good pair is that the two handles are joined by a hinge, and pushed apart by a spring. This might not be too difficult to make. You'd probably want knife tips on both.
 

[wraper]

No you do it by two hands. For some reason i cannot find any videos showing this on youtube. But I watched an educational video from Nokia at my previous job.

[wraper]

I took a short video. Don't complain it's vertical and upside down, phone decided rotation by itself while it was put horizontally and I cannot be bothered to spend time on video editing.

[Mechatrommer]

try to hold 2 big iron like chopstick may end up you burning yourself. holding with 2 hands you may end up tumbling or rotating the part because both hand not lifting at same rate. hot air needs time to heat everything and as OP said, may end up moving other parts that we dont want to. i have Yihua 938D for some years and its much more better and quicker than any of the above mentioned tricks. you need to align the twezer pair if they are not aligned from factory by loosening the round screw/nut things holding the tweezer pair. but because the tips are too small, some bigger thermal mass pcb area will need patience or help from the bigger mass soldering iron, like i just did yesterday. fwiw..

[jonovid]

this would strengthen the case for a good design of twin or three prong soldering fork, or dedicated twin or three prong soldering tip
so you do not run out of hands. a second dedicated soldering iron.

[bostonman]

The Metcal price seems to be mid $300 and the Yihua 938D is just over $100. Both look good, but I may go with the Yihua 938D because it's rare I remove a chip component with intentions of reusing it.

Recently I questioned whether a chip capacitor was resistive. It didn't matter if I damaged it because I knew the value thanks to finding a schematic online, however, it means I"d need to buy one from DigiKey, pay for shipping, etc... My goal was to apply as little heat as possible to prevent possible damage. This is where tweezers would have come in handy.

In another case I repaired a four-channel scope where two channels were bad. I needed to remove a few chip resistors to get their value (they were 0402 and didn't have any values on them), so damaging them (or having them fling off into the abyss) would have been an issue.

Anyway, sometimes the components are so close that hot air will certainly blow off one I don't want. Sometimes I'll come across a six or eight pin IC. Hot air is certainly the best approach and I'd like a pair of tweezers with a head that would fit on the whole IC (spade type tweezer head?). Not sure if that's wishful thinking, but at best, I'd like a pair that will do chip components.

[bdunham7]

The Metcal price seems to be mid $300 and the Yihua 938D is just over $100. Both look good, but I may go with the Yihua 938D because it's rare I remove a chip component with intentions of reusing it.

The Metcal price is just for the handpiece that works with their system, so the price for everything to start tweezing is going to be $$$$.  I have the Yihua 938D as well, it is actually only $55 on Amazon and it isn't great but it is good enough to get some things done, such as picking and replacing small 2-lead parts.

that would fit on the whole IC (spade type tweezer head?). Not sure if that's wishful thinking, but at best, I'd like a pair that will do chip components.

Yes, with pro tools you'll get those sort of options.  Prepare to pay...

https://www.hisco.com/Brands/Metcal/Catalog/Soldering-Rework/Hot-Tweezers-Accessories/Hot-Tweezers/MX-PTZ-33709

[TopQuark]

I love my Hakko fx-1003 tweezers plugged into my Metcal MX-5200. I have in the past tried soldering tweezers from Thermaltronics and Goot, they are all crap. The Metcal ones looked good, but I wanted something finer and more precise.

The Hakko bent conical tips are so sharp that they can draw blood if you slip your fingers when changing tips, yet they will still remove parts soldered to copper planes. It is a god send when tuning matching networks for antennas, where you have to swap 0201 passives dozens of times, or just want to quickly and cleanly pluck a part from the board to take a measurement for reverse engineering. It is pricy, and took me a lot of effort to import a pair to where I live, but it is well worth it.

[tooki]

I don't exactly have two soldering irons, but how would I do that anyway?

I guess, like chopsticks ? Would maybe work with two really slim irons like a TS100 ?
What makes it easy on a good pair is that the two handles are joined by a hinge, and pushed apart by a spring. This might not be too difficult to make. You'd probably want knife tips on both.

Are you sure you know how chopsticks are used?

[nctnico]

The Metcal price seems to be mid $300 and the Yihua 938D is just over $100. Both look good, but I may go with the Yihua 938D because it's rare I remove a chip component with intentions of reusing it.

I have bought the 938D a long time ago as well and threw it in the bin. Useless POS. I bought the Ersa chip tool instead which works like a charm. Well worth the money if you are serious about soldering. BTW: I have used the JBC micro tweezers as well but these are too wobbly for my taste.

[David Aurora]

I bought some of those Yihua things ages ago to see if they'd work for a pain in the ass job I needed to do, they worked great for a cheap solution.

I wouldn't want to use them as a permanent tool- the alignment is always drifting, the sleep mode always kicks in at the worst possible time, I don't think there are any alternate tips for them, etc.

But yeah, after using them on a handful of projects now I love soldering tweezers. I much prefer them to hot air for installing/replacing a handful of components, much better precision and less board stress.

[RoGeorge]

I was thinking of buying some soldering iron tweezers, but not sure if I'm wasting my money and/or if anyone has any recommendations about models to buy.

If you only need that rarely, two soldering irons can be used as soldering tweezers.

If you don't have two soldering irons, wire two copper wires around a soldering tip, so they will heat both ends of the component to desolder at the same time.  Or three wires for a SMD transistor.  The copper wires doesn't have to be very thick if the soldering iron is powerful enough.  I'm using the wires found inside of CAT5 LAN cables, the copper is AWG24, or 0.5mm diameter.

[bostonman]

I have the Yihua 938D as well, it is actually only $55 on Amazon and it isn't great but it is good enough to get some things done, such as picking and replacing small 2-lead parts.

The price seems right. A few reviews state the tips don't always align. My two concerns would be the aligning of the tips and how long the tips last before needing to be replaced (I know the answer would depend on usage).

What is your opinion on the tip alignment for general periodic use?

[Mechatrommer]

What is your opinion on the tip alignment for general periodic use?

the handle and plastic construction is too woobly, even if you align the tip while cold. so its a compromise for not spending 1K tweezer. make sure your main iron is ready as 3rd helping iron for high thermal mass component, the tips are too small too to transfer heat quickly.. if you think the job is your trade business, buy 1K+ tweezer... ymmv.

[David Aurora]

I have the Yihua 938D as well, it is actually only $55 on Amazon and it isn't great but it is good enough to get some things done, such as picking and replacing small 2-lead parts.

The price seems right. A few reviews state the tips don't always align. My two concerns would be the aligning of the tips and how long the tips last before needing to be replaced (I know the answer would depend on usage).

What is your opinion on the tip alignment for general periodic use?

It takes 2 seconds. You just loosen off the clamping ring a bit, line them up and tighten back down. I don't tend to notice them coming loose while working either, it'll just be the some future random time I pick them up in future that I'll see they're not quite lined up

[bostonman]

I appreciate the feedback and completely understand the need to not waste money going cheap.

In my case, in the last several years, I've only had to remove surface mount chip components (resistors, caps, etc...) a few times to measure their value in order to repair a parallel circuit (or question a measurement).

It doesn't make sense to spend several hundreds (or close to a thousand) for something I probably will use once a year if that, however, it also doesn't make sense to go cheap and waste money.

If this model can handle removing a few chip components every few years, I may go with it.

[Mechatrommer]

For chip with more than 2 legs, this tweezer is not for it.. you may end up with hot air with proper sized nozzle, low temp chipquick style desoldering.. or even some fancy solder blobs + flux + soldering iron tip manouevre only for the strong hearted

[bostonman]

I fully agree. I assumed everyone thought I meant exclusively for chip resistors and caps; not three or more legged components.

This is why I stated it's rare I need to desolder a chip component to measure the value. The most recent case was repairing a Weller Solder Station and a section wasn't measuring correctly per the schematic. I questioned whether a cap was resistive and wanted to desolder it.

Due to having a regular iron, I had to try quickly removing it, but then it stuck to the iron once removed. I could have used air, but, as I stated (and believe someone agreed) the hot air sometimes causes adjustment components to come unsoldered and fly off.

I think soldering iron tweezers would be better because I can quickly desolder the component and use a regular pair of tweezers in my other hand to grab them.

In some cases, if I'm repairing something, most likely if I remove a chip resistor or cap to check the value, I'll just replace it regardless once I find the actual bad component(s) because it's only a few cents rather than stick the same overheated component back. The issue is needing to reinstall the component to continue troubleshooting. If too much heat is applied due to it sticking to the iron or whatever, now I may be unable to reuse that component and continue troubleshooting thus forcing me to order a new one just to continue troubleshooting.

[nctnico]

For chip with more than 2 legs, this tweezer is not for it.. you may end up with hot air with proper sized nozzle, low temp chipquick style desoldering..

No. Wrong. I'm using my Ersa tweezers to desolder all kinds of chips with pins at 2 sides. Just apply enough solder that forms a blob to heat up multiple pins. The technical term is: blobbering  This is a very useful soldering skill to master.

[thm_w]

Due to having a regular iron, I had to try quickly removing it, but then it stuck to the iron once removed. I could have used air, but, as I stated (and believe someone agreed) the hot air sometimes causes adjustment components to come unsoldered and fly off.

You use normal steel tweezers to remove it at that point.
The same thing can occur with components sticking to hot tweezers.

[bostonman]

The same thing can occur with components sticking to hot tweezers.

The visual would be hot tweezers in one hand and cold tweezers in the other. Use the hot tweezers to lift the component off the board, and, if the component sticks, use my free hand with the cold tweezers to hold.

The "blob" of solder is good, but it does involve encapsulating the entire component in molting hot solder.

Does the tips of the 938D loosen and go out of alignment or is the hinge loose causing the tips to not mate? As someone pointed out, just align the tips and tighten, however, wanted to ask if the entire thing is just wobbly.

For the price, I may just get them and test them at some point. The feedback on here (as usual) is always very helpful, and, as with many threads requiring feedback, there are different opinions. Unfortunately I have to pick one, and, as much as I agree you get what you pay for, I also have to base my purchase on the amount I estimate it will be used.

Also, technically I don't have to "pick one", I can purchase all the models suggested and decide which one I like

[thm_w]

Also, technically I don't have to "pick one", I can purchase all the models suggested and decide which one I like

Sure but thats a waste of time trying all the cheap units, if the total adds up to one of the higher quality ones.

There are some new Handskit T12 based units: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804727070854.html
But they are large, more for through hole or 0805+.

[bostonman]

Any idea why Aliexpress has the Yihua 938D fir almost half of Amazon?

Is it a cheaper version or just because it’s direct from China?

[thm_w]

Any idea why Aliexpress has the Yihua 938D fir almost half of Amazon?

Is it a cheaper version or just because it’s direct from China?

Because direct.
Amazon takes a large cut, and their price may include various taxes as well.