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Helping Hands soldering tool to hold small parts

J

Jesse Tutterrow

Joined
May 5, 2017
Messages
137
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17
Location
Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
I built quite a few miniature birdhouse ornaments this Christmas. The hardest part was holding the miniature bird on the perch while the glue dried. At lunch today it occured to me that I had seen a picture of a electronics helper that consisted of a heavy base and two alligator clips on flexible arms. A quick search of Amazon found this. What do you think? One arm to hold the perch, another to hold the bird a drop of glue, push them together and let go. Then can spray the activator.
 
It looks pretty good, but based on experience with other holding devices for electronic soldering and assembly the arms tend to have a bit of spring-back when you try to position them. You could probably compensate by positioning the arm so that there will be positive pressure holding the two parts together. The decryption sounds like it ought to be sturdy enough to stay put and not go sliding around.
 
I have had one for 35 years. I love it. I use it for all.kinds of applications. I have worn out the alligator clips and had to replace them. That was easy.
 
I tried something different this year when gluing a bird on the small perch and it worked really well. I spritzed some accelerator into a small plastic container and wetted a small artist's brush with it. I put a dab of medium CA on the bottom of the bird and with the brush wiped some accelerator on the perch. I have very shakey hands and this worked really well. Only had to hold the bird in place for a couple of seconds. You do not end up with accelerator every where either.
 
Mike Brazeau said:
I tried something different this year when gluing a bird on the small perch and it worked really well. I spritzed some accelerator into a small plastic container and wetted a small artist's brush with it. I put a dab of medium CA on the bottom of the bird and with the brush wiped some accelerator on the perch. I have very shakey hands and this worked really well. Only had to hold the bird in place for a couple of seconds. You do not end up with accelerator every where either.
Click to expand...
Great idea mike! I don't like to get the accelerator all over the birdhouse as it seems to damage the finish. I will try your method.
 
My method of attaching a plastic bird to the perch is to drill a hole in the side of the bird and impale it on. Makes me smile a little each time. I use a pieced of an old bamboo roll up curtain. It compresses nicely when I stick the bird on, with little chance of it falling off. I tried gluing about a decade ago, but had the birds pop off or look messy. I've made over a hundred bird house ornaments this way, fast and never an issue. Never a comment from the public either!
 
I did a bee hive- drilled a tiny hole in the bottom of the bee (Hobby Lobby doll house section), glued it to a piece of toothpick and inserted the toothpick with CA into a tiny hole in the hive. Yep, gluing a little bee or bird doesn't work.
 
I've used one of those helping hands for doing electronics in the past. The only recommendation I'd make is that those alligator teeth should clamp fairly well, and it's very lightly that it will leave impressions in the wood where they were gripping the wood. I'd suggest get some cork or foam to go between the teeth and the wood. That way, the wood still gets held in place but it doesn't get damaged by the teeth.
 
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