a helping hand in finding a helping hands?
August 16, 2012 12:59 PM   Subscribe

Helping Hands -- the adjustable magnifying glass with attached clips thingie for soldering and crafts and such -- does anyone have recommendations for a specific model?

Last night, trying to get a splinter out of someone's hand, I wished again for a lit, adjustable magnifying glass. In the fullness of time, I'd probably find some sort of craft use for it, too. But there are a million zillion models out there and wildly contradictory evaluations thereof. Can anyone recommend a good one under, say, $25?
posted by Zed to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Was just about to ask the same question, because I can only find really crappy ones that the clips bend out of shape and the magnifying glass is too small to be of use. My own electronics setup is now a PanaVise and an Illuminated Fluorescent Magnifier, but that's way off your budget. And despite all this, I still sometimes wheel out my rusted and beat-up helping hands, because there are some things a PanaVise can't do.
posted by scruss at 1:12 PM on August 16, 2012


I can tell you, do not waste your money on the ones from Harbor Freight Tools. They are really flimsy.

I have a pair from Radioshack that my Dad gave me in the early 80s, and even the current RadioShack offering does not add up.

Might be a good question to ask on the Adafruit Forums or ToolGuyD.

Some time ago I also ran into this thread on Rcgroups that had some interesting suggestions.
posted by fake at 1:37 PM on August 16, 2012


lit, adjustable magnifying glass

Is that all you need or do you also need something that holds the object in question? If you don't actually need the helping hands part, then you might consider a magnifying lamp or a magnifying visor.
posted by jedicus at 1:40 PM on August 16, 2012


I have a set of helping hands in addition to a large florescent lamp with a magnifier on it. They're both handy things to have but not for magnification. I find that neither lens is clear enough to really help with what I'm doing. In a pinch the magnifier on the lamp is ok but I've NEVER used the magnifier on the helping hands.

I use the helping hands to hold stuff and the lamp for, well, a lamp.

For magnification I have a couple of inexpensive jeweler's loupes. You can get some with built in lights though I only have the unlit kind. One of these combined with the helping hands, a vice, a clothespin, or a clamp is 1000x better than a cheapo set of helping hands by itself.

For holding things I have a Dremel vise, which is somewhat similar to the Panavise.
posted by bondcliff at 1:42 PM on August 16, 2012


I have a set of the cheap Harbor Freight ones like fake. They suck (though for the couple bucks I paid, that's about what I expected).

One unexpectedly annoying thing is that the clips are sharp grabby things, which means they tend to nick wires and damage other small delicate things you put in their jaws. Since the whole point of the apparatus is to hold small delicate things, this can be a problem. Sometimes I'll slip a piece of heatshrink or tape in there as protection, but a nicer set of helping hands might avoid the issue by using better designed clips. Just something to keep in mind for your search.

You might want to try Ask Cool Tools as well.
posted by zachlipton at 2:02 PM on August 16, 2012


I got mine from ThinkGeek and they appear to be the same as the Harbor Freight ones. Oh well, cheap as lessons go. They're not for delicate stuff, as noted, but these are standard gator-clips-- nothing unusual about them. They get the job done for my minor projects.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:18 PM on August 16, 2012


Response by poster: I think a magnifying visor is the best bet -- I'll worry about something vise-like later. Thanks all.
posted by Zed at 11:59 AM on August 17, 2012


« Older Take this job and shove it.   |   Knee deep in fun fur and EL wire Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.