A tool that I've never seen before but I would like to have

[kagliostro]

This really seems a simple but effective tool to have



here one source

http://www.jukebox-world.de/Pin-Straightener.html

K

[sluckey]

Back in the '60s and '70s you would find one of those mounted on nearly every scope cart in the FAA or military. They were used a lot. I still have one somewhere in my shop but it doesn't get much use these days. Maybe I'll drag it out and mount it on my cart. I could have used it on my last project.

[kagliostro]

Ciao Steve

is correct to say those tools were principally used by computer technicians in the vacuum tube computer era ?

Franco

[sluckey]

Hey, I found mine. It had slid to the back of the drawer on my scope cart. Mine is the exact same as yours except we used to carve those plastic protrusions off for quicker access and lower profile.

Technicians working on tube computers would surely have several of these nearby. So would anyone else that worked on equipment such as radar systems would use these straighteners regularly. Same with comm techs. Heck, even old radio and tv repair shops had them. That straightener was almost as common as the pocket tweaker screwdriver (7-level to y'all Air Force/Navy guys).

[jjasilli]

My Sencore Mighty-Mite tube tester has one - which might be its best feature! 

[kagliostro]

So now I must only find one at reasonable price

The price on the link I posted, to me is correct, shipping charges, no, they are more than the price of the tool itself

Franco

[PRR]

I've used one maybe twice. If the pins will fit in the straightener, you can probably nudge them into perfect-enough alignment with finger or pocket screwdriver. If the tube was bumped sideways, badly, you need finger and screwdriver just to straighten enough to get into the straightener. And you ALWAYS have finger and screwdriver handy.

I think it's one of those nifty things that doesn't cost a lot. Put it by the checkout in the radio-parts store, a lot of guys will buy one. Was probably 100% profit for the store.

I would not pay a lot to have one. (Maybe if I had thousands of tubes to eBay and wanted to make the pins nice.)

[sluckey]

I'm sure the 7 levels were several grades below the techs you worked with.

[EL34]

Hmmm, looks like the one on my bench 

[Willabe]

Was it you that used to sell those or was it Angela?


                Brad     

[eleventeen]

Agree with PRR. For the most part you can "fake it" with a screwdriver & needlenose pliers. Though...if you buy a box of loose tubes where many are going to be bent, it's nice to have. I have one...I've used it once or twice. 


Where they REALLY come in handy is more with old radio work, especially aircraft radios....where the tubes are very tightly interspersed with coils and it's almost impossible to get your fat fingers around a tube into the canyon where the thing sits.

[EL34]

Was it you that used to sell those or was it Angela?
               

No. I never sold them that I remember.


Don't know where I got mine but I used it allot when repairing amps.
There were always pins out of whack on customers amps.