# New bench tool/vice/3rd-hands ...



## wquiles (May 1, 2010)

Thanks to various forum members I have been improving my setup for bench tools to aid while working on various small projects. The thread on "Flexible Hands" has lots of great ideas by Don, John, and others, so I decided to incorporate these various pieces along with a pin vice into a sturdy and flexible bench tool, based on John's own setup. Let me start by thanking them as they came up with the original idea/setup :thumbsup:


To hold larger items I have a Panavise that I bought that has the "soft jaws", but unfortunately it is unsuitable for small items:







I was fortunate that for a base/foundation I had a Panavise tool available that I picked up for free when the lab at my old company closed - you can see it here with the attachment to hold large PWB's. On the left you can see the 4x Flex-A-Mag magnifying piece that I will also be attaching to the base (more on this later). Right in front you see the small pin vise that I have bolted to the bench (thanks much to forum member "darkzero" for learning about this small vice), which has been a little bit less than satisfactory due to being very sloppy:






I first started with the pin vise:






So I started by dissasembling the pin vise:






and measuring the dia of the alignment rods:






and finding a drill that would work for this dia:






Not only am I going to setup new fitted, Delrin sleeves for the alignment rods, but I am also going to create a new fitted "nut" made from Delrin to also eliminate most/all of the slop in the screw mechanism:






Once I drill a larger hole, I started making a Delrin plug to match that hole I just made:












The original screw is 1/4"-20tpi:






Delrin is a slight press fit:






Then I drill and tap it:











Here is the finished part:
















Since gluing Delrin is not easy at all, I chose a mechanical way to keep the plug from moving, so I drill/tap on the bottom side using some small screws:






I then proceeded to make the larger holes so that I can fit the new Delrin sleeves which will remove all play. Since it is a curve surface I proceeded to use a stiff solid carbide drill to enlarge the original hole and make it "flat" enough for the actual drill to start enlarging the hole. I don't have a DRO installed yet, but I aligned everything by hand/eye as best as I could, plus using a drill that matches the original hole as a centering device:
















The new holes came up perfect - much better than I hoped:






Again I cut Delrin to the right dia:






and drill to match the alignment rods:






Again I used screws to mechanically keep the Delrin in place:






Here is the finished, fitted, "restored" pin vise. On the second pic the Delrin sleeve on the right side of the photo looks bigger in dia than the rod - that is just the bevel I cut on each end. The fit is perfect with zero play:











One of the goals was to make this pin vise available as an accessory to the Panavise, so it would be easy to reposition as needed, so I will have to drill/tap in order to make it work with the Panavise, but also with a small, movable arm as well. Once I drill and tap the end of the arm, I was able to make it work in a fixture that it fairly firm and adjustable (having it bolted to the bench is not that convenient):











Now, to make the pin vise work in the Panavise, I modified the end piece and drill/tap the end:






Once done, I now have the pin vise in an even sturdier platform, which is also completely adjustable:











To complete the setup, I bought the 4x Flex-A-Mag, and 3x of the premium "3-rd hands" from Otto Frei:











The tips on these are worlds apart from the traditional aligator tips:











Now, I got lucky, as the Panavise had already 3 holes with the same exact size/threads as the ones being used by the Otto Frei 3rd-hands:











So I cut to length some screws:






I then drilled a hole to attach the Flex-A-Mag:






and then bolt the Flex-A-Mag - note it is not quite touching the bottom as I wanted, while giving a firm hold (the left and right black ones are the rubber feet):






Here is the complete "fixture" without the pin vise:











and through the magnifying lens:






Here are the two tools that can hold the restored pin vise:






and this is the Panavise setup with the pin vise:











Now I will finally have a great setup for small parts/projects


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## Bimmerboy (May 1, 2010)

Dude... that's pretty freakin' excellent! :thumbsup:

Wish I had fancy pants stuff like this. The only hands I use for soldering are the ones I was born with. I've gotten used to it, sort of, but things still get fairly difficult at times. :sigh:


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## Mick (May 1, 2010)

Very nice, Will.


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## Tom Anderson (May 1, 2010)

Cool project, Will! :thumbsup:


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## mdocod (May 2, 2010)

Absolute genius Will! 

Having the presence of mind to take all the picts while working on something is a huge challenge in and of itself in my experience. I always enjoy seeing your very image heavy posts. 

Eric


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## Th232 (May 2, 2010)

Lovely stuff, very nicely done.

Now I'll just shuffle off back to my lumps of blu-tack on the desk.


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## gollum (May 2, 2010)

nice work...I might have to chase up some of those 3rd hands

thanks for showing lovecpf


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## Alan B (May 2, 2010)

Nice job, Will.


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## wquiles (May 2, 2010)

Thank you guys


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## jch79 (May 2, 2010)

Will, you just made my setup look rather amateur! :laughing:

Seriously awesome use of the Panavise, and adapting the pin vise to it. Great WIP pictures and explanations too. :twothumbs

:thumbsup: john


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## wquiles (May 2, 2010)

I would not say that John. Yours was definitely one that inspired me to make mine :thumbsup:


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## tino_ale (May 3, 2010)

At this point, maybe you should consider making one from scratch from stainless steel 

Very nive work indeed!


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## wquiles (May 6, 2010)

Of course, I built it to use it ... here working on the PhD-M6 project ...

At first glance the 3x arms sounds excessive as one would think two are enough, but that is not the case. Holding this 4" by 4" PWD can't be done in the small pin vise, so the 3 arms give it a great hold - super stable: 






Best thing about the 3 arms is that I needed a 3rd arm for a quick soldering of the tips of this small wire, so I was able to just keep the board floating in place with two arms:






The built-in Flex-a-Mag is truly a must have!











Note in this last picture how easily it is to rotate the pin vise out of the way


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## wquiles (May 7, 2010)

An update on my Electronics bench - it just went through a small re-org/restoration of sorts ...

This is pretty much how it looked before:






So back from when the lab closed, I saved two static ground pads for benches, but have never gotten around to installing them. Today I decided I wanted to start using it:






I ground it to the metal chassis which is earth ground:






I already had the wrist band static connection, also setup to the same metal ground:











The mat was used and stained, but to my surprise, car brake cleaner did wonders on it:






This is my much improved setup:






I also re-organized the shelf to make space for my 3rd hand setup when not in use:






Thanks to forum member "darkzero" I now also have a nice self-healing cutting pad to go along with the "restored" bench:






Believe or not I had a total of 3 soldering systems, so I will putting out this this Weller WTCPT station for sale pretty soon:






the tip still in great shape as I always keep it tinned:






Will


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## darkzero (May 7, 2010)

Cool, I see you have a preheater & hot air, never noticed those before. What type of rework do you do?


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## wquiles (May 8, 2010)

darkzero said:


> Cool, I see you have a preheater & hot air, never noticed those before. What type of rework do you do?



Good eye, those are only about a month old or so. Those I am learning to use for my PhD-M6 project.


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## darkzero (May 8, 2010)

wquiles said:


> Good eye, those are only about a month old or so. Those I am learning to use for my PhD-M6 project.


 
Always.  I pay far much to attention to all the details with everything. My brothers say this is part of my OCD. Whenever someone posts a picture I tend to look at the surroundings before the subject. :laughing:

Nice project, looks fun but very very time consuming. Can't wait to see the finished product. :thumbsup:

Looks like you have the Hakko style based hot air station with the built in soldering iron but the model with the built in smoke sucker thing? I've only seen those on ebay, does that feature work well? 

At work we use the Hakko copies as well but they are Madell. Although many will say to stay away from them, they work pretty well & ours get used daily & are on all day, mine has been going strong for years now without a failure. I don't use the built in solder iron though, we use Hakko soldering stations.

I love soldering/rework probably more than I like machining, less tiring IMO, but more hazardous to the health if you do a lot of it. Looks like you have one but if you do a lot of soldering a nice large strong fume extractor is a must!


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## wquiles (May 8, 2010)

darkzero said:


> Always.  I pay far much to attention to all the details with everything. My brothers say this is part of my OCD. Whenever someone posts a picture I tend to look at the surroundings before the subject. :laughing:


Perhaps, but it is also why your work is so awesome 




darkzero said:


> Nice project, looks fun but very very time consuming. Can't wait to see the finished product. :thumbsup:


I have been incredibly fortunate in that I have learned a lot (and I am still learning a lot) from Alan, Jimmy, and George. I hope that I will be able to come up with more circuits, simple small/drivers (stuff George does not makes/offers), and a new concept that I am calling the "Magneto Drive", some time this year.




darkzero said:


> Looks like you have the Hakko style based hot air station with the built in soldering iron but the model with the built in smoke sucker thing? I've only seen those on ebay, does that feature work well?
> 
> At work we use the Hakko copies as well but they are Madell. Although many will say to stay away from them, they work pretty well & ours get used daily & are on all day, mine has been going strong for years now without a failure. I don't use the built in solder iron though, we use Hakko soldering stations.


I have 3 setups:
- (used) Metcal MX-500P-11, with both the single wand and the separate tweezers for SM parts
- (new) AOYUE 968 SMD/SMT Rework Station, and the AOYUE 853A Quartz Preheating Station
- (bought new, but used for a short while) Weller WTCPT soldering station.

I have not used the Metcal much, but now that I will be doing more Surface Mount parts I will be using it more often, so that is why I am now selling my Weller station. I have yet to do any soldering on the hew AOYUE station so I don't know how the built-in fume extractor works (or not) - I have so far have used the hot air gun briefly while learning to do the re-flow soldering, and that parts works great!.




darkzero said:


> I love soldering/rework probably more than I like machining, less tiring IMO, but more hazardous to the health if you do a lot of it. Looks like you have one but if you do a lot of soldering a nice large strong fume extractor is a must!


On this photo, shown in between the two circular lamps against the wall, with the solder roll in the middle (next to the LiIon cell battery pack that I am fixing!), that is my fume extractor - at least for now


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## gt40 (May 19, 2010)

Thanks for sharing your awesome setup. Got 3 arms from otto frey and a panavise on the way!


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## wquiles (May 19, 2010)

You are welcome, but remember that McGizmo, John and others had the original idea so I won't take credit for the concept


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## waddup (May 19, 2010)

would be fun to have a rig light that, ive learned a lot looking over this thread, mostly that it was a bad idea to grind my $10 iron tip down to a fine point :candle:, no wonder sitting in my recliner trying to solder a 3 mode driver into a light on a dinner tray with no helping hands was 'tricky' i have to draw a line, if i need a lathe (and everything else) to modd lights ill just continue to pay you guys to do the odd modd for me.

looks like fun tho :thumbsup:


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## wquiles (May 24, 2010)

Latest addition to the electronic bench:








Yup, a wired Ethernet port. The WiFi station is far away, so this wired port will be fast, reliable, and always available


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## gadget_lover (May 25, 2010)

Boy, spring fever hits hard down there, doesn't it?

My "bench" is my garage, and I have a hub in there already. It's nice to have a spare laptop to look up formulas and such.

Nice to see you are busy.

Daniel


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## Aircraft800 (May 25, 2010)

That is one BEAUTIFUL workbench Will! I wish mine was half as nice as yours! I've got a card table in my spare bedroom with a cutting board and a bunch of clothespins to hold stuff! I should take a picture for the "Crappiest Bench" competition! I might win a makeover


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## wquiles (May 25, 2010)

Thanks Matt. Of course, once I put it to good use it does not look as "neat":


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## Th232 (May 25, 2010)

That calculator looks familiar. Does it by any chance use reverse Polish notation?


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## wquiles (May 25, 2010)

Th232 said:


> That calculator looks familiar. Does it by any chance use reverse Polish notation?



Yes, HP RPN. During college (1983 - BSEE) I learned RPN and discovered how dramatically more efficient and quicker it was compared to regular math, and now after 25+ years, RPN is the only natural way I know to do arithmetic in a calculator. A normal calculator seems slow and clumsy by comparison. I don't have to think at all to use an RPN calculator, but I have to really think, and go real slow with a regular math calculator. For the last 25+ years I have always had an HP RPN calculator, lately it has been the 12C (I even have a 12C application on my iPhone!). I have two now, HP 12C's, one here in my home office, and the second one I keep in the shop (shown in that photo above). I hope that I will always be able to find them available in the future - I am getting too old to re-learn to use a normal calculator


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## Aircraft800 (May 26, 2010)

wquiles said:


> Thanks Matt. Of course, once I put it to good use it does not look as "neat": {snip}



It still looks like a pleasant work area! You forced me, check out this sorry excuse for a work bench :mecry: 

You can click for a bigger image if you dare!







Makes me SICK!


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## Bimmerboy (May 26, 2010)

Aircraft800 said:


> check out this sorry excuse for a work bench :mecry:
> 
> Makes me SICK!


Aside from not wanting to grind stuff there, I don't see nuttin' wrong.

Looks quite organized in fact! :thumbsup:


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## wquiles (May 26, 2010)

Bimmerboy said:


> Aside from not wanting to grind stuff there, I don't see nuttin' wrong.
> 
> Looks quite organized in fact! :thumbsup:



+1


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## gt40 (May 27, 2010)

Thanks to everyone posting this stuff! Anyway, I got inspired and cleaned the garage + finally got a decent place to do stuff.

Panavise 301 + 3 otto frei 3rd hands and a HF peg vice through bolted on the vice. After looking at the panavice with the long body section, I found I had just enough room for an allen bolt to put the hf peg vice on it securely. I got fancy and ordered the base for the panavice I had forever. That thing is really solid with the 6 rubber feed on it. I am very happy with how I have both the regular panavise for holding a heatsink etc + peg vice on the same rig. Threw in a 5 dioptor stainless mag lamp from office depot for my tired eyes. Finally, added anti static mat from fry's to finish it:





















Here is the "new electronic work" station:






Shop: I put in a 6x 4k lumen "daylight" light over the lathe + halogen over the electronics station.


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## wquiles (May 27, 2010)

New bench "multi-hand" tool looks great!

And the shop looks very comfy and well organized :thumbsup:


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## ICUDoc (May 28, 2010)

Yes, a very nice setup there. It reminds me that I NEED a bandsaw....


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