Tool tip Tuesday, well it is Tuesday and I was thinking of doing one of these now and again. Nothing new here, just stuff I’ve picked up along the way and found useful.

I bought a pack of half a dozen of these off eBay for not much money, and they are surprisingly good. You might think, as I did, that the tips look chunky, but they go to a good fine point, and being ceramic and a bit chunky, they tend to warp less, so less parts ping away into orbit somewhere. As an aside, I think there needs to be a study into the danger of small part debris in low earth orbit, I’m sure there’s a lot of tiny parts up there!

Another obvious benefit is that they are heat proof and can hold parts while you solder them together without the heat travelling towards your trembling fingers, fearful of the sudden pain. The edges are square too, increasing their ability to hold parts.

The only downside is that they are a tad chunky in the tools tray, but that’s hardly a problem!