Straightening tube/valve pins

Seems like too much work to make one. Heres some ideas...

These things exist. e.g.:

GFGI for [ "7-pin" "9-pin" straightener ]

No comment on this:

Jonesy

Here in the Colonies, every drugstore had a free tube tester which had pin-straighteners: steel disks with 7 or 9 holes flared at the top to accept pins and nudge them back into position. That was about 40 years ago. As I recall, straighteners were also available as buy-your-own tools.

Many times I found a pair of long nosed pliers adequate.

forcing

From that collection, my idea for non-engineered tool. I will try a ring of 9 Souriau connector pins (just the right bore ) on the pins of a brand new valve, setting the pins in heat settable fire-cement. Then use preceeded by individual pin straightening with parallel jaw pliers.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

I hate to see you go through all that rot...unless you're just wanting to be creative :) I have a 7 and 9 pin straightener socket screwed to my bench shelf that I'll send you free for the cost of postage. They don't get much use in my shack. Let me know.

-Bill snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com

Allodoxaphobia wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@shell.config.com:

old tube testers used to have metal pin strighteners.

Years ago when I was a TV engineer with a rental company, I had a pin straightner / valve remover in my toolkit. At one end, it had a 'pseudo' B9A valveholder one side, made from some kind of hard plastic - maybe bakelite even, with slightly 'coned' entries to the pin holes, and a B7G holder back to back with it. These were used to straighten pins. This part of the tool was then attached to a soft(ish) plastic tube, slightly conical in shape. When you had to change a valve in an awkward place, such as at the front of an old turret tuner, especially when it was mounted upside down, you just pushed the tool over the valve and then pulled. The softness of the plastic gripped the glass of the valve, probably assisted by vacuum, and out it came. The replacement valve could be fitted by first inserting it into the plastic tube, and then using it as an extension to your fingers to manoeuvre it into the valve holder. Once in place, the tool could be gently rocked and removed, leaving the valve in place. I have a vague suspicion that this tool was actually supplied by Mullard, but I could be wrong there. I have a clear memory of it being a baby blue colour. Happy days ...

Arfa

Belling & Lee Ltd. L1424 Made in England

Yuppers, baby blue, soft rubber with hard black 7 and

Jeff

Me too.

I don't think i had much luck with those "straigteners" into which one plugged the whole tube.

I had cases where the pins were so bent they couldn't get into the all-pin thing, and I used needle nose, and they worked so well, I was done.

They're being sold as antiques on eBay. Search for "pin straightener". For example:

You'll also find them mixed into tube/valve collections at hamfests and flea markets. I have one somewhere.

Incidentally, in the bad old days of 16K and 64Kbit dynamic RAM, in dual inline 14/16/18 pin packages, I had the same pin straightening problem. I had a local machine shop fabricate a suitable IC pin straightener.

I was planning on making my fortune selling these, but the SIM/DIMM/SIP packages appeared, making DIP memory instantly obsolete. Oh well.

the

fire-cement.

pliers.

You already own one and I don't, and I wish to get the pins straightened today and the repair back out the door, as I need the space.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Ah well - after more than 35 years, I don't reckon that was too bad a bit of memory on my part !! Not Mullard but Belling Lee. I knew it was someone famous in the trade ! Might still have been actually distributed by Mullard though ...

Arfa

I still have a DIP IC pin straightner in my toolbox. It has a central mandrel which is spaced for standard DIPs - your common 14 or 16 pin logic ICs for instance - on one side, and for wide DIPs like EPROMs, on the other. Either side, is a spring loaded arm, with a shoulder made to butt against the mandrel when the tool is squeezed closed in your hand. Made from hard blue plastic, it is a bit like one of those squeezy hand muscle exercisers or stress relievers. You simple drop your IC with snaggled pins, over the appropriate mandrel, and squeeze. When you let go, your pins are back in line. Obviously, it only corrects pitch on the wide axis, but if the pins are out of line with respect to each other, you can quickly correct that with needle nosed pliers. A most useful tool, which has seen much service over the 25 years that I have owned it.

Arfa

the

with

run

the

pliers.

A 20 minute job making a straightener and pins are now sober. It would have taken that to track down a UK supplier and order one and then 3 days at least. Also my method could be used for non-standard pinnings

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

I just tried googling valve pin "straightening tool" site:co.uk nothing found

They're available in the US. Here's a current eBay auction for one...

Geez, how many techs or engineers does it take to straighten a few pins??? :)

I'd just go with a fine tipped needlenose and be done with it in 5 minutes. Or if you want to get fancy, a thin rod with an appropriately sized hole drill in it!

-- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

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That 'fire-cement' doesn't ring a bell here in the US, have a brand name I could look up? Sounds like an interesting product.