Straightening tube/valve pins

should be

Pyruma fire cement

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

Crikey! do they still make that? When I was a kid it was promoted in kids comics and the 'Railwaymodeller' for making models, it came in tins with press on lids - that takes me back.

I spose the modern equivelent would be DAS modelling clay.

Ron(UK)

Needle nose pliers.

Chain-nose pliers would be even better.

Don't have a pair.

You probably do. Most people call chain-nose pliers needle nose.

Heh, they still make Wood's Metal also. I have some radio books dating back to the early 1900's talking about setting galena in Wood's Metal as not to ruin the crystal.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, nearly everything is available!

Joe

I don't have a pair of either.

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------------------- . Nah! I gotta one; somewhere, for small tubes/valves with 'pins in glass' bases. 6C4, 12BE6, 6BZ7, 12AU7 etc. Left over from me TV fixing days in the mid 1950s. And it's green metal. Cost around 65 cents (about 30 p?) back then if I recall. B7G one end and B9A t'other end IIRC. Tube suppliers would sometimes have them as 'giveaways' if you bought a lotta tubes. Smaller than a spool of thread/reel of cotton. (Depending on which form of H'english you speaks!). As mentioned the entry to each pin is slightly 'coned' or concaved to guide a a bent pin into position. Used too aggressively it could break the glass tube base. Have fun.

True, but you can't call all needle-nose pliers chain-nose. Correct me if I'm wrong, but chain-nose pliers are usually small and usually used for fine work like jewelry making, or other delicate work. Don't they also usually have smooth jaws or so as not to damage soft metals?

You can call those little ones "needle-nose" pliers, but you can't call a big heavy duty 12" pair of needle-nose pliers "chain-nose".

You really need both. I used needle-nose to straighten pins.

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lly

Needle-nose pliers: Flat-inside, half-round outside (D-shaped), extended nose jaws, typically with tip serrated and a side-cutter.

Smooth-jaw needle-nose: as above, but no serrated tip and no cutter.

Chain-nose: Round jaws (O-shaped), no serrated tip, no cutter.

All of the above come as "bent-nose" with either a 45 or 90 degree bend.

All of the above irrespective of size.

Then, there are specialties within the group such as 'tip- cutter' (cutter at the tip of the jaws) and extended-jaw (jaws longer than handle, but still irrespective of size), even parallel-jaw (double jointed at the knuckle so they jaws remain parallel when opening and closing) and box-knuckle (joint).

I spent a few shifts in the tool-room in my time - and between fetching buckets of air and carbon-stretchers all these fine distinctions became second-nature.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

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fine

I meant that many people /mistakenly/ call chain-nose pliers needle-nose.

Damn-it, Peter. Now I have to go buy more tools. The parallel-jaw pliers sound like they would come in handy. I already knew I needed a set of what you've labeled "extended jaw" pliers.

Needle-nose pliers: Flat-inside, half-round outside (D-shaped), extended nose jaws, typically with tip serrated and a side-cutter.

Smooth-jaw needle-nose: as above, but no serrated tip and no cutter.

Chain-nose: Round jaws (O-shaped), no serrated tip, no cutter.

All of the above come as "bent-nose" with either a 45 or 90 degree bend.

All of the above irrespective of size.

Then, there are specialties within the group such as 'tip- cutter' (cutter at the tip of the jaws) and extended-jaw (jaws longer than handle, but still irrespective of size), even parallel-jaw (double jointed at the knuckle so they jaws remain parallel when opening and closing) and box-knuckle (joint).

I spent a few shifts in the tool-room in my time - and between fetching buckets of air and carbon-stretchers all these fine distinctions became second-nature.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

just to throw another cherry bomb in the fire, those are generally called duck-bill liars around here.

John

What? No requests to fetch sky hooks or left-handed monkey wrenches? :-)

I wonder how widespread is the usage of such mythical terms; I had a friend who labeled boxes of unknown (mostly hardware) components "muffler bearings", and another who routinely castigated incompetent parts buyers saying of them "he doesn't know modems from manhole covers".

How about some more of these?

Michael

:-)

Um.... Monkey wrenches do come in "hands". And ambidexterous (self- adjusting). It has to do with the hand of the thread, guys - not the jaw side. Lest you think I am kidding: Lot 666 (interesting lot number, as well:

As well.

And, I was waiting for this one to come along ;-)>

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

:-)

Forgot this one:

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

We used to send apprentices for rubber hammer and glass nails, and also for a long weight ... I also used to work with a wonderful old boy called Norman who used to tell little old ladies who asked what was wrong with their TV set so that they could tell their husbands when they got home that he had had to "move the hyposthphosphicator two degrees nearer to the ecliptant in order to improve the impactic contact". It took me years to learn that properly, and I've never forgotten it, or how he could say it to customers with a totally straight face. Another guy that I have done work for in the past, used to bill fuses as "glass encapsulated surge protection devices" :-)

Arfa