Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/hakko-micro-cutters-will-flush-2.html
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Flush cutters like that are also critical for cutting off sprue on plastic models, the goal being to get as close to the part as possible, then sand it fine, best results with a foam nail file. A must for gunpla fans.
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I also like to hold onto the old flush cutters once they become dull for snipping off component leads, chunks of protoboards and particularly thin RF shields.
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Also versatile at cutting off the little finger murder blades plastic tips from poorly trimmed zip ties! Flush-cutters are so very handy.
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Nobody touches my flush cutters! I worked at a makerspace for a while and we had several sets of hand tools in the electronics room including some flush cutters. Every single one of them got destroyed over time because people would grab them to use in other areas like for cutting welding wire or large diameter copper. It made me furious when I’d go to use one of them and there’d be huge nicks or the blades would be completely misaligned.
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fixed that for ya
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They’re pretty good for fingernails as well. Just don’t let some grad student borrow them to trim his guitar strings!
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I briefly considered murdering a new grad engineer who used my $100 pair of Lindstrom cutters to snip inconel wire. It looked like a serrated knife when she was done. She knew better!
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a) These will generally run you $1-2 less at most hobby stores.
b) They’re REALLY good for working on ingrown nails, if blunt enough, especially for the toes.
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@frauenfelder - I am not sure if that is you or Amazon but the affiliate link took me to an affiliate disclosure page and then on to the Canadian page in the app (the correct Country for me).
This is a huge improvement.
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More importantly - a decent pair of flush cutters lets you trim the tail on zip-ties without leaving a blood-drawing edge in whatever you’re wiring
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There’s always a murder investigation at work when a pair of flush cutters turn up with a nick
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Frankly, I have a version that has an integrated wire stripper. Like the Velleman VT109N. A real time-saver if you’re cutting and placing wire on an electronics project!
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There are some types of wire that will destroy the edge even on so-called ‘hard-wire’ cutters. I work in vehicle logistics, and often a car would arrive with both keys held together using a rectangular wire ‘loop’ with the open ends, which have hooks bent into them, pushed into a plastic lock. We used to have to separate the keys for certain security purposes, and breaking that wire was a nightmare! Bending and twisting it often resulted in a sharp snapped end stabbing a finger, so I tried some regular wire cutters, which got notched first go, then hard-wire cutters, same thing, even a pair of 8” cutters were notched. The only thing that could cut the stuff was my Gerber MT800 multitool, the replaceable cutters on the pliers are tungsten carbide, and chopped straight through.
I keep meaning to get a pair of these edge cutters, partly for my toenails, but mainly for zipties, as a couple of people have said, the cut ends are bloody sharp!
Flush cutters should be taught in the first class session of Soldering 101. Heathkit should have included a pair of flush cutters with every kit sold (along with an appropriate soldering iron). Probably would of saved kit manufacturers a lot of money and headaches. YMWNV (Your mileage will not vary).
Our amateur radio club visited the headquarters of Heathkit in Benton Harbor,MI. in the late 60s. They had a sort of soldering “Wall of Shame”. There were pc boards that looked like a BernzTorch or a sheet metal soldering iron had been used. Holes melted clean thru the pc boards and parts melted into unrecognizable blobs. Some had parts with the leads damaged because diagonal cutters were used.
Heathkit replaced the damaged goods at the cost of the price difference between kits and preassembled devices.
I made some good coin building kits for others. Everything from the simplest color organ to Dynaco audio equipment to Heathkit color TVs. All this because someone used the wrong tools for the job.
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Is that a real class? I learned at the school of hard knocks.
My first soldering attempts at 10ish where atrocious. I don’t solder much, but I can make a respectable joint with the right tools.
No it’s not a real class. If I was teaching electronics it would be tho’. If I didn’t have a bazillion projects might teach on the web.
Matt
I got a new pair of cutters to deal with those ties, we used a lot putting up the local Fringe Festival each year. They were a lot safer than utility knives, and easier.
But one time I was helping the electrician, but he just broke off the excess by twisting. I forget exactly how. But I said something and he said the twisting left a safer end.
I used a woodburning kit we had around fpr my first soldering attempts, at age 11. It was only when I actually got better that I realized not only that my.solder joints were awful, but the untinned woodburning iron was not the right tool.
But I suspect my bad soldering wasn’t the onky reason those first few projects didn’t work. I had no skill at troubleshooting, the parts I got may not have been the same pinout (or even good substitutes) and I knew so little that I’d not know abiut tyese things.
But you have to start somewhere.
