I bought a Harbor Freight tweezer assortment, they work OK at best. For very fine PE and detail work, the tips are not well aligned, and they are essentailly useless.
I found a decent broad, square, macined tip set at the drugstore, but I also need to find a set with a narrow tip, and am not having any luck. I have looked at Michaels, the drug store, and the big box home center.
Anyone have a recommendation?
Thanks
Bill
I picked up a needle nosed type in the tool coral at OSH.
Nice fine tip for tiny PE peices.
Eric…
you can always try the beauty area in stores sometimes they do have point nosed typed. it works best for me. or check out ur local hobby store and have them order what u need.
Look for Excelta brand tweezers, these are production quality units…
Your local retailer can get these through their distributor stocking Xuron products.
I like Tamiya’s tweezers. Not the craft ones, but the HG ones.
If money is not an issue then these are unsurpased:
If you want tweezers for picking up small parts I recommend the La Cross brand Tini-Tweeze. They are stainless steel, have a sharp point and are durable. Best part, you can get them at Walmart in the beauty section for about $6.00. I have two on my bench and use them constantly. I haven’t found a hobby-specific tweezer that worked any better. Great for PE.
Erem tweezers are superb. Excellent stainless steel, several tip shapes, and the most comfortable handles in the business. Available from many electronics and tool dealers online.
You know your tools!
Erem makes the best tweezers and diagonal cutters hands down.
The neverust hawkeye mentioned are good too
I also like some General Tool products, they cheap.
Tamiya tweezers are made of cheap materials, soft tips.
What about the brand that I posted a link to?
Hi Mike.
Those ceramic tip tweezers are way out of my (and perhaps most modelers’) price range. They’re around 50 dollar each, and tip replacements for half of that.
We used to have some at work, for working on prototype IC boards. The tips are over hardened and not very ideal for these applications. IMO, the best tweezers for modelers are correctly treated steel / alloy.
The best pair of tweezers I’ve ever had came from a beauty store called Sephora. About $18, but they are fantastic! I always say yes when my girlfriend asks if I want to go there with her. They’ve got lots of other cool stuff I’ve made into modelling tools.
Jeff
The TDI look very much like some ergonomic tweezers sold under the Excelta brandname, another Swiss brand of electronic pliers and tweezers. Given the way things work these days, it’s entirely possible that most of the very high quality tweezers come from a small number of factories. Several of the high-quality European tool manufacturers source parts of their lineup from other firms; Wiha does this, for example.
Kind of like the cheap tools from China rebranded for retail sales, only at a far higher quality level.
The electronic supply sites often carry a wide range of tweezers, miniature pliers, and other tools for work on very small components. The prices vary, so it’s worth it to shop around. And some offer periodic sales that are quite significant.
You can get non-magnetic stainless tools, and you can get a magnetizer/demagnetizer from Wiha and other sources.