Can anybody point me to a source for some non-slip tweezers?
I’ve never seen any such thing but my need for them was made obvious while trying to attach a tiny plastic part to a car body shell; specifically, trying to attach brake levers to Accurail hoppers. That brake lever is maybe 1/4" long and a peg on its back side must be inserted in a half-round hole on the end of the hopper. Since the part is cast of a fairly slippery plastic and my tweezers are chrome plated, holding on to that little bugger was almost impossible.[censored] [censored] [censored]
It occurred to me that tweezers with a soft material on the face of the tips would allow holding small parts without damaging them and with a whole lot less frustration. Another possiblity might be to glue (ACC??) thin pieces of rubber (trimmed from a rubber band?) to the tweezers I have.
Any suggestions?
On a slightly brighter note, some of the Accurail hoppers I’m assembling have that @#$%^ brake lever cast on the body. I’m hoping those are a more recent, improved design from Accurail.
Have you checked with Micro Mark? http://www.micromark.com/ Their online catalog has all kids of goodies, although I’ve never see non slip tweezers. They do have a pair with a little indentation in the tips, but I don’t think this would be what you want.
You might try some plastic dip. This site shows where available on the net http://www.ehow.com/buy_11030_plastic-dip.html but it might be in your local big box hardware store. If you do try it, report back to us on it worked.
Enjoy
Paul
Chuck,
Try coating the tips of the tweezers with AC, let it completely dry, If the coated surface is still too slippery sand or slightly roughen up. I have even cross-hatched with a blade. When no longer needed, just scrape the glue completly off. Found this by accident once when CA ran on the tool.
Bob K.
The suggestion about the shrink tubing is a good one. They do make non slip tweezers. These are forceps, (tweezers) used in surgery for holding small structures like nerves and membranes. If there is a flea market in your area, you may want to look for what are called Dura pickups, or Adson forceps, same instrument, different name. There is a "surgical " instrument dealer at most of the ones in our area. These generally are made in Pakistan, and are not really surgical quality instruments, but for modeling, these are more than adequate. They come with and without “teeth”, and the jaws come in different widths. I have used these for years and and now have several sets for use.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I particularly liked the idea of using heat-shrink tubing.
But I did implement my original idea of cementing a small piece cut from a rubber band on the inside of each gripping surface. Used medium viscosity Super Jet ACC and let it set up for about ten minutes. I then used a new Xacto knife to trim the rubber to match the outside edges of the tweezers.
Worked great! I used the modified tweezers to sort some very small plastic parts and didn’t drop one!