Hello, how are you going? My name is Sam from Cora Electronics and today we're going to be taking a look at tweezers. That's right, we're taking a look at some tools that are vital for a really good workbench.

So what's so important about tweezers? Well, first of all, you shouldn't just go around using the average tweezers that you used, you know, to pick splinters out of your feet or, you know, scrape under your toenails, things like that, because chances are they're just going to be generic metal tweezers. And for electronics work, you need something really good to pick up the fine components.

Now, what are we looking for for a good pair of tweezers for electronics work? Because in electronics, in case you haven't noticed, we need to pick stuff up and grab fine and delicate components and small parts all the time. So it goes a long way to have a really good set or two of tweezers in your workbench and your collection of tools.

So what are we looking for? Well, first off, we're looking for some that are anti-static. Now, what this means is that they're not going to transfer static discharge onto sensitive components. Because say you're dealing with a Raspberry Pi board, the GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi are quite sensitive to static damage and discharge. And if you accidentally give them a shock, you could damage the pin or the whole board, rendering it a worthless coaster, which isn't what you want. So an anti-static rating is perfect. It's really a must when you're working with electrical components.

You don't have to spend very much. All of these cost around $5 or $6. And we're going to take a look at a few different options. So first up, we've got these. And these are from Adafruit. They're from a brand called Vetus. And they're awesome. They're extremely fine-tipped tweezers. In fact, so fine, they're quite sharp. So be careful when working with them. But they've got a nice matte black finish with some stainless steel tips that are hardened, so they're not going to bend. And they're anti-magnetic along with anti-static. So perfect for working with sensitive and delicate electronic components. As you can see, quite nice and fine tip for picking up really, really tiny parts. You can get these in the curved variety here or with straight noses as well. And they're handy for getting into different hard-to-reach places. Come with a nice little silicon cover.

Now, next up, we've got this variety from Sparkfun. And these are called cross-locking or cross-locked tweezers. Because as you notice with these ones, normally they're held open by the tension in the metal and you squeeze to close them. But with this ones, the needle handles go across each other, which means that they're being forced closed by the tension in the metal when you're not squeezing them, which is really good if you want to grab hold of things. So say you want to pick up these tweezers, simply grab a hold, open them up, and then let go. And they'll give you a really, really secure grip, which is awesome. And again, you can get these in the curved variety or the straight variety. They're ESD, electrostatic discharge, safe. They have a nice coating on them which prevents that.

And last up, we've got something a bit different. We've got these probe tweezers. Now, what are these? Well, they're simply probes that connect up to your multimeter so you can measure voltage or current, different things like that. But they have these two little probes on the end of the tweezers there, which is super handy, especially for surface mount devices where you want to get in. It might be already soldered to the board and you're doing some troubleshooting. You can simply get in, put the probes on either side of the component, and it'll give you a read out. Normally, if you have measuring these kinds of things, you're doing a bit of circus limbo where you've got one probe here, one probe here, and you're trying to hold the circuit in place and read the multimeter. Well, no more. Get yourself a pair of these. So, so useful.

So that's it, guys. A quick wrap on some of the best tweezers you can get for your workbench, how and why you should use them, a few different varieties. Generally, getting a whole set is the best way to go. These will only cost you five or six dollars each, so you can grab a couple and keep some in the toolbox on the workbench wherever you go. That's all for today, guys. Have a good one.