I bought this to replace the Helping Hands I got from Radio Shack about 20 years ago. The previous one had a 4" magnifier lens, and nice long "helping hand" arms. It lasted 20 years of solid use in my electronics workbench.
Size: By far the biggest surprise was the size. I expected something larger. I should have more clearly read the description, but from the pictures it appeared much larger than it actually is. The lens is a meager 2 1/2 inches in diameter. and the "arms" of the the helping-hands are just 3 inches long, including the articulating joint used to connect it to the main beam.
Balance: An important aspect of any helping-hand is the weight and balance, which affects how it can be positioned and what it can hold while you do your work. This unit is nicely balanced, with a good sized (and weighed) black base, which has legs that extend out enough to allow the center of gravity to shift when loading parts into the grippers. I suspect the small magnifying glass was designed to reduce the required weight of the base, since it would need to be significantly larger to balance a 4" glass piece.
Grip: The helping hand end-effectors (the grippers) work really well, keeping parts held in place, and the wingnuts on the articulating joints tighten up nicely to help maintain part position, even when pressing on the part with a soldering iron.
Magnification: The magnifying glass is reasonable, for it's size, but because it is so small it's hard to get a good viewpoint when positioning yourself over it to look at your soldering operation. The viewing angle is very small, which causes the magnified part to shift out of view very quickly when moving your head from one position to another.
Quality: This is where the product fails completely. The actual materials used in making the components to hold the magnifying glass are cheap and flimsy! When I pulled mine out of the packaging the glass fell out of the metal band into my hand. I put it back in and tightened the band, assuming the problem was due to vibration during shipping. But after just two uses the glass fell out again. After taking a better look I realized the band had stretched out (at some point) and could no longer hold the magnifying glass. I have since put epoxy on it and that seems to have fixed it. But honestly, it's something that could have been avoided had they simply used a slightly higher gauge metal, rather than going the cheap route for the band.
Recommendation: Unfortunately, I need to recommend AGAINST this product. It definitely does the job for the smaller pieces and those that only need a very small magnification area. But if you're planning to use this often, and need a quality helping-hand / magnification combination tool that will last several years, then you will want to look elsewhere.
| Manufacturer | TEKTON |
|---|---|
| Part Number | 7521 |
| Item Weight | 14.4 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 7.25 x 2.5 x 9.5 inches |
| Item model number | 7521 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Number Of Pieces | 1 |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Warranty Description | Always Guaranteed: support@tekton.com |
