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We have been doing some cleaning up out in the electronics production area and found the "mystery tool" shown in the two images below. It is made from stainless steel. The blue insulation is dipped and the black insulation is heatshrink tubing. I estimate that it's around 10 years old, but that's just an educated guess. For reference, the quarter is about 1"/25mm in diameter. Does anyone recognize this tool?

enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ Might be for the hold down mechanism on some sort of heatsink clamp? It sort of looks like someone said "oh we could take the idea of an old DIP IC extractor and modify it to do that" where "that" is interact with unique features of some sort of mechanical latch that probably involved a bar spanning something and captured by spring latches at one or both ends. Consider past products assembled and what sort of sockets components or modules they contained. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Stratton
    Aug 20, 2020 at 14:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ Looks like its meant to be used on something live. \$\endgroup\$
    – DKNguyen
    Aug 20, 2020 at 14:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ Heatsink clamp for chips \$\endgroup\$
    – Tony Stewart EE75
    Aug 20, 2020 at 14:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ Purposes of these tools depends on how old are they? and what kind of products was intended for production? What was the available technology at that age? Is it going back to acient time? I can search in our ministry of historic monuments documentaries if needed. Just give me the green light 🚦 \$\endgroup\$
    – ahm_zahran
    Aug 20, 2020 at 15:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ChrisH I see. Whenever I've used tools like that I've never needed to grip so low. I hold it around the middle. I figured the gap was just because it was for low-voltage use where shock wasn't an issue but shorting was. \$\endgroup\$
    – DKNguyen
    Aug 21, 2020 at 13:15

1 Answer 1

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It is a Pace brand tip remover tool.

It is used to grab the hot soldering iron tip and swap it out with another one.

The black rubber is not heat-shrink... it's something that will withstand the temperature of the soldering iron tip, perhaps silicone.

If you look closely, there is also a straight-edge screwdriver at the end. This is for loosening the tip lockscrew.

Attached is a small image of a typical Pace set-up.enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ Good catch +1. Pace model 1100-0206. \$\endgroup\$
    – Spehro Pefhany
    Aug 20, 2020 at 17:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Interesting tool indeed. At the lab at my work, we have these rubber pads that come with our soldering station to grab the soldering iron to swap out. \$\endgroup\$
    – user103380
    Aug 20, 2020 at 21:32

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