DIY Quest Complete

How many of you use one of these horrible things?

I've gone through about 4 of them.  They blow.  So, I've been looking for something nicer and more long lasting with better functionality.  It took a while but I finally found this:

http://www.grstools.com/for-jewelry-work/third-hands-and-soldering-stations/third-hand-with-soldering-station.html

$130 dollars later...

Their pic:

In action:

Here she is.  The grippers open very wide and have replaceable tines so you can upgrade to tungsten tines for platinum soldering (so they suggest).  They are textured so they have adequate grip, but they aren't serrated so they won't gouge what you are building.  The whole thing is made of metal and it's heavy enough to stay well put, and has nice rubber feet.  It has a removable block is made of some heatproof material that screws down to the central platform, I'm guessing to catch any molten fallout.  I've opted to put the block away.  This 3rd-hand is meant for jewelry work, but it will be very kickass for cable building.  It has 3 points of articulation for each side and there are large screws for adjusting the tension that won't wear out the way the helping hands I've used in the past would - their main problem was that the alligator clips would deform and fall out, and the horizontal bar that the arms attach to has a flimsy plastic screw-knob thing that breaks easily.  

GRS, the company that makes it, has really great service - I would buy it direct from them.

I just spent some more time with it today.  The grippers do let the connector wiggle around a little if you just use 1 to hold it, you would need some curved, rubberized tines on there instead of the flat textured metal tines to really have a serious grip...but if you grip a 1/4" plug from the back rather than the screw threads using the left side hand, or use both hands to hold it, it has a tenacious grip.  The tines can be unscrewed and replaced with replacement tines or tungsten ones as I mentioned...certainly you could make custom tines for it.  You can also put whatever small tools you're working with on the flat metal base to keep track of them which is nice.  

Yeah, it would help if they were curved.  The problem is that if you're grabbing a plug by its threads, the point of contact isn't real big, I may try covering the tines in shrink.  They have plenty of grip for flatter objects...anyway, it's tricky, but I wish I had some custom tines for it.