Modified My Test Lamp!

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro) 06/15/2018 at 22:30 • Filed to: tools

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It’s better than new now!

A while ago, the spring fell out of my test lamp’s ground clip and disappeared before I could find out where it rolled off to. So to save myself a trip to the store, I took the spring out of an old retractable ballpoint pen and soldered it inside the clip. It worked, but not great.

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The spring was weaker than the original one, and it wasn’t very good at clipping onto anything smaller than ~1/4". I put up with it like that anyway for far too long, clipping it around larger studs so that it might have a better chance of not falling off.

But I remembered noticing some YouTuber (I want to say it was probably EricTheCarGuy or Eric O. of SouthMainAuto) using a modified one that used locking pliers for a ground clamp .

Well heck, that’d be perfect! I don’t have the heart to go buy a new test lamp when all I need to replace is the ground clip, and I don’t even need to cut off a “perfectly good” ground clip to take advantage of this upgrade.

So today, I finally got around to just that-

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I went to the store and picked up the smallest, cheapest pair of locking pliers that I could find: this $4 Tekton one. I then yanked off the test lamp’s old clip, which was crimped on tight enough to make a good connection, but it didn’t do much to keep it from coming apart when I tugged on it.

Next, I stripped back some insulation for some fresh wire and zip-tied it to the new pliers, to hold it in place for soldering and serve as a little stress-relief. I then soldered the exposed wire onto the pliers. It’s not often that I break out my little soldering iron, and wouldn’t ya know it popped right off when I tried to test its strength. I really need more practice (and probably a better soldering iron)... But before trying again, I took a grinder and scuffed up the metal on the pliers where I wanted the wire to make contact. Gave it another go, and boom. Now it was holding well!

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It was probably gonna be fine as-is, and the pliers, wire, and zip-tie made it too awkward for heat shrink anyway. But I’ve got this roll of “heat shrink tape” that I’ve been meaning to try out... So I wrapped it around a few times and applied some heat:

Well, it’s not quite as nice-looking as I’d hoped, but it’ll do. (Maybe I just need some more practice with this tape, too.)

But I’m pleased. This is one hell of an upgrade, and I’m looking forward to having a nice, TIGHT ground connection next time I need to trace power. Wish I had done this sooner!

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functionoverfashion > Urambo Tauro 06/15/2018 at 22:37

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That’s a great idea! I have a pair of “vice-grips” that I don’t know where they came from, but they’re self-adjusting... I can’t quite describe it, but they have a clever mechanism that you don’t have to turn a screw to get them to close. However, it’s never as tight as you’d want for vice-grips, so they’re useless. But damn, they’d be PERFECT for this application. I love it!

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro 06/16/2018 at 00:08

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This. This is freaking awesome!!

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Urambo Tauro 06/16/2018 at 00:48

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That really is ingenious!

Chariotoflove > Urambo Tauro 06/16/2018 at 00:48

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Nice job. Lock pliers FTW. I don’t know how I survived as long as I did before I bought a pair.

Chariotoflove > functionoverfashion 06/16/2018 at 00:49

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Username checks out.