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I can’t figure out what this old tool is.

Does anyone know?

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Honey
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2 Answers2

56

This is not a home improvement tool. It is a chip insertor tool.

Image found at https://www.ebay.com/itm/392277393572 Curtis Computer Repair Kit

It allows you to apply even pressure on a digital chip when inserting it into a socket. This was most commonly used for RAM upgrades. Adding 256K to an IBM PC might require 36 chips, so a tool to help install the RAM chips properly was very useful. You don't see these nearly as much anymore as RAM chips are now in easy to install DIMMs and most other chips are normally soldered in place and this style of chip has become less common.

manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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UnhandledExcepSean
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4

I guessed it was a jeweller's hand vise and was missing some padded jaw inserts, but the accepted answer looks better.

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These are a small version of a bench vise and are used for clamping small parts for filing. Something similar is used to hold gemstones for polishing, again with formed inserts to match the item.

Criggie
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