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This little piece of notched plastic is a Resistor Lead Bending Tool. Sometimes referred to as a "forming" tool, this little guy provides you with an easy and reliable way to get the exact distance between two resistor leads that you need to PTH soldering. The Resistor Lead Bending Tool is two-sided, with one side offering 0.4"-1.5" spacing for 1/4 Watt resistors and the other side offering 0.5"-1.5" spacing for 1/2 Watt resistors.
We here at SparkFun use a lot of 1/4 Watt resistors in our PTH soldering kits and have found that this tool is very handy when soldering a lot of resistors at once or over a longer period of time. To use this tool, simply insert your 1/4 Watt or 1/2 Watt resistor into the desired spacing groove and bend the leads over the edges. It's that simple!
Note: 1/6 Watt resistors and specific diodes can be used on this tool but you will need to make sure they are centered before attempting to bend them to your desired preference.
- 1/4 Watt Resistor Spacing: 0.4"-1.5"
- 1/2 Watt Resistor Spacing: 0.5"-1.5"
- Made from high impact ABS Plastic
Resistor Lead Bending Tool Product Help and Resources
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Customer Reviews
4 out of 5
Based on 3 ratings:
1 of 1 found this helpful:
Very helpful when breadboarding
When laying out a project on a breadboard, this tool not only helps with precisely bending, but serves as a template for cutting the leads to fit closer to the surface. Layering breadboard components is very helpful when the project gets cluttered with lots of resistors, jumpers and other components.
Nifty little thing
This is one of those things you don't really need, but is wonderful to have. I'm always finicky about untidy leads, so it's perfect for me. I bought it 4 years ago, and I've used it countless times. I use it for other axial-leaded stuff too, works just fine.
Anyone got an .stl for this? Would love to mod it for some other components as well.
There are several on Thingiverse:
Make an LED one and I'm sold. Or rather, would an LED fit in the 1/2 Watt side?
The slot on the 1/2W side is wide enough for a 5mm LED, if that's what you're asking
OK, not hating here, but this feels like a solution searching for a problem. I've been building through-hole circuits for decades and never felt the need for something like this. What am I missing?
I've been missing this tool, actually. In particular for breadboarding. Bending especially thin resistor legs with your fingers is fiddly and imprecise.
Need? Not so much - either eyeballing it, experience, or just sticking one end in then bending the leads for the other end is usually fine. However, if you want it to look a little nicer - perhaps for a small run of boards that go out to customers or people other than you will see - it can be nice to have. At $5, it won't break the bank either :)