Magnetic Helping Hands Third Hand Soldering Work Station | EXtra Large & Heavy Duty Base Plate | Flexible Arms | 360 Hot Air Gun Holder (Helping Hand with Magic Hand)

After using this helping hands set for over a year, my view of it has diminished. This is completely due to the alligator clips. These clips mostly hold on to whatever it is you need, but the lock screws do *not* hold the clips to the arms for long and the alligator clips fall out. Regularly. The metal that the clips are made of is thin and doesnt seem to be able to handle much torque. Or maybe its the set screw. It is infinitely irritating to position a part for soldering only to have the whole thing slowly collapse like marshmallow filling.

Spent a little more on this but probably should have bought one of the cheaper options. The clamp included with this works pretty well but hard to get tight enough. The small clips are thin and seem low quality.

This review is for the version of the product that comes with the third arm. Its actually five arms (two short, two long and one big clamp) but I get it. Its just a name lost in translation. This is a great workstation. Its strong and sturdy. Magnetic hands and pointy columns strongly attach to the base which also has some weight to it. From the moment you begin assembling it you realize theres no chance for whatever you secure to tip or fall over. When I did my first project I used the third arm to grab the board and one of with the alligator clips to keep it steady while I removed some capacitors off the electronics board. Usually I would be struggling with the board lying flat on my desk but with this contraption I was comfortably able to do the job. The third arm allows some rotation so I was able to quickly flip the board over easily. It might seem mundane but it makes a lot of difference! The only downside are cosmetic scratches from normal use. As I kept using it and moving the arms about I noticed I was inadvertently leaving light scratches on the base plate. Its unavoidable and not a big deal (you could re-paint it). The only thing that would make this tool perfect is an extra arm with a magnifier lamp. If you can I strongly recommend you go for the version with the third arm as that piece alone costs more if bought separately and it makes rotating whatever board you clamp on it very convenient.

I had to drill out a hole for one of the clips and hot glue the magnets in the base of two of the arms, otherwise it works as it dhould.