Toronto64C sparked a conversation on The Oasis BBS the other day when he mentioned that some chips for his computers got mashed and the pins were all bent and flattened. I mentioned to him that I had this nifty tool that helped me out of a similar jam.

I had ordered some old RAM chips to upgrade an IBM Model 25 my neighbor was going to throw away..Whew! Glad he asked me if I wanted it! It had 512k and I upgraded it 640k.

The RAM chips came from Germany. They were not shipped well. (This was an EBay purchase.) The 6 chips came on a single sheet of foam in an envelope. Evidently, every mail carrier along the way from Germany to Virginia felt the need to drop the package or drop other packages on it or even step on it.

When I opened it, I just knew these chips were toast! They were mashed flat with the legs out, twisted and mashed with the legs folded under. It was a disaster.

I had recently ordered something from my friends at DIY Chris and they included 'at no additional charge' this PIN STRAIGHTENER. After I did the initial (best that I could) un-bending and straightening, I put each chip in the straightener and the chips were saved. One side is for smaller chips and if you flip it over the other is for the larger chips. You put the chip in and squeeze. The device works VERY well. Here are a couple of pictures of it. Sorry about my workbench being a bit dusty.

It is a great little tool to have on-hand when accidents happen. It could end up saving you some $$ in the long run.

DF