Star Soldering

It has a solid heavy yellow plate with rubber feet so it won't tip over. Screws pass through the rubber feet, plate and go into the threaded arm bases. The screw on alligator clips have rubber gaskets to slide over the teeth so you won't scrape up the things you want to hold. When you screw on the alligator clips you can adjust their positions and tighten the lock nuts. If you buy this without the lighted magnifier glass you can order that separately and it screws on in place of one of the arms. I realized I needed that feature now. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YJH2N2V/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Adding the light costs about the same price as the Kotto that comes with the light. The light has a very nice glass magnifying lens and is very bright for a USB powered LED light. With an off, low or high selector switch. Well for those times when you need an extra pair of hands to do something the right way, this is well worth it. You'll need and use this often. Get one today.

Really nice heavy plate. Nice goosenecks. I just wish I knew this company/seller had a star plate with a magnifying glass. I didn't know until I saw the brochure now I want that one instead but it's not offered on amazon I looked . Can we figure this out somehow

Very sturdy. Heavy enough not to get pushed over. Arms are strong enough to hold moderately heavy. (3-4 lb) Solid metal base as advertised.

I picked the 5 handed basic set. I probably could have gotten by with less arms as the most I used a once was 3. But I’ll keep what I’ve got. The heavy base and rubber feet kept the helper from moving around. Unfortunately the arms tend to loosen at the base when manipulated. Adding lock washers between the arms and the base fixed that. Ditto for the alligator clips. Even using the locking collar, the clips tend to move when you don’t want them to. A small lock washer below the clip helps there too. I also took the plastic covers off the alligator clips as protection wasn't needed. The clips can grip better and hold a larger object without the covers. After that, I had an easier time getting stuff to stay where I wanted it.

Keep in mind that at the time of this review I've owned it for less than 24h so YMMV. Assembly was very easy. Only took 5 minutes. Seems quite sturdy. The lock mechanism for the alligator clamps was a bit counterintuitive at first, but a little quality time with the device set this straight. As for stability... it is appropriate if you work with smaller projects like Arduino-sized boards or smaller. I work routinely with larger PCBs and I may have some stability issues there. But that is not a big problem. Adding a lead brick on the platform will increase the stability tremendously. Or even a chunk of iron, rock etc. In fact I plan on pouring a piece of lead that will fit inside the central pentagon-shaped hole and use that for weighing it down. Shouldn't have any problems after that. Overall for the money spent I'm satisfied.

I'm very pleased with this product. It comes in a flat box and requires some very easy and simple assembly. In fact, you could take it apart and store it in the box when not in use because it's so easy to put together. The hands are very stable and adjust nicely. Mine is very new, so I expect the hands to be a little rigid and revert to a set position, but that should change after more use. The clamps are nice and tight. I would have liked to have gotten some rubber that I can use with the crocodile teeth clamps, so as not to damage some boards.

Bought the 5 arms cuz the simple 2 arm with magnifying glass usually needs at least another arm and is not sturdy enough. This item's base feels twice as heavy and since it is much wider with rubber feet, it will not move or tip. I read one review where the complaint was the hands were too tall and would not allow working near the table top, resting hands while soldering. The 2 arm tool I had would not allow you to work closer than about 3" from the surface and have the alligator clips parallel to the surface. This tool will allow you to work as close to the surface as you like, but probably works best if you take the arms to the side (see photo) since the angle of the bends is less, which also keeps the arms right where you place them. Also, I was impressed with the customer service, which is a bit of a double edged sword since I had to ... deal with customer service! Out of the box, one of the arm's bottom threads was buggered and would not allow the screw to go but half way. I contacted them and they immediately sent out 2 more arms with hardware. As one review mentioned metal shavings in the arm bases, it would be wise to check for this before assembling.

Assembly was cake and largely did not require tools. A screwdriver could be used to tighten the arms down, but hand tightening worked fine. The base is quite narrow, so the arms necessarily need to bend outwards. Because of this, I found bending the clamping heads to the right angle so they could all hold something to be quite difficult. The arms bend, but are not flexible enough to make tight enough curves for proper angling of the clamps. Additionally, they spring back quite a bit, so even if I bent the arms into the desired position, they wouldn't always stay there. I believe helping hands with fewer but more discrete joints would be more useful, as they might hold positioning better.

Es bastante útil si necesitas como tal una tercera mano, materiales que son de buena calidad, pero si requieres trabajos con mucha precisión o que debas aplicar fuerza,quizá no sea la mejor opción, ofrece firmeza pero no demasiada, tanto el peso de la base y la movilidad de los brazos lo impide, la uso para microsoldadura y me va bastante bien.

Simple design when you don't need another magnifying lamp. The base weights enough to hold my work without tipping, the goosenecks are stiff so they will hold their position and the clips have decent tension to hold fine parts/wires.

I purchased the five arm plate model and it arrived the very next day as promised. I assembled it within 20 minutes it was that simple. I am surprised at the solid quality of the base and all the fittings. I really feel I got more than I was expecting for the cost. It will go into production tomorrow.

A great product with a very stable base. Plenty of arms to hold anything while working on it, all in all a great product.

Does what i need it to do and like the longer arms for better positions