Xuron 573 Xuro-Former Lead Former

Works very well and makes forming leads to stand components such as power resistors away from a circuit board a snap. For years I'd either wedged something between the part and the board to shim it away until it was soldered in place, or made spacing bends by twisting the leads with needle nose pliers. While effective, neither method was particularly fast or convenient, and the latter made for some lead bends that weren't especially pretty. Using these lead forming pliers, all it takes is a quick squeeze on each lead and in one shot you almost instantly have a neat, uniform zig-zag with the remaining lead pointing out straight for insertion into the board. I use them after putting the right angle bend into the lead; they can easily be spaced by gauging against the edge of the part. Insert the part into the board, bend the leads on the backside to hold it in place, solder it and you have a neatly and evenly spaced component.

This tool has a very specific application: putting kinks into component leads. The idea is to create a relief in the lead that will protect the component from excessive vibration or strain. For this purpose, it works well and creates consistent kinks very quickly.My interest in this tool was to see if I could use the kink not for a strain relief, but rather to hold the component on the board while soldering from the other side. I had read an Internet post where someone described using this tool for that purpose. (Google "xuron 573 head-fi" and you'll find it.) In short, I had decent results with some components but overall it was a bust. The kink size is supposed to be adjustable but the range is fairly small (see provided picture). In the cases where it did work, it was too time-consuming to be worth it. I'll probably return the 573 and stick to my previous method of using a foam sheet clamped to the PCB while soldering.If you just need to create strain reliefs in component leads, this tool will do it for you. I deducted a star only because on a specialty tool like this I'd expect the manufacturer to provide more information on the type and size of kinks it makes.