I make my own clip leads or alligator clips as I learned to call them by my father. If you would like some high quality ones let me know. I would be honored to make you some.
Perhaps a rephrase, something like: "I have a hard time throwing out things that are not damaged." Like, things that are in the same working condition as when they left the factory.
I worked in electronics for 50+ years and learned that there was nothing better than making my own clip leads. I used various styles of clips and insulator boots made by Mueller or Pomona and the wire of my choice. That way I had total control of length and gauge of wire and the clip was soldered instead of just crimped.
Absolutely Mueller for clips. I have several boxes of them and the matching boots on my bench. They’re not cheap, but the cost is worth it. I also agree that for pre-made leads, Pomona are probably the best ones available - again very expensive, but something to search for in boxes of random stuff at hamfests.
S&M relationship with my jump clips also. 50 years ago, RadioShack had two clip sizes. The ends were ok, but the wire insulation degraded and attacked the copper, making the wire to the ends intermittent. I still solder repair them using new hookup wire. Sadly, they are my best clips. -Peter
My step father managed to find small Hemostats at the swap meet back in the 70's, that were about the size of small sewing scissors. He drilled a small hole in the handle, threaded it, used a cap bolt, this way he could use ring terminals on the opposite side with nuts so he could change the gauge of the wire he needed depending on the job, also, the length of the wire on the fly. He could grip the handles in his jeweler's vice for holding, and ground the lead if needed while soldering components together. It also meant he could make a multi run if he needed to check multiple components at once. The clamping end could hold pins tightly enough he could poke through insulation, or into plugs to test connections as well.
Happily sifting the comments for clip suggestions and finding a ton of really nice gear. Thanks, Adam, for bringing up the topic and getting people talking, and thanks to all y'all for sharing!
I absolutely love that you are sharing your relative lack of knowledge about electrical work. Not just because I've finally found something that I"m better at than you (j/k), but because it's an excellent lesson to share with my students. It's OK to not be great at everything, as long as we try to be good enough and collaborate with those who can help shore-up our weak areas.
Great comment, and I'd add that it's also important to be willing to openly acknowledge weakness in those areas where we're not as solid. Not only are you more likely to get help when you need it, people will respect your candidness. No one likes working with a know-it-all that can't actually walk the walk.
Deep rabbit hole here. We tend to use what we have by the bench, not what we need. Alligator vs. crocodile vs. J-hook vs. piercing vs bed-of-nails vs. etc. All in various degrees of quality. Don't forget the wire type- larger gauges for higher current applications. Flexibility is an issue too. Great topic.
yep, my bench supply lead is 5 feet of 16/2 lamp cord with banana on one end and clips on the other end, as that's what was nearby when i built the power supply. mind you, this cable never sees anything above 32VDC. mostly between 3-12V though.
And this why I make my own clip/alligator/croc leads. Mueller Clips, & Belden Test Lead Wire, soldered & heat shrink sleeved. Color-coded boots to match the wire color. Reliable & easy to repair.
The Omnifixo solder helper with the parallel jaw clips (that was reviewed on tested a while back) should be the basis for an improved clip lead with similar parallel jaws.
Parallel jaws in general are amazing. Knipex pliers-wrenches beat the pants off Crescent (adjustable) wrenches and Channellocks (tongue & groove pliers).
Yep. I bought one after Norm showed it on this channel, and everyone who has tried it so far has absolutely loved it, compared to the crocodile-jawed helpers that either have a poor grip or destroy the insulation of the wire. But what works best for me when prototyping electronics is a breadboard with jumpers. Maybe someone needs to make a version of breadboards that accept banana plugs or at least a slightly larger connector so you can try higher current circuits.
I love Adam Savage, he is the guy that i watched every time he was on tv, he made me become curious and is probaply the reason why i am the person i am now and seeing him complain about Alligator Clips just made my day. You are the person the world allways needed! (ps: Sorry for my bad english, english isnt my first language)
As an electrical testing technician, I build my own test leads and jumper wires. The best I've found is some silicone wire #14 or 16 and the banana jack plugs you build. That way I have the length I need (or want) and I can use any banana jack accessory.
50 years dealing with electricity and electronics here. Don’t trust any of the low cost clip leads until you check them with an ohmmeter. I’ve seen as many as half of a pack be bad right out of the gate.
Embedded system engineer here. My preference is cables with banana connectors on both sides with retractable sheaths (reduces accidental shorts). Then tips of various styles that can be attached to the banana connectors. The meaty alligator clips are what I use most, but I have a couple needle probes and hooks that allow me to probe tiny pins and pads on circuit boards. BNC to banana connector then extends the flexibility to an o-scope. The modularity is incredibly useful.
I have alligator clips on a homemade bench power supply for ease of quick use (think first-order retrievability for voltage) and they have been a tiny annoyance the entire time. This video has opened my eyes to a thing I hadn't been consiously aware of -- I'm ordering a pack of hook clips now
Im currently, still, getting rid of a bunch of old project stuff because im about done tinkering around with things. It turns out, i don't need a walk in closet full of stuff just to keep my guitars maintained. I hate throwing out stuff like that too but I'm getting much better at it. Boy, how it piles up!
I've used Hirschnamm clips and leads. They really are the cream of the crop. After using them for some time, I was shocked when I saw the price for them, but you get what you pay for. The 25A croc clips are super sturdy and nice to use, if a bit bulky. There is also an 8A variant which are rather dainty and excellent. They all connect with banana plugs, and the leads are quite good too, generally rated for quite a few amps. They certainly hold up to some abuse.
The electrical protection and controls testing industry uses "test leads", which have various "test plugs", spade adapters, alligator adapters that fit onto the standardized and modular banana plug style ends of the leads. They are also stackable.
i have the regular trash kind, and i can live with them since i mainly focus on software and computers, where a clip lead rarely if ever gets used. i do some minor projects on the side, but they are few and far between.
I use some German made clips from a company called SKS Kontakttechnik and they are really good. They have such a large variety of clips too, and they’re well isolated as well.
I design and build speakers, clip leads are an enormous part of my life when doing crossover prototyping, but I make all my own with 14 awg and they're always soldered.
In the early 70s, I spent a day with an electrical engineer as part of a high school vocational program. He took pains to inform me that the greatest single obstacle to his work was the unreliability of clip leads. "If it doesn't work, wiggle the damn clip leads." Talented, highly motivated individuals struggle with these bloody things, day in and day out, and apparently in the--fifty? has it been fifty years? Shit.--fifty years since that trip, not one of them has sat down and made his fortune fixing the problem. They don't want to. They can reliably grumble about it. If the leads worked, but the test rig didn't, it would be the engineer's fault, and they can't be havin' none o' that, nosireebob. "Wanna make a million dollars?" NO!!
In electronics design, my favorite cheap clip style is the one you showed with the hook. I have some with that on both sides, and some with banana plugs like yours, which I use to connect to my power supply and multimeter. I have the alligator clip ones as well, but they aren't soldered and are therefore unreliable; I've had to solder a couple of them because they stopped working on me. The wire gauge in all of these is so light, that I don't like pulling much current through them for very long-especially the alligators which are only poorly crimped. I've never had those larger alligator clips.
Alright Adam, I have an extensive collection of leads both homemade and purchased; same complaints. However I have several tips. First, go all in on the banana jacks. then ditch the fluke leads. You can get the tip of a multimeter probe (Extech TL809) that is constructed with a female banana jack and ends with a male banana jack with a sharp tip on it. it has a 3 inch "handle" in the middle that makes is almost look like a fluke lead. Second, start making your own leads using "Retractable Sheath 4mm Banana Plug Male Stackable" ends. These are great since they have both the male and female side and the retractable sheath allows them to be much more resistant to sparking. Now you can have an awesome set of multimeter leads that can be easily extended and can have multiple things attached to it. Third, you can now start incorporating binding posts into projects and using these banana leads to power it. I have a pair of binding posts on my sailboat dc panel and my meter plugs into the neg for a perfect ground every time.
As for the clips, I use the ones that have a female banana jack. my Extech TL809 plugs directly into them. I also make up some mini ez grabber clips and use those for the really small stuff. I make them with a generous length of very light wire leading back to a banana plug.
My solution to crocodile/aligator clips is to try not to need them. Breadboard can reduce the need as can plastic boxes with a series of spring or screw terminals each connected to a 4mm banana plug socket. I also have a number of modules such a plastic box with a switch and two 4mm banana plug sockets which can easily be connected into a circuit. Finally Staubli part number 22.3006-22 can be very useful.
Hi Adam, as an electronics engineer i 100% agree. I hated those in high school (it was a specialized high school for electronics technicians) and i hated them in uni and i hate them to this day. Now days i use only the hooking once you showed, either with the banana plug or with hooks on both ends. Also every one of my colleagues is of similar opinion.
I have several sets of those 'good' clip leads, but with a clip on one end and a male/female stackable banana plug on the other rather than clips on both ends. They're my most used 'go to' leads I use with my multi meter, a pair of them lives in my meter case. If I want a double ended clip lead, I just plug the male/female banana ends together, boom.. double ended clip lead, just be aware of the un-insulated banana plug in the middle of the lead now...nothing some electrical tape won't fix😁👍
Algorithm comment. Thanks for being the only TH-cam channel that doesn't beg for them! You guys do great work, love the channel. Wish I could afford to support you more than likes and comments.
My most recent discovery in this vein was also something of a Rumpelstiltskin problem. I was looking for the connectors that came with new lighting fixtures I got for my mom, and had so much trouble finding them, they're small blocks with levers on them, and you can just push the wires in and snap them in place with a very positive grab, no force required, and in a form factor that can work for some final installations. I've since been able to find them as "Block connectors" or "Lever Nuts" They don't fit the exact niche that alligator leads do, because they won't work as well for parts with flat terminals, but for mocking up a circuit, I'm probably going to use them from now on, as most of the projects I work on have wire leads that work nicely with them.
Wago connectors? They make the most popular level connectors, and now they also make push-in connectors. The jury is still out on them though. They have a little more connection resistance and get a little warmer under normal loads. Very handy for lower-current situations (lamps, not space heaters).
Adam, you never mentioned toothless alligator clips. They've been around for ages and don't have the serrations. They're made for fine electronic work.
My thing is, I usually buy JUST the clips and solder em onto speaker wire or something, and have an assortment of various jumpers - alligator to alligator, alligator to banana, alligator to NEMA to run wall-voltage test stuff, alligator to GPIO pins of various kinds, etc. but what gets the most use for me, by far, is all the plasti-dipped hemostat forceps. Just grab a random piece of stranded wire and 2 hemostats and you can clip everything together VERY securely. Also, for low-voltage prototyping, most of my clip leads have a little pin of hookup wire soldered onto the tip so I can just jam it into a pin header or a piece of proto-board instead of having to awkwardly use hookup wire or protoboard jumpers clipped to one end of my leads, can just jam it directly in. I will say though, buying JUST the clips by themselves comes in EXTREMELY useful because usually if you buy whatever connector goes on the other end, chances are there's probably a speaker-wire solderless connector (y'know, the little springy blade things like on the back of a stereo) that can be plugged right into it so you can use that, those solderless connectors are by far the easiest for 90% of things involving loose wires.
I have a set of different lengths and end combinations that I made in an automotive electrical class at a technical college. It was mostly to practice soldering but we also got something useful out of it. Some of the ends are little aligators like in this video but most of them are different size fuse connectors so you can plug them right into the fuse box of a car and test continuity that way.
"I know enough to be dangerous" Ptff, I got a similar saying with some stuff. "I know just enough to get into trouble." Because that's how I am with scripting. I know enough to work with a few of them, but not enough to not cause problems. Like the other week I was working with my primarily AHK script that runs at login, and one of the changes I made resulted in my computer's memory (64GB) being completely filled within the span of 20 seconds. Had to force a restart and launch into safemode to fix it. The lesson there is to not have a script handle the auto launch of something, without first verifying that it can properly detect if the thing it's going to launch isn't already running.
There is another big issue with cheap alligator clip leads - or at least all the ones I've run across over the past 20 years: They tend to use steel wires rather than copper! Steel is a remarkably poor conductor and as a result, pushing more than 1-2 amps through the leads will quickly result in melted plastic and smoke signals. The high resistance can also a real problem with certain kinds of measurements as the resulting voltage drop will skew the results. I'm actually happy with the alligator action of my leads, so my solution was to simply replace their crappy wires with actual copper ones. Haven't had any issues since and I often push them to well over 10 amps.
I can totally understand the desire to not get rid of all the old leads despite not being thrilled at the idea of using them due to having better alternatives. My thought process on stuff like that has always been, if possible, to use them for something else so they're not just getting thrown into the trash and/or annoying you every time you grab it. Fortunately for these, that's as easy as cutting the garbage clips off and using them as normal wire! Well, at least the longer ones anyway. At least some part of it will continue to serve a practical purpose and it gives you an excuse to slowly replace everything with the better version as you use more and more of them up.
there is a product call "omnifixo" which is helping hand but what makes them unique is the clamp/clip mechanism which could totally be converted to clip leads
So I'm picturing a round metal anvil with concentric circles for grip for the conductive part with the metal piece sitting in a plastic platform which is connected to the plastic clip with a slightly flexible ball-and-socket joint to allow for unevenness. The top plastic part of the clip would have concentric circles which interface with the bottom metal platform to enhance the grip (possibly rubber for the same reason). Make the clip out of something like glass-reinforced nylon.
I feel your pain. I have all those you mentioned and I've burnt up more of those cheap ones than can be counted. The heavier duty ones you show are my staple but are too long and need to be shortened. I'd be content with a large double ended 6" grabber clip like the second type you show but large, quality ones don't seem to exist.
Other notes: (most importantly) Solder That Wire! Irrespective of the type of clip, it's almost certainly unsoldered. Check and solder it. You can use your cutters to carefully open the crimp enough to slide the wire out and push a bit forward before recrimping, then solder it to the inside of the clip. You'll need a higher than usual iron temp and some flux. Then carefully re-crimp with pliers (presumably you don't have the right crimper). Yes, it takes some time, but it's worth it if you're working with more than few hundred mA, eventually the clips will start to get warm/hot if you power something long enough with them or power something high-current. I'm also happy with those big clip leads with the nice moulded boot. The wire is thick and copper. At least the ones I bought. If you buy the cheaper ones, often the wire is very thin and can't carry much current. Also it may not be copper wire. Aluminium wire will fizzle and burn with the flame test, compared to copper which will glow red hot. Iron wire is obviously attracted to magnets.
Neither of those are for building a circuit. a breadboard would be a good start. those crappy small ones can be used to just check a circuit. 1/4 amp or less probably.
Breadboards are better for planning and testing PCB circuits. Not really ideal for quick and dirty electronics projects. Think adding or removing a component from a tool or toy, rather than building electronics from scratch.
@8:22 -- Adam says "Nobody has significantly improved on this form factor in decades." However, Adam was just showing us a different type of clip lead with a snapping turtle type mouth, and he says he loves them. So, clearly someone has improved on that form factor, and Adam has the examples to show us.
Watched a video you did a little while ago about a tool someone sent you. Just saw a video that called the tool a tufting gun for making yarn to weave rugs. Some lady in Nigeria bought 3 of them off a vintage website.
i am a retired truck mechanic, i have made my own leads myself. buy the clips and you can choose the length of wire and the size of wire. the problem i had was theft they were stolen often.
I don't do a lot with this, but I like flat alligator clips. They look like a normal alligator clip, but end in sort of a duck-bill. Some are just flat metal-on-metal, others are checkered for better grip. They take what is good about pliers and apply it to alligator clips.
I have the Fluke TLK281 set of leads...they have some alligator clips in them that action like the hook style but are actual alligators, you will love them. Also has piercing probes which come in handy.
Someone brought a high school class through our TV station where I was in the electronic maintenance department. I had a wire hanger to keep my clip leads organized. One kid asked why I had so many roach clips.
I feel this resonate deeply with me. Now imagine combining alligator clips with some cheap, wonky breadboard and you're just learning how to use a microcontroller like Arduino. Suddenly you have so many potential points of failure and troubleshooting it gets frustrating. When you're not sure if your code is wrong (or if you're using the wrong library for that specific component) or is there a bad connection somewhere in your electronics.
I've been working on electronics for almost six decades now and find most clip leads you buy are cheap junk. I buy Mueller 32c copper clips (not the steel ones) and use thinwall insulated (teflon if I have it) copper wire. I solder the wire to the clips and use flexible rubber boots to insulate the clips. These last till I lose or bury them so every once in a while I'l spend 15-20 min making new ones. A like those grabber cips and usually by the tw foot ones, cut them in half and put a allicgator clip on that naked end. My first Fluke is the original model 77 that came with a heavy rubber boot that I bought from Sears in the mid 80's when they were having a catalog sale. I also have three of the 8060a's that was one of the best hand held meters they ever made. Those were pricey ($3-400 new) so I picked them up when someone was selling something he did';t understand) The last one i boughy on ebay for $45. I also still use a Simpson 260 that I bought at allied in 1962, analog meters are very handy in some applications.
I do automotive electronics repair for a living my issue with clip leads is how easy they can flip and short to another clip lead or something else you don't want them to electrically connect. The insulation on these is not adequate. Due to improvements in crimping technology I find the cost of cheaply available crimp connects to be worth the sacrifice of not having the headache of clip leads.
Hey Tested! I just use banana cables and set of banana compatible alligators, hooks and probes as I need. All mounted on flat 3D printed base with 4mm rods to store my accessory on. Shame that I can't attach pictures 😕
A lot of great suggestions have been placed for brands to buy and dittos on you get what you pay for. My take is find you an electrical and data-com supply store and network with the sales people and electricians there buying supplies. Can even sometimes meet the actual manufacturer sales representatives. Looking through a printed catalog may lead to breaking the bank. An alternative suggestion to cloud sourcing if you have the spare time to disconnect from digital land.
I have used the alligator leads for like 40 years, they use to be pretty good but the last 4 times I purchased what I noticed is the vinyl covers were so slippery that when you squeeze them the metal pops out or the cover pops off or my fingers slide off.
My favorite clip lead is one that is made custom, called a PCB, aka make your own circuit and add a place for JST connector. Afterwards you can crimp your own connector!! By the way, soldering a connector is far more inferior than crimping it! FYI
Love this Adam you are so right definitely room for improvement. On another note hope you are not involved in the terrible weather at home or at your cave. 9:44
I work at a high school and alligator clip leads have always been frustrating as they certainly do not stand up to abuse from students. I replaced all ours with banana plugs and have clips similar similar to your big guys that have a banana socket.
Wholeheartedly agree on all of the points. Clip leads do indeed suck. The type with the little hook work, except they interfere with each other when you use several side-by-side. I have a few that are intentionally thin, but the hook at the end is so flimsy they don't last long. My dream is a Cleco clip for sheet metal, but sized down to fit 2.54mm spaced circuit board holes, with a wire attached. Pogo pins exist, so it seems like a mini Cleco would be physically possible to produce, but I'm guessing there's some reason no one has done it yet.
For grabbing a piece of wire or small post, it's hard to beat a Pamona (brand) "Minigrabber" with a stacking banana on the other end of the lead. Pamona # 3782-24-02 would be a typical set, but lots of different lengths and colors available with the 3782 prefix number. Worth the money and last a long time if you don't abuse them. There's a smaller but very similar looking thing from Pamona called a "Micrograbber" and I see lots of sites mislabeling them as Minigrabbers. Always compare to 3782 series if you're not sure when you're getting. Micrograbbers are great too but really only for very small wire or IC leads.
I’ve never met a clip lead that doesn’t inspire disappointment and frustration mixed with desperation. I just want a clip that works! They bend, the springs wear out, the saw teeth destroy wires. They are always too long or too short. The only ones I have are all the same color so I can’t easily identify different parts of a circuit. There has to be a better tool. Someone out there solved this in their shop and needs to share with the rest of us.
On knowing enough to be dangerous When I was 3 my mother caught me hammering nails into an electrical outlet Knowing how to hammer is pretty easy really
I don't know why the sound of a jostling heavy metal object on the floor is so apropos to Adam's Shop videos. Re: LED resistor Adafruit has a really good guide on how to figure out the series resistance to the LED, assuming you have the LED's datasheet. Google "Adafruit LED resistor KVL". Brief spoiler: The resistor is there to make sure that the LED doesn't release blue smoke because you put an amp through it. I don't use clip leads for the reasons Adam stated, and because the gator clips can slip at the worst possible times. What I do for temporary connections instead is create ersatz "clip leads" using Wago 221 lever-action wire nuts. If the connection is meant to be permanent, I'll solder, crimp, or use a screw terminal. If one of the points isn't a wire, I'll tack on a wire with my Pinecil. So I'm thinking, get a bunch of the inline Wago 221 wire nuts and make yourself a bunch of lever-lock leads using some 14-16AWG wire. Strip a little insulation off the ends, clamp on a Wago on each end, bang, you have a set of leads that will latch onto most wires like a puppy playing tug-of-war.
Until the perfect clip lead comes a long I will continue throwing out the bent, stiff old ones and enjoy the short life of a new set. I've been a electronic hobbyist for decades and have had a lot of these leads go up in smoke over the years!
Is the swap meet still as good as it was? I remember going a few times through the years and it went from a lot of analog stuff to a lot of black boxes
Holy Cow, I can't agree more!! The larger better ones, however, won't fit "inside" connectors or maybe even relays to test them. SO I'm stuck using the bull$#!t ones.
I've probably got 20 USB cables. I was digging through the heap the other day looking for a USB-A to USB-C, and I've only got one, that I'm already using for something. 🙄 Plus parallel printer cables, serial printer cables, RCA audio/video cables, etc. I've still even got the 50-pin SCSI cable for my Macintosh.
Buy regular leads for multimeter and they will come with nice feature where you can screw on them aligator clip ( Fluke make them too ), or buy fancy test leads for ProbeMaster ( U.S. company, little bit envy that i don't have reasonable acces to all because i'm EU based so... ). Believe me they are not cheap but they are the Best test leads i ever had.
The issue is that so many people "cheap out" on test leads for electronics. Buy the good stuff and they'll last practically forever. First, buy only silicone insulated high strand count leads, with banana plugs and jacks at both ends. Buy them in a variety of colors and lengths. Then buy J-hooks, alligator hooks, etc, that have built in banana sockets. Then you can make a clip lead from whatever to whatever, using your stash of leads and ends! Pomona makes good quality stuff. It isn't cheap, but it will last, unless you run way too high currents through a J-hook, and melt the thing!
The issue (in my opinion) isnt that they need improvement in design, its they are made so extremely cheaply. I have some older than me that are great but I also have a ton of the new ones that you get in a pack of like 50, and they are just super cheaply made. The old ones the metal doesnt bend or deform. I bet out there is a quality version still but I am very cheap (and dont have money to throw at that kind of thing even if I wasnt cheap). If you want a different design though they make the small ones in a flat clip design too. My suggestion would be try to find a good source of high quality connectors and make your own sets. Or in Adams case, a one day build of cutting out and bending metal for clips and making some really cool homemade sets.
Hey Adam, do you know about Hirschmann leads? Idk whether they are a thing in the US, but here in Austria / Germany they are pretty common and work exceptionally well.
Before you do, I would strongly recommend checking out both Pomona (owned by Fluke, often but not always the same thing but cheaper) and ProbeMaster (Made In The USA and easily rivals or beats Fluke in the quality of their leads).
You can not buy good quality Alligator clip leads any more. But Mueller still makes Great Alligator clips from copper and you can make your own using whatever gauge wire you need. I used 18ag 600V stranded hookup wire, in various colors 16 inches long. Soldered of course. Mt set is 10yrs old, used daily and still good as new.
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I make my own clip leads or alligator clips as I learned to call them by my father.
If you would like some high quality ones let me know. I would be honored to make you some.
Adam Savage, you could always just use Wago's and a Pen voltage tester to see if you continuity (Completed Circuit)
Please check out Parts Candy test clips! They're exactly the solution for this problem. They're hand soldered and can handle a lot of current.
Eric O. at south main auto probably has one of the best collections of leads for everyday use.
Adam savage should try to make
Real MILITARY DICYANIN DYE GOGGLES to really see higher dimensions 4d test different dyes
"It's really hard for me to throw out something that almost works"
I felt that line resonate deep, deep within me :D
Right?
Same here.
Perhaps a rephrase, something like: "I have a hard time throwing out things that are not damaged." Like, things that are in the same working condition as when they left the factory.
@@GeneCash Here, here! Hear here!
@@n8mob Even damaged things I hate throwing away because I know it's just going to end up in a freakin' landfill somewhere :/
I worked in electronics for 50+ years and learned that there was nothing better than making my own clip leads. I used various styles of clips and insulator boots made by Mueller or Pomona and the wire of my choice. That way I had total control of length and gauge of wire and the clip was soldered instead of just crimped.
Big fan of home built. The wire I have laying around is better than the 26awg(maybe) from a cheap store bought set.
Absolutely Mueller for clips. I have several boxes of them and the matching boots on my bench. They’re not cheap, but the cost is worth it. I also agree that for pre-made leads, Pomona are probably the best ones available - again very expensive, but something to search for in boxes of random stuff at hamfests.
This is The Way
S&M relationship with my jump clips also. 50 years ago, RadioShack had two clip sizes. The ends were ok, but the wire insulation degraded and attacked the copper, making the wire to the ends intermittent. I still solder repair them using new hookup wire. Sadly, they are my best clips.
-Peter
I like the custom leads from Probemaster. Any length, any of several dozen ends. Gold plated, made in USA. Reasonably priced.
My step father managed to find small Hemostats at the swap meet back in the 70's, that were about the size of small sewing scissors. He drilled a small hole in the handle, threaded it, used a cap bolt, this way he could use ring terminals on the opposite side with nuts so he could change the gauge of the wire he needed depending on the job, also, the length of the wire on the fly. He could grip the handles in his jeweler's vice for holding, and ground the lead if needed while soldering components together. It also meant he could make a multi run if he needed to check multiple components at once. The clamping end could hold pins tightly enough he could poke through insulation, or into plugs to test connections as well.
That’s a pretty neat solution! Thanks for sharing
Happily sifting the comments for clip suggestions and finding a ton of really nice gear. Thanks, Adam, for bringing up the topic and getting people talking, and thanks to all y'all for sharing!
Check out Parts Candy for alligator clips. Hand soldered.
I absolutely love that you are sharing your relative lack of knowledge about electrical work. Not just because I've finally found something that I"m better at than you (j/k), but because it's an excellent lesson to share with my students. It's OK to not be great at everything, as long as we try to be good enough and collaborate with those who can help shore-up our weak areas.
Great comment, and I'd add that it's also important to be willing to openly acknowledge weakness in those areas where we're not as solid. Not only are you more likely to get help when you need it, people will respect your candidness. No one likes working with a know-it-all that can't actually walk the walk.
Deep rabbit hole here. We tend to use what we have by the bench, not what we need. Alligator vs. crocodile vs. J-hook vs. piercing vs bed-of-nails vs. etc. All in various degrees of quality. Don't forget the wire type- larger gauges for higher current applications. Flexibility is an issue too. Great topic.
yep, my bench supply lead is 5 feet of 16/2 lamp cord with banana on one end and clips on the other end, as that's what was nearby when i built the power supply. mind you, this cable never sees anything above 32VDC. mostly between 3-12V though.
And this why I make my own clip/alligator/croc leads. Mueller Clips, & Belden Test Lead Wire, soldered & heat shrink sleeved. Color-coded boots to match the wire color. Reliable & easy to repair.
The Omnifixo solder helper with the parallel jaw clips (that was reviewed on tested a while back) should be the basis for an improved clip lead with similar parallel jaws.
Parallel jaws in general are amazing. Knipex pliers-wrenches beat the pants off Crescent (adjustable) wrenches and Channellocks (tongue & groove pliers).
This is exactly what came to my mind too.
Yep. I bought one after Norm showed it on this channel, and everyone who has tried it so far has absolutely loved it, compared to the crocodile-jawed helpers that either have a poor grip or destroy the insulation of the wire. But what works best for me when prototyping electronics is a breadboard with jumpers. Maybe someone needs to make a version of breadboards that accept banana plugs or at least a slightly larger connector so you can try higher current circuits.
I love Adam Savage, he is the guy that i watched every time he was on tv, he made me become curious and is probaply the reason why i am the person i am now and seeing him complain about Alligator Clips just made my day. You are the person the world allways needed! (ps: Sorry for my bad english, english isnt my first language)
As an electrical testing technician, I build my own test leads and jumper wires. The best I've found is some silicone wire #14 or 16 and the banana jack plugs you build. That way I have the length I need (or want) and I can use any banana jack accessory.
50 years dealing with electricity and electronics here. Don’t trust any of the low cost clip leads until you check them with an ohmmeter. I’ve seen as many as half of a pack be bad right out of the gate.
I've had the odd one that would have continuity, but not even carry a fraction of an amp.
Embedded system engineer here. My preference is cables with banana connectors on both sides with retractable sheaths (reduces accidental shorts). Then tips of various styles that can be attached to the banana connectors. The meaty alligator clips are what I use most, but I have a couple needle probes and hooks that allow me to probe tiny pins and pads on circuit boards. BNC to banana connector then extends the flexibility to an o-scope. The modularity is incredibly useful.
Adam Savage has a magical ability to make me passionately upset over things I don't really care about 😂❤
Ha!
these are great for getting an idea of the RELATIVE differnce between components..
I have alligator clips on a homemade bench power supply for ease of quick use (think first-order retrievability for voltage) and they have been a tiny annoyance the entire time. This video has opened my eyes to a thing I hadn't been consiously aware of -- I'm ordering a pack of hook clips now
Im currently, still, getting rid of a bunch of old project stuff because im about done tinkering around with things.
It turns out, i don't need a walk in closet full of stuff just to keep my guitars maintained.
I hate throwing out stuff like that too but I'm getting much better at it.
Boy, how it piles up!
I've used Hirschnamm clips and leads. They really are the cream of the crop. After using them for some time, I was shocked when I saw the price for them, but you get what you pay for. The 25A croc clips are super sturdy and nice to use, if a bit bulky. There is also an 8A variant which are rather dainty and excellent. They all connect with banana plugs, and the leads are quite good too, generally rated for quite a few amps. They certainly hold up to some abuse.
The electrical protection and controls testing industry uses "test leads", which have various "test plugs", spade adapters, alligator adapters that fit onto the standardized and modular banana plug style ends of the leads. They are also stackable.
i have the regular trash kind, and i can live with them since i mainly focus on software and computers, where a clip lead rarely if ever gets used. i do some minor projects on the side, but they are few and far between.
Yep. I gave up on those crappy little alligator clips forever ago. I love mini grabbers though. I just wish they all hooked in the same direction.
Nice to know Adam feels the same way as I do about working with electronics, anything beyond a basic is whichcraft
Which craft is whichcraft?
I use some German made clips from a company called SKS Kontakttechnik and they are really good. They have such a large variety of clips too, and they’re well isolated as well.
I design and build speakers, clip leads are an enormous part of my life when doing crossover prototyping, but I make all my own with 14 awg and they're always soldered.
In the early 70s, I spent a day with an electrical engineer as part of a high school vocational program. He took pains to inform me that the greatest single obstacle to his work was the unreliability of clip leads. "If it doesn't work, wiggle the damn clip leads." Talented, highly motivated individuals struggle with these bloody things, day in and day out, and apparently in the--fifty? has it been fifty years? Shit.--fifty years since that trip, not one of them has sat down and made his fortune fixing the problem. They don't want to. They can reliably grumble about it. If the leads worked, but the test rig didn't, it would be the engineer's fault, and they can't be havin' none o' that, nosireebob. "Wanna make a million dollars?" NO!!
Probe Master makes some great high quality test leads and gear.
In electronics design, my favorite cheap clip style is the one you showed with the hook. I have some with that on both sides, and some with banana plugs like yours, which I use to connect to my power supply and multimeter. I have the alligator clip ones as well, but they aren't soldered and are therefore unreliable; I've had to solder a couple of them because they stopped working on me. The wire gauge in all of these is so light, that I don't like pulling much current through them for very long-especially the alligators which are only poorly crimped. I've never had those larger alligator clips.
I feel you pain, when I have to do bench work these alligator clips are the bane of my existence.
Alright Adam, I have an extensive collection of leads both homemade and purchased; same complaints. However I have several tips.
First, go all in on the banana jacks. then ditch the fluke leads. You can get the tip of a multimeter probe (Extech TL809) that is constructed with a female banana jack and ends with a male banana jack with a sharp tip on it. it has a 3 inch "handle" in the middle that makes is almost look like a fluke lead.
Second, start making your own leads using "Retractable Sheath 4mm Banana Plug Male Stackable" ends. These are great since they have both the male and female side and the retractable sheath allows them to be much more resistant to sparking.
Now you can have an awesome set of multimeter leads that can be easily extended and can have multiple things attached to it.
Third, you can now start incorporating binding posts into projects and using these banana leads to power it. I have a pair of binding posts on my sailboat dc panel and my meter plugs into the neg for a perfect ground every time.
As for the clips, I use the ones that have a female banana jack. my Extech TL809 plugs directly into them. I also make up some mini ez grabber clips and use those for the really small stuff. I make them with a generous length of very light wire leading back to a banana plug.
“Clip leads, they suck, they suck so hard”…
As someone who’s worked in electronics for 30+ years, I felt that in my soul.
My solution to crocodile/aligator clips is to try not to need them.
Breadboard can reduce the need as can plastic boxes with a series of spring or screw terminals each connected to a 4mm banana plug socket.
I also have a number of modules such a plastic box with a switch and two 4mm banana plug sockets which can easily be connected into a circuit.
Finally Staubli part number 22.3006-22 can be very useful.
Hard to stuff a 14-gauge stranded motor lead into a breadboard, is what I'm thinking.
Hi Adam, as an electronics engineer i 100% agree. I hated those in high school (it was a specialized high school for electronics technicians) and i hated them in uni and i hate them to this day. Now days i use only the hooking once you showed, either with the banana plug or with hooks on both ends. Also every one of my colleagues is of similar opinion.
I have several sets of those 'good' clip leads, but with a clip on one end and a male/female stackable banana plug on the other rather than clips on both ends.
They're my most used 'go to' leads I use with my multi meter, a pair of them lives in my meter case.
If I want a double ended clip lead, I just plug the male/female banana ends together, boom.. double ended clip lead, just be aware of the un-insulated banana plug in the middle of the lead now...nothing some electrical tape won't fix😁👍
Algorithm comment. Thanks for being the only TH-cam channel that doesn't beg for them! You guys do great work, love the channel. Wish I could afford to support you more than likes and comments.
My most recent discovery in this vein was also something of a Rumpelstiltskin problem. I was looking for the connectors that came with new lighting fixtures I got for my mom, and had so much trouble finding them, they're small blocks with levers on them, and you can just push the wires in and snap them in place with a very positive grab, no force required, and in a form factor that can work for some final installations.
I've since been able to find them as "Block connectors" or "Lever Nuts"
They don't fit the exact niche that alligator leads do, because they won't work as well for parts with flat terminals, but for mocking up a circuit, I'm probably going to use them from now on, as most of the projects I work on have wire leads that work nicely with them.
Wago connectors? They make the most popular level connectors, and now they also make push-in connectors. The jury is still out on them though. They have a little more connection resistance and get a little warmer under normal loads. Very handy for lower-current situations (lamps, not space heaters).
deserves to be on a t-shirt that does.. I know enough to be dangerous..🥺😂
Adam, you never mentioned toothless alligator clips. They've been around for ages and don't have the serrations. They're made for fine electronic work.
My thing is, I usually buy JUST the clips and solder em onto speaker wire or something, and have an assortment of various jumpers - alligator to alligator, alligator to banana, alligator to NEMA to run wall-voltage test stuff, alligator to GPIO pins of various kinds, etc. but what gets the most use for me, by far, is all the plasti-dipped hemostat forceps. Just grab a random piece of stranded wire and 2 hemostats and you can clip everything together VERY securely. Also, for low-voltage prototyping, most of my clip leads have a little pin of hookup wire soldered onto the tip so I can just jam it into a pin header or a piece of proto-board instead of having to awkwardly use hookup wire or protoboard jumpers clipped to one end of my leads, can just jam it directly in. I will say though, buying JUST the clips by themselves comes in EXTREMELY useful because usually if you buy whatever connector goes on the other end, chances are there's probably a speaker-wire solderless connector (y'know, the little springy blade things like on the back of a stereo) that can be plugged right into it so you can use that, those solderless connectors are by far the easiest for 90% of things involving loose wires.
I have a set of different lengths and end combinations that I made in an automotive electrical class at a technical college. It was mostly to practice soldering but we also got something useful out of it. Some of the ends are little aligators like in this video but most of them are different size fuse connectors so you can plug them right into the fuse box of a car and test continuity that way.
"I know enough to be dangerous"
Ptff, I got a similar saying with some stuff. "I know just enough to get into trouble."
Because that's how I am with scripting. I know enough to work with a few of them, but not enough to not cause problems. Like the other week I was working with my primarily AHK script that runs at login, and one of the changes I made resulted in my computer's memory (64GB) being completely filled within the span of 20 seconds. Had to force a restart and launch into safemode to fix it.
The lesson there is to not have a script handle the auto launch of something, without first verifying that it can properly detect if the thing it's going to launch isn't already running.
There is another big issue with cheap alligator clip leads - or at least all the ones I've run across over the past 20 years: They tend to use steel wires rather than copper!
Steel is a remarkably poor conductor and as a result, pushing more than 1-2 amps through the leads will quickly result in melted plastic and smoke signals. The high resistance can also a real problem with certain kinds of measurements as the resulting voltage drop will skew the results.
I'm actually happy with the alligator action of my leads, so my solution was to simply replace their crappy wires with actual copper ones. Haven't had any issues since and I often push them to well over 10 amps.
I can totally understand the desire to not get rid of all the old leads despite not being thrilled at the idea of using them due to having better alternatives.
My thought process on stuff like that has always been, if possible, to use them for something else so they're not just getting thrown into the trash and/or annoying you every time you grab it. Fortunately for these, that's as easy as cutting the garbage clips off and using them as normal wire! Well, at least the longer ones anyway. At least some part of it will continue to serve a practical purpose and it gives you an excuse to slowly replace everything with the better version as you use more and more of them up.
3:28 I love when Adam swears.
magnetic leads are really good for working on terminals, i use them when working on hvac
there is a product call "omnifixo" which is helping hand but what makes them unique is the clamp/clip mechanism which could totally be converted to clip leads
So I'm picturing a round metal anvil with concentric circles for grip for the conductive part with the metal piece sitting in a plastic platform which is connected to the plastic clip with a slightly flexible ball-and-socket joint to allow for unevenness. The top plastic part of the clip would have concentric circles which interface with the bottom metal platform to enhance the grip (possibly rubber for the same reason). Make the clip out of something like glass-reinforced nylon.
I feel your pain. I have all those you mentioned and I've burnt up more of those cheap ones than can be counted. The heavier duty ones you show are my staple but are too long and need to be shortened. I'd be content with a large double ended 6" grabber clip like the second type you show but large, quality ones don't seem to exist.
Other notes: (most importantly) Solder That Wire! Irrespective of the type of clip, it's almost certainly unsoldered. Check and solder it. You can use your cutters to carefully open the crimp enough to slide the wire out and push a bit forward before recrimping, then solder it to the inside of the clip. You'll need a higher than usual iron temp and some flux. Then carefully re-crimp with pliers (presumably you don't have the right crimper). Yes, it takes some time, but it's worth it if you're working with more than few hundred mA, eventually the clips will start to get warm/hot if you power something long enough with them or power something high-current.
I'm also happy with those big clip leads with the nice moulded boot. The wire is thick and copper. At least the ones I bought. If you buy the cheaper ones, often the wire is very thin and can't carry much current. Also it may not be copper wire. Aluminium wire will fizzle and burn with the flame test, compared to copper which will glow red hot. Iron wire is obviously attracted to magnets.
Neither of those are for building a circuit. a breadboard would be a good start. those crappy small ones can be used to just check a circuit. 1/4 amp or less probably.
Breadboards are better for planning and testing PCB circuits. Not really ideal for quick and dirty electronics projects. Think adding or removing a component from a tool or toy, rather than building electronics from scratch.
@@1308lee I know. he said he uses them to build circuits not me.
Some one must have had a bad day caused by a bad test lead. Thanks for a fun video.
@8:22 -- Adam says "Nobody has significantly improved on this form factor in decades." However, Adam was just showing us a different type of clip lead with a snapping turtle type mouth, and he says he loves them. So, clearly someone has improved on that form factor, and Adam has the examples to show us.
Watched a video you did a little while ago about a tool someone sent you. Just saw a video that called the tool a tufting gun for making yarn to weave rugs. Some lady in Nigeria bought 3 of them off a vintage website.
i am a retired truck mechanic, i have made my own leads myself. buy the clips and you can choose the length of wire and the size of wire. the problem i had was theft they were stolen often.
The E-Z hooks (J-hook) make great hackle pliers when tying flies, too.
I don't do a lot with this, but I like flat alligator clips. They look like a normal alligator clip, but end in sort of a duck-bill. Some are just flat metal-on-metal, others are checkered for better grip. They take what is good about pliers and apply it to alligator clips.
I know this probably wouldn’t work for your purposes, but they do make magnetic jumper wires. I use them all the time for HVAC.
I have the Fluke TLK281 set of leads...they have some alligator clips in them that action like the hook style but are actual alligators, you will love them. Also has piercing probes which come in handy.
Someone brought a high school class through our TV station where I was in the electronic maintenance department. I had a wire hanger to keep my clip leads organized. One kid asked why I had so many roach clips.
I was going to recommend "mini-clips" and you had to go ahead and show them!
I feel this resonate deeply with me.
Now imagine combining alligator clips with some cheap, wonky breadboard and you're just learning how to use a microcontroller like Arduino. Suddenly you have so many potential points of failure and troubleshooting it gets frustrating. When you're not sure if your code is wrong (or if you're using the wrong library for that specific component) or is there a bad connection somewhere in your electronics.
Pomona 6249. New-style minigrabber to stackable banana connector. By far my favorite for ease of use and durability.
I've always been a fan of the Telecom style alligator clips with the bed of nails like the Mueller JP-8783
"I know enough to be dangerous"
-Adam S., 2024
Welcome to a set of random automatically generated watch lists.
I've been working on electronics for almost six decades now and find most clip leads you buy are cheap junk. I buy Mueller 32c copper clips (not the steel ones) and use thinwall insulated (teflon if I have it) copper wire. I solder the wire to the clips and use flexible rubber boots to insulate the clips. These last till I lose or bury them so every once in a while I'l spend 15-20 min making new ones.
A like those grabber cips and usually by the tw foot ones, cut them in half and put a allicgator clip on that naked end.
My first Fluke is the original model 77 that came with a heavy rubber boot that I bought from Sears in the mid 80's when they were having a catalog sale. I also have three of the 8060a's that was one of the best hand held meters they ever made. Those were pricey ($3-400 new) so I picked them up when someone was selling something he did';t understand) The last one i boughy on ebay for $45. I also still use a Simpson 260 that I bought at allied in 1962, analog meters are very handy in some applications.
I do automotive electronics repair for a living my issue with clip leads is how easy they can flip and short to another clip lead or something else you don't want them to electrically connect. The insulation on these is not adequate. Due to improvements in crimping technology I find the cost of cheaply available crimp connects to be worth the sacrifice of not having the headache of clip leads.
Hey Tested! I just use banana cables and set of banana compatible alligators, hooks and probes as I need. All mounted on flat 3D printed base with 4mm rods to store my accessory on. Shame that I can't attach pictures 😕
A lot of great suggestions have been placed for brands to buy and dittos on you get what you pay for. My take is find you an electrical and data-com supply store and network with the sales people and electricians there buying supplies. Can even sometimes meet the actual manufacturer sales representatives. Looking through a printed catalog may lead to breaking the bank. An alternative suggestion to cloud sourcing if you have the spare time to disconnect from digital land.
I have used the alligator leads for like 40 years, they use to be pretty good but the last 4 times I purchased what I noticed is the vinyl covers were so slippery that when you squeeze them the metal pops out or the cover pops off or my fingers slide off.
My favorite clip lead is one that is made custom, called a PCB, aka make your own circuit and add a place for JST connector. Afterwards you can crimp your own connector!! By the way, soldering a connector is far more inferior than crimping it! FYI
I resorted to using Wago 221-2411 on my test leads with 1 on side optionally shrink wrapped.
Love this Adam you are so right definitely room for improvement. On another note hope you are not involved in the terrible weather at home or at your cave. 9:44
I work at a high school and alligator clip leads have always been frustrating as they certainly do not stand up to abuse from students. I replaced all ours with banana plugs and have clips similar similar to your big guys that have a banana socket.
Wholeheartedly agree on all of the points. Clip leads do indeed suck.
The type with the little hook work, except they interfere with each other when you use several side-by-side. I have a few that are intentionally thin, but the hook at the end is so flimsy they don't last long. My dream is a Cleco clip for sheet metal, but sized down to fit 2.54mm spaced circuit board holes, with a wire attached. Pogo pins exist, so it seems like a mini Cleco would be physically possible to produce, but I'm guessing there's some reason no one has done it yet.
Banana clips and half inch and 3mm jacks: can never go wrong
For grabbing a piece of wire or small post, it's hard to beat a Pamona (brand) "Minigrabber" with a stacking banana on the other end of the lead. Pamona # 3782-24-02 would be a typical set, but lots of different lengths and colors available with the 3782 prefix number. Worth the money and last a long time if you don't abuse them. There's a smaller but very similar looking thing from Pamona called a "Micrograbber" and I see lots of sites mislabeling them as Minigrabbers. Always compare to 3782 series if you're not sure when you're getting. Micrograbbers are great too but really only for very small wire or IC leads.
Adam, have you tried the Gardner Bender 30A steel battery charging clips. That's what my frustration has led to and they work well.
I’ve never met a clip lead that doesn’t inspire disappointment and frustration mixed with desperation. I just want a clip that works! They bend, the springs wear out, the saw teeth destroy wires. They are always too long or too short. The only ones I have are all the same color so I can’t easily identify different parts of a circuit.
There has to be a better tool.
Someone out there solved this in their shop and needs to share with the rest of us.
Every time I watch your stories, I remember the professor from the movie "Back to the Future" 😂
Sometimes Wago clips are the best solution. Even for smaller gauge wires.
On knowing enough to be dangerous
When I was 3 my mother caught me hammering nails into an electrical outlet
Knowing how to hammer is pretty easy really
GAH!
Saw the RIP Radioshack in the thumbnail and wanted to say... There's still a Radioshack in Defuniak Springs Fl.
I don't know why the sound of a jostling heavy metal object on the floor is so apropos to Adam's Shop videos.
Re: LED resistor
Adafruit has a really good guide on how to figure out the series resistance to the LED, assuming you have the LED's datasheet. Google "Adafruit LED resistor KVL". Brief spoiler: The resistor is there to make sure that the LED doesn't release blue smoke because you put an amp through it.
I don't use clip leads for the reasons Adam stated, and because the gator clips can slip at the worst possible times. What I do for temporary connections instead is create ersatz "clip leads" using Wago 221 lever-action wire nuts. If the connection is meant to be permanent, I'll solder, crimp, or use a screw terminal. If one of the points isn't a wire, I'll tack on a wire with my Pinecil.
So I'm thinking, get a bunch of the inline Wago 221 wire nuts and make yourself a bunch of lever-lock leads using some 14-16AWG wire. Strip a little insulation off the ends, clamp on a Wago on each end, bang, you have a set of leads that will latch onto most wires like a puppy playing tug-of-war.
Those are good leads but the best ones have silicone insulation. Man are they flexible. So satisfying.
Mueller makes (made?) the best. The teeth mesh perfectly and the tip is centered.
There are some larger clips. I think they are called grabbers they have pretty good grip.
Until the perfect clip lead comes a long I will continue throwing out the bent, stiff old ones and enjoy the short life of a new set. I've been a electronic hobbyist for decades and have had a lot of these leads go up in smoke over the years!
Is the swap meet still as good as it was? I remember going a few times through the years and it went from a lot of analog stuff to a lot of black boxes
Holy Cow, I can't agree more!! The larger better ones, however, won't fit "inside" connectors or maybe even relays to test them. SO I'm stuck using the bull$#!t ones.
"It's really hard for me to throw something out that almost works" might as well be tattooed on my forehead.
I've probably got 20 USB cables. I was digging through the heap the other day looking for a USB-A to USB-C, and I've only got one, that I'm already using for something. 🙄
Plus parallel printer cables, serial printer cables, RCA audio/video cables, etc. I've still even got the 50-pin SCSI cable for my Macintosh.
Buy regular leads for multimeter and they will come with nice feature where you can screw on them aligator clip ( Fluke make them too ), or buy fancy test leads for ProbeMaster ( U.S. company, little bit envy that i don't have reasonable acces to all because i'm EU based so... ). Believe me they are not cheap but they are the Best test leads i ever had.
Hey, man. You good? 😂 Love the “unplanned” story.
The issue is that so many people "cheap out" on test leads for electronics. Buy the good stuff and they'll last practically forever. First, buy only silicone insulated high strand count leads, with banana plugs and jacks at both ends. Buy them in a variety of colors and lengths. Then buy J-hooks, alligator hooks, etc, that have built in banana sockets. Then you can make a clip lead from whatever to whatever, using your stash of leads and ends! Pomona makes good quality stuff. It isn't cheap, but it will last, unless you run way too high currents through a J-hook, and melt the thing!
The issue (in my opinion) isnt that they need improvement in design, its they are made so extremely cheaply. I have some older than me that are great but I also have a ton of the new ones that you get in a pack of like 50, and they are just super cheaply made. The old ones the metal doesnt bend or deform. I bet out there is a quality version still but I am very cheap (and dont have money to throw at that kind of thing even if I wasnt cheap). If you want a different design though they make the small ones in a flat clip design too.
My suggestion would be try to find a good source of high quality connectors and make your own sets. Or in Adams case, a one day build of cutting out and bending metal for clips and making some really cool homemade sets.
Hey Adam, do you know about Hirschmann leads? Idk whether they are a thing in the US, but here in Austria / Germany they are pretty common and work exceptionally well.
I've had the cheap ones. It can be frustrating, I know. Thinking of investing in Fluke test leed alligator clips. Thanks Adam!
Before you do, I would strongly recommend checking out both Pomona (owned by Fluke, often but not always the same thing but cheaper) and ProbeMaster (Made In The USA and easily rivals or beats Fluke in the quality of their leads).
Alligator pie, alligator pie, if I don't get some I think I'm gonna die!
Always go with Pomona electronics
You can not buy good quality Alligator clip leads any more. But Mueller still makes Great Alligator clips from copper and you can make your own using whatever gauge wire you need. I used 18ag 600V stranded hookup wire, in various colors 16 inches long. Soldered of course.
Mt set is 10yrs old, used daily and still good as new.
"All clip leads suck!" No truer statement has ever been made! 😅😅
Except the one I had hanging from one of the ears of my TV antenna. That thing was the GOAT.