Alignment tool

Anyone who has worked on radios or TV's for any length of time has needed an alignment tool or as we always called it a"wiggle wrench or diddle stick".
And if you were ever in the svc. biz and did service calls, you know the anguish when your favorite tool is left back at the shop or , finally breaks.

Well here are a couple of quick and cheap solutions.
 
Popcicle sticks (r) or as they call them now, craft sticks, or wooden coffee stir sticks.

Just take your pocket knife and re-shape one end to what you need for use as a wooden screwdriver, or trim pot adj. tool.

The other is the ever present item found all over the place- plastic knitting needles. They can be shaved down to fit a hex core ferrite or into a screwdriver tip.

If you have a spare core with the same size hex or square hole ( All TV service techs used to carry an asst of them) then heat the end of the plastic knitting needle up with a candle or flame and push the spare core on the end of the needle, reforming it the easy way. viola done!
 Wait, you don't have a candle in your tool box?

What about that blob of beeswax you carry to put on the dial cords in the tuners or hold a screw in the nutdriver? Just add a wick- a twist of cotton thread off your shop rag and you have an instant candle.
  Or use that tuner grease and a twist of rag. (or even scrape a blob of grease off your zerk in your truck, or a little engine oil in the metal lid.)You can put it in that metal lid off your Shield spray lube can- instant emergency candle-

If its a metal screw, then there are tuning tools on the web. I have used so many screwdrivers of various sizes I have no problem getting the correct one to work. In your case If I were in your situation, I would suggest going to Ace Hardware and asking for a set of Jewelers Screwdrivers as a start.

This should get you in the ballpark. Next look for a set that have ceramic tips ( a lot rarer to find).
You can use a set of plastic alignment tools and one or two electrically insulated screw drivers.

There are mainly two types of trimmers in an I.F. can-metal capacitor adjustment screws and Hexagonal ferrite slugs. Never apply any force to adjust the ferrite type. The screw type should also never have to be bottomed out. Also make sure if the tuning cap trimmers have some freedom to be adjusted also. 

I have almost 2 dozen small screwdrivers that I have collected from goodwill over 30+ years very cheap rather than buying new ones.

I also use wood swizzle and Kabob sticks made into a screwdriver tip, to fine tune I.F. cans.

What would be a good alignment too for the IF can. I purchased a set awhile back, but only a few of them are useful to me right now. I got bore the other day and removed from an old radio one of the IF can, just to see what was inside, pretty simple design, except the tuning screw as I call it has a very big slote for the alignment tool. All the one I have won't fit or are not wide enough at the end to get a good bit/grip. I believe now that is why I was unable to tune the Silvertone I was previous working, not because it was stuck, but I did not have the proper tool for the job. Any suggestion??

Frank

Are these still on the market???

During more mundane times (1935) they were simply called tuning wands.

Ah yeah, "Tweakers and Tweaking", I remember that term well.

Had a whole different meaning then as opposed to, today :-)

"Diddlesticks, tweakers and tweaking", brings-back lots of
old workbench memories :-)

Mike

In my old work days we used to call them tweakers too!
Not like the modern ones on drugs!

peeblesoriginals wrote:

In the industry, they had a nickname: "diddlesticks".

Been trying to remember the nickname for those. Thanks for the memory jog Mike!

In the industry, they had a nickname: "diddlesticks".

The Magic Wand was originally use for IF and RF cans that had ferrite cores. You could insert either end in the can to see if improvement in reception took place by increasing or decreasing the inductance and indication of the position of the slugs to be made.
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Popular Science March 1936

Resembling a magic wand, the newest tool for radio experimenters and set builders makes it an easy matter to check the tuning inductance's in any receiver. Placed in the magnetic field of the inductance, it determines instantly whether the the inductance is too high or too low or just right. The wand a flexible piece of rubber, is tipped on one end with a brass cap, while the other end contains a special magnetic core. If inserting the brass end in, the inductance increases the volume of the receiver, the inductance is high. Low inductance is is indicated if the volume increases with the core end inserted. If the signal is decreased with the insertion of either end, the circuit is properly aligned. Being flexible, it can be used in cramped quarters