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You Need a Chip Lifter or Precision Pry Bar

36 Comments

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Wiha and Wera Chip Lifter Tools

My chip lifting tools – you can find them from Wiha, Wera, and other brands – have proved to be quite handy over the years.

They’re essentially mini prying bars – although not really – and can provide leverage for extremely small or delicate applications.

I mainly use mine as manipulator tools for poking or pulling parts into proper positioning.

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And on rare occasion, I use them for soldering and desoldering applications, or for prying IC chips and similar from friction-fit sockets.

These tools are tiny – they’re basically built the same as mini or precision screwdrivers, but with a special forked lifting tip.

I used my Wiha chip lifter over the weekend to repair the ball bearing drawer slide of a new tool cabinet. A new cabinet came in, I removed the drawers to make it easier to bring upstairs, and I accidentally knocked a slide off the chassis. There were small bearing tracks involved – it was a mess.

Sure, you can probably get away with modifying an older slotted precision screwdriver, but these are typically inexpensive.

My chip lifting tools have come in handy over the years, and I consider them multi-purposed in the same way as hooks, picks, probes, spudgers, and other similar types of tools.

Buy the Wiha at Amazon
Buy the Wera at Amazon
Buy the Wera at KC Tool

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36 Comments

  1. These are indeed useful, I’ve had a couple of the Wiha ones for many years now. Speaking of mini prying tools, Snap-On makes some that are worth mentioning. The models PBMB5 and PBMS5 are pocket-size pry bars but with a very nice ergonomic handles and they are very robust for their size. One is angled and the other straight. These chip lifters can easily be damaged as they are very light-duty tools but those Snap-Ons are a totally different beast and can take some serious prying. They also have another type, I don’t know the model number and I’m not even sure it has one, that one is a cheaper promotional type of tool. They are much lighter duty than the PBM series but they are still very handy as they are stronger than the chip lifter, and they’re very cheap. Search online for “Snap On promo pry bar” and you will easily find them, people sell them on Ebay, etc, for just a few bucks. Last I looked you could buy a pack of ten for about $25.

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      • There are hard plastic versions of those autobody (etc) tools available as well, they are nice because they are non-marring. A related and handy tool is the “spudger”, available both with metal and plastic blades.

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          • Wow, great link Fred! I’ve tried several of the super cheap spudger tools and spudger tool sets from on line sources and I have been disappointed with how very weak the plastic is on those. The bojo tools website appears to have options for different hardnesses and a ton of other tools to explore. Thanks Fred!

      • I had the impression “Metal Magery” was the original, but I might be wrong. It’s the one that was recommended when I first heard of that tool – I have one, it’s great.

        I like the look of that double-ended Ares though! I might have to get one to try.

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    • Thanks for the tip! Those Snap-On pry bars are about $30 for 10 now, more each if you get fewer.

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  2. I’ve owned one from Wiha (made in Germany) since 1999. I actually paid around $10 for it back then – so the current price seems cheap.

    At a somewhat larger size – and for different use – I find the small CS Osborne tack puller handy:

    https://www.amazon.com/Osborne-No-120-Staple-Lifter/dp/B0761XCM9W

    I paid about $13 for it in 1997 – so the price today seems a bit steep.

    Lang, Tekton and others also make mini pry bars that can be useful:

    https://www.harryepstein.com/products/lang-2-piece-pocket-pry-bar-set-853-06-2st

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  3. I’m in the camp of modifying screwdrivers although I have a nice old Moody chip lifter. I have a set of three Wiha ESD flat heads that twisted/chipped and thus became micro priers – nice to have smaller sizes than the chip lifter without abusing a good screwdriver. Beyond that I go to mini tack lifters or, now, the nice Tekton mini pry bars (which are great).

    The cheap-cheap 4-pc double ended solder tool kit thingys usually have a lifter in them as well…actually those are usually decent enough steel and the forked lifter can be either smooth (preferred) or ribbed for your chip’s pleasure. The spring hook ends included in those kits is quite handy as well although spring hooks from Moody are inexpensive and available in more options.

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    • I can’t remember the last time I even saw a socketed IC chip. Maybe the bread board and Raspberry Pi kids are using them again these days?

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      • I still spec sockets for standard ICs in every every board I design. I’m fully aware there is rarely a solid reason for it these days; for me it’s just a matter of habit that goes way back. My father was a HAM operator and taught me to solder when I was very young, and one of the things he always insisted on was using sockets so the heat of soldering didn’t risk affecting the IC. Perhaps that was a concern with some of the earlier ICs he would have encountered during his younger days? Or perhaps it came from things like DIP switches that are easier to damage? Regardless of the reasoning behind it that’s how I learned so it just became automatic for me. And it certainly is convenient for prototyping. If you accidentally fry a chip or you want to experiment with different OP-amps (for example) then it’s easier to use sockets even if you have a full vacuum rework station.

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        • The plumber who taught me to solder and wipe joints was not quite as fussy. We used soldering irons (coppers attached to a steel rod with a wooden handle) that were heated in a portable furnace.

          The only warning about heat that he gave was that when caulking or wiping a joint with molten solder it was always good to have a piece of solid solder in the pot or ladle to ensure that 2-phases (solid and liquid) kept the temperature just at the melting point. Roofers still sometimes use these “irons” – plumbers less so – except for things like copper or lead shower pans fabricated on-site.

          https://www.stortz.com/product-category/roofing-tools/soldering/soldering-hand-irons/

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        • Interesting. Are the chips still relatively easy to find these days? I browse Digi-Key somewhat frequently (and aliexpress) but the only things I do are small passives and resistors (mostly for flashlight tinkering and the odd repair job that actually looks feasible). That’s great that your dad taught you that very valuable skill when you were young! I had nobody to show me when I tried to learn as a teenager…no experts handy and YouTube didn’t exist…had a devil of a time with it until I finally learned the magic of heat transfer with solder and then how very magical flux really is.

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          • Yes, that kind of chip is still easily found. There are also thru-hole sockets for more modern chip types like PLCCs. I regularly shop with Newark, Mouser, Digi-Key, and Allied/RS. Some were hard to find due to the covid supply chain hassles but that affected pretty much everything.

            One of the things I always noticed when people asked me for help soldering: most common irons you’d find at the typical hardware store (or even Radio Shack, when those were still around) are frustratingly bad, and that makes it difficult to learn. Due to my father’s radio hobby he had a base-station type iron which was much easier to learn on compared to the basic plugged-straight-into-the-wall type most beginners ended up with. Very few of those irons come with tinned tips, and it is often a major hassle to get the tip tinned. If the tip is not tinned properly the iron is very hard to work with because the molten solder will fall off instead of sticking to the iron where it can aid heat transfer. I suspect a lot of new people got frustrated trying to solder without even realizing they need to get the tip tinned first. It’s like trying to learn to use a plane that came with a dull iron: you have to get it set up right before you can start working with it.

  4. I am big fan of using the Wago tool as a small pry bar
    Wago 210-658 Operating Tool, 3.5 X 0.5 MM, Short Angled (Original Version) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001NJL89O

    The free promo wago tool you can get from distributors is great too. I keep at least two in my tool box at all times.

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    • Many Wago operating tools are screwdriver-like – but some are more akin to hook-probe style – and they can be used as such.

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    • You could potentially use it for prying, but it’s definitely not meant for that.

      That said, I have a couple of terminal release tools, and am guilty of misusing them on occasion. I try not to, as they were a pain to source.

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  5. At the short end of the spectrum there are the little triangular prying tools for opening cell phone cases, or the ones for prying up bridge pins on guitars. Hobby shops also sell prybars for models and for clevises:

    https://gravesrc.com/sul524-sullivan-clevis-tool/

    At the other end of the spectrum there are scaling bars used in mining – and sometimes in concrete work – used more as scrapers than pry bar. Here is a 2400mm one from Klein Tools (Australia):

    https://www.mummetools.com.au/bars/scaling-bars/steel/2400x20mm-scaling-bar-hexagon

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    • I’ve purchased a few of the 4.5″ mini pocket pry bars (e.g. look up “PQY Mini Pocket Pry Bar with Pocket Clip 4.5”), which look very similar. They’re like mini flat-blade screwdrivers with bent tips. Not terribly robust, but you typically get 3/$10 or less.

      I like the look of these chip lifters though. The split end might be handy.

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  6. This honestly the most useful post for my limited tool use in a long time. Replete with examples and links too! Thanks everyone!

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  7. Some of the links above have some pretty cool tools. I have a Wiha, from a precision screwdriver set.

    Many items I buy today, of note, made in China Amazon products, often come with cheap screwdrivers, cheap stamped wrenches and hex keys, to assemble the product. They are next to useless, so I toss them into a bin and whenever I need to fashion a tool for something, I grab one of these and grind, cut, bend or whatever necessary and make a tool…so they are good for something.

    * All these products that come with these throw away tools and even gloves, is this a reflection of today’s society not having any of these extremely common tools? Many young people have very little except a $1000 phone; that’s all they need.

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    • I think the “complete kit” idea has been around a long time…maybe not with gloves. In the 80s when knock-down cheap furniture started to get popular, those most often came with a cheap freebie tool or two (similar or worse quality than what they usually include today). Seems like the auto parts folks made it more common later, too. I think these days more people will own allen keys since they are so needed with plumbing and bathroom accessories, bicycles, etc. but for as cheap as they are it’s nice to have them tossed into products sometimes (and that might help to prevent unhappy customers that don’t know or take the time to figure out SAE vs Metric on a hex…). I remember the first time I came across wooden dowel pins that were treated with a wet-to-apply glue…seemed silly but I guess people often don’t need or have wood glue, either.

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  8. Just wanted to say that the Wera chip lifter performed well in an off-label capacity to pry a nail from my wife’s tire. The head was ground off, so a smoothly worn shank was slightly below the tread

    The chip lifter managed to pry the nail high enough where I could grab it with 4-inch diagonal cutters. Alternating tools and swear words, we successfully made an empty hole that was pluggable

    Neither the lifter nor the cutters showed any wear or damage.

    Slightly relieved. I wonder if they honor warranty replacements for bent and shattered chip lifter?

    Reply

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