Can you tell me what type of tool this is? I think it has something to do with phone lines, but I could be wrong.

They look as if they might be used for tuning coils and capacitors in electronic devices, such as old
( pre transistor ) radios and T.V.s

Ray

The red and white tools are for removing the pins from Molex connectors. They slip around the pin and squeece the lock finger back so the pin will come out. (for repairing the connectors) Molex connectors were widely used in the electronics industry...

NB: The pins come in different sizes...

Actually the red and white tools are pin inserters and extractors for DB series connectors. They connectors come in 9 pin, 15 pin and 25 pin styles that I am fimilar with. They are usually used in computer and communication applications. We use them for communications cables on bar code scanners and encoders used on conveyor systems. One end can be used to insert the pins after the wire is crimped or soldered to the pin or socket. The other end is used to extract or remove the pin or socket from the housing if there is a problem.  The black and red items are test lead alligator clips. The black item with the red cap could also be another pin extractor/insertion tool for a different style connector. I can't tell from the picture.

Both really, (DB - Data, suBminiture Molex connector) The same type of tool is for both the DB size, and the bigger style, but the tools come in different diameters, comparing the size with the alligator clips, you are probably right, they look like the small size that fits the DB type...)

Brings back memories, I used to buy cheap printer cables and pop out the pins swap the wires around to make special cables....(ok, I'm cheap ; P )

Brings back memories, I used to buy cheap printer cables and pop out the pins swap the wires around to make special cables....(ok, I'm cheap ; P )

Rusty:

You gave us the "what", but not the "why".  Why did you need special cables?

>You gave us the "what", but not the "why".  Why did you need special cables?

I am old, I predate 'standard' standard serial cables. Lots of older computers had sorta-almost-but-not-quite-standard cable wiring, and a lot of old printers and other gadgets would only work with the cables wired just a certain particular way. Lots of early modems would not work unless the cables were just so either.
One of the problems with standards is when you make too many things optional in the standard, you end up with a whole bunch of stuff that is almost but not quite compatable....

And then there are all the cables I made for people who bought Mac computers because they were different from the monotnous IBM standardization....Which of course meant they had non standard cables...

In case you are wondering how old old is, I built my first computer from parts...not boards plugged together,  actual parts soldered together one by one....(and when I turned it on and the dang thing actually worked I was amazed, I figured there were about 2000 soldered connections in it, each of which *had* to work....

Ahh...the good old days LOL

(8K of memory, 1megabyte disk, keyboard, and a video display, no sound, no game pad, no modem, the internet was a few years later...)

Quote from: rusty on September 08, 2011, 05:42:14 PM
In case you are wondering how old old is, I built my first computer from parts...not boards plugged together,  actual parts soldered together one by one....(and when I turned it on and the dang thing actually worked I was amazed, I figured there were about 2000 soldered connections in it, each of which *had* to work....

Ahh...the good old days LOL

Was it ENIAC?

Quote from: rusty on September 08, 2011, 05:42:14 PM...the internet was a few years later...

...but Al Gore was busy working on it...