SKINNY
FINGERS
BY JOE NORRIS

EFIS GP Our EFIS GP offers many of the great features of the EFIS SG at an unbeatable value!

Introducing...the TruTrak

WHEN WORKING ON AIRCRAFT, someday
you’ll need to put a washer or nut into a
confined area. You can see where it needs
to go, but you just can’t get your fingers in
there. EAA member Al Burgener came up
with a great solution to this problem. He
calls his tool “Skinny Fingers.”
Al made his Skinny Fingers out of
music wire that he hammered flat on two
sides. That keeps the fingers from rotat-
ing when held within the handle. You can
bend the tips of the wire into whatever
shape works best for what you want to
hold. The most common shape is to make
each one into a half-circle as shown in the
illustration. The inside diameter of the
tips of the fingers need to be squared off
vertical to the flat top and bottom sur-
faces so that the fingers will get a good
hold on the item you’re trying to place in
the confined area. The handle is made
from a piece of 1/4-inch outside diameter
aluminum tubing about 3 inches long.

To make your Skinny Fingers, insert the two fingers that you’ve prepared as outlined above into the piece of aluminum tubing, then hammer the tube down onto the flat surfaces of the wire. The fingers extend out of the handle about 4 inches or so. This size works great on nut sizes from about No. 8 to 5/16. A larger set of Skinny Fingers will be required if you want to hold onto anything bigger.