A Cheap Molex Pin Extractor

Introduction

I was tasked to re-use an old ATX Molex. However, how hard I tried with my stainless-steel tweezers I was unable to remove any pin. So I dediced to look for a tool. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one other than the ones on AliExpress. No time to wait for shipping, decided to look for a solution. In this article, I’m gonna describe a tool by modifying a monopole whip antenna that can be found attached to old radio.

Molex

Molex is the name of of the company who manufactures electrical connectors and bunch of other stuff. Here is an old ATX connector commonly found in personal computers that delivers power the motherboard.

molex

I’ve found a dozen of videos on YouTube to remove the pins from a connector. Some use paperclips others use staples. There are also tools developed exactly for the purpose. For instance, here is a spring loaded one if you really want to see it in action.

molex_spring_loaded

Basically, the idea is to have a hollow shaft to hold the keys away from the notches and have a spring loaded axial push rod inside to extract the pin. Pretty simple, huh?

Let’s see the outline of a pin.

molex_pins

Monopole Antenna

I was curious reusing old molex connectors since they are in good shape and all I need to do is extract the pins without destroying the connector. Started looking for ideas and an elder told me about these old antennas used in radios. I’ve picked the following for around 1USD.

antenna

It has the hollow shaft but contrary to my assumption, the diameters won’t match. So I decided to build one in house using a cheap Chinese Dremel-like tool.

extractor

Here is what I get at the end. Two pieces, one to insert and hold the keys in place and a pin to extract via a hammer.

The Manual

So how to extract the pins via this tools?

manual1

First, insert the piece into place.

manual2

Then, insert and hammer the push rod.

manual3

The pin will pop at the other side and now you can pull the cable.

manual4

Finally, remove the insert piece and push rod. That’s it.

Conclusion

I’ve tried different methods and failed. For instance, trying to hold the keys in place via stainless-steel tweezers did not work for me. Second, even if you the insert the piece to hold the keys in place, the method of pulling the cable won’t work hence the push rod.

Hope you enjoyed, it seems the frequency band of the antenna includes molex connectors too :p

Until next time!