Heavy Duty Hammer-in Pin Header Install Rig for Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W & Zero W 2 – Includes 2X 40 Pin Male Headers – No Soldering Required – Easy Installation for Raspberry Pi Projects

Works well! I was able to tap in pins into a few raspberry pi zeros without issue, rig is great for reuse in the future, solid metal construction

It's hard to find the Pi Zero with a header already soldered on, and life is too short for me to fumble with trying to solder a 40 pin connector. Enter the Vilros hammer-in header jig. The instructions were clear and the jig easy to set up. I put my Zero in and the header and got a hammer and gave it a tap. Nope, a tap doesn't do it. You need to give it a few decent whacks. Start at the middle and work your way to the ends alternating sides. Went in nice and straight and is a secure fit. Got it right on the first try without pending any pins or damaging the Pi Zero. I have a few more zeroes around, so I'll be buying additional headers to hammer in.

I've been through 3 of the jigs that are made of clear plastic, and they've all ended up with the thin spacer between the main body and the edge breaking off, so rather than buy a 4th one I spent the extra cash on this well-machined metal jig which I have to say works wonderfully. It's not perfect because the bar that gets the hammer has actually bent a little in mine but as long as you flip it over halfway through the process, it still does the job. I attached 20 headers in a sitting the day I got this which is 17 more than I ever managed with any of the cheaper style. Recommended. (Mind you if you are a competant solderer, soldering is preferred, but for us old geezers with poor eyesight and shaky hands, these friction-fit headers are a godsend.) Note that they even work for the bulk industrial friction-fit headers from China which are much cheaper than the ones you get from Raspberry Pi vendors in ones and twos - the plastic jigs won't handle these industrial headers which are meant for machine insertion at a higher pressure than the plastic jigs can provide.

Worked very well and the result is solid. Make sure that you are hammering the pins evenly or they will go in at an angle

First things first: I bought this on the speculation that it would be useful for more than just the Pi Zero. Short answer is "sort of". More on that below. I'm not deducting any stars for "not perfect at a task it wasn't made for", but I am taking off one because it's silly to suggest hammering when there's a better way. Based on one of the other reviews, rather than hammering, I used a clamp. I have some Manfrotto "super-clamps", and using one of those made the process super-easy — the wide clamp spread pressure across the top bar, and I simply tightened until it hit the stops, and... done. It would be relatively simple to include a screw-clamp mechanism with this jig, and that'd be so much better that I'm reserving five stars for a future product like that. But then, what about using the clamp for other devices, like little ESP32 microcontroller boards from Adafruit? It can work, with one small caveat and one frustrating surprise. The obvious thing is that your board needs to fit between the spacers. A half-size perma-proto board is too big. And, if the board has components or ports on the bottom, that's going to be a problem. The less obvious thing is that, unlike other (solder-in) headers I've purchased, these are not easily separated — you get a 20×2 block. They look like they might be break-apart in the picture, but they aren't. I used an old pair of wire-cutters to snip off pairs, which worked well enough — ruining only a few in the process — and having done that, was able to use the jig + clamp to connect the headers to my board. Unfortunately, Vilros does not seem to make or sell header blocks in any other configuration. So, in conclusion: 1. If you have a bunch of Pi Zero devices or something else in the exact form factor, and you bring your own clamp, A+. 2. If you have something in a different form factor which happens to fit, solid B. 3. If your board is small enough and you need a different pin configuration, C-. Vilros, if you're listening: 1. Design a version with a built-in screw-clamp. 2. Maybe make the jig a little more flexible so it could be configured to accommodate a bigger boards, and 3. Sell strips of pins like these which can be broken off easily (or, failing that, in various smaller-sized blocks).

works best. so professional. a bit unecessary but i get two

This makes the process SOOO easy to install the pins and you don't need to spend the extra $ to buy they pre-made boards. This is a must have if you find yourself working with many Pis

Did exactly as it stated it would, though it only works with Vilros headers because of the design of the pins. Take into account that if you use a regular "solder" pin header it may not work as intended.