Man I've read a bunch of posts just like this and the stories are always the same. @eva_thompson10's buddy's handle snapping off is EXACTLY the kind of crap I'd expect from that budget junk. Lesson learned hard, cheap tools just cost you more in the long run.

Yeah the "bottom of my fries don't crisp up" thing is REAL. My buddy Mike tried one of those and said his tater tots came out looking steamed instead of fried.

Feels bad man, I've definitely been there. I was using the back of a pair of tweezers to try and crease some cane work for like two years before someone showed me a proper brass paddle. Felt like such a dummy when I finally tried the real tool and it took like ten seconds instead of ten minutes. Solidarity on feeling like you've been working the hard way for way too long.

Wait, are you actually shorting out your connectors or just bending the pins? I see people mix those up all the time. Bending pins back with a toothpick is way different than actually shorting something with a power spike. Shorts usually happen when you plug stuff in while the system is live or if you drop a screw on the motherboard. If you're just fighting with tiny connectors and bent pins, that's more of a patience problem than an electrical one.

Idk this actually changed my mind, I always thought compressed air was safe too.