What Is a Spudger? Tool for Phones & Vintage Sewing Machines
An inexpensive tool for opening plastic machines without scratching
A spudger is a small prying tool, usually plastic, nylon, carbon fiber, wood, or thin steel, made to separate parts without scratching, cracking, or shorting electronics. Phone techs use them daily. The flat or notched tips pop clips, lift connectors, and scrape off adhesive.
On a plastic-body vintage sewing machine, like a 385 series Kenmore made by Janome, they do the same job: safely opening snap-together cases without scratching the finish or breaking tabs.
They cost a few dollars for a set, and they save a lot more than that in cracked or scratched plastic. If you’re opening a plastic-body machine more than once, it’s the tool you reach for before the screwdriver.
Pro Tip: Make a Spudger
Go to the grocery store and find one of those bundles of bamboo shish kabob skewers, that’s one of my most used spudgers. You can cut them to length, sharpen them, blunt them, you can even split the end a bunch of times turning it into a very stiff brush.
..but where did the word spudger come from?
Spudger most likely comes from the words “spudde” or “spuddle.” Those were just short knives or weeding tools, later shortened to “spud.” Over time the name got used for anything you dug or pried with, eventually “spudger” was showing up in shops as a word for small prying tools.
