Knock offs: Safety pliers

[leadfoot]

I know this might sound like a stupid question... Does one need the purpose built safety wire pliers to make the securing of the safety wire easier? Or is this a tool for one that has everything??

[Lowell W]

You can use a Vise-grips or a pliers but the safety wire pliers is much faster and easier

[bmalone]

I like traditional pliers. Can do a very nice job with them. Maybe they take longer--who knows?

[Doug I]

The purpose built pliers will grip the wire and twist it evenly, without kinking the wire within the twists thereby inducing a point where the wire can break. They will also twist the wire without any slack within the twists. This means that the wired object cannot rotate, take the slack out of the twisted wire and become loose (or backoff a speced torque) - or tighten up if it is wired the other way. And they are fast.

Just because it's wired doesn't mean it's safely wired.

regards

ohh and they woun't over-twist (and maybe over-stress) the wire either

and another 'ohh' - they will evenly spirally twist each wire around the other. Often trad. pliers will only twist 1 wire. The other wire gets twisted along its length - gets overstressed and has 1 or more ductile zones where the wire is very weak. 1 wire twisted around a straight wire will hold nothing, especially when the straight wire is broken or nearly so.

[Steve R]

Leadfoot,
You don't need them, but they make the job much easyer.
If you don't want to spend the money (around $20 from JC Whitney), find an aircraft mechanic to show you how to do it by hand.....which is actually the prefered method on aircraft because the pliers can damage the wire if not used correctly.
Steve

[427 S/O]

Use .040 safety wire, you can order the pliers and wire from.......
aircraftspruce.com

[mrmustang]

MrGasket also has the safety pliers. Any decent speed shop should have them, either that, or you local Ekeystone dealer can get them overnight at around $20.

Bill S.