Aesthetically Pleasing Safety Wire Twists

[Tom Niebrand]

Originally Posted by patrickt

A few days ago, in a thread that I can now not find, a member was commenting that he just couldn't get his safety wire twists to look good, even when using dedicated safety wire pliers. Yesterday, when I was removing a wheel, I thought of that post, so I picked up the camera to take a shot for him. Like almost everything in life, there is a trick that makes it easy to look good. That trick is start your twisting by hand, not with the pliers. Here it is:

When initially wrapping the wire around the spoke of the wheel, hand twist the wire tightly against the spoke. Do a couple of twists like this before using your pliers. This will allow the pliers twisting action to start fresh up against the spoke.



Then put the safety wire pliers on the end and it will perform a clean twist. Do that to a length right up against the end of the spinner; then bring an end of the wire though the drilled hole in your spinner and run a inch or two of twist and cut to an appropriate length.




The finished product.

If this spinner is a right hand spinner then it's saftey wire is incorrect. If it's left hand then it's correct. I don't own a set of knock-off, but do they have left thread?

[cdnus]

Some small tricks I use are,
I slip a piece of small diamerter clear vinyl tubing that I get at home depot, over the wire & is long enough to wrap completely around the spoke & the ends meet up at the point at which the wire starts it's twist. this prevents the wire from marking the paint & looks professional.
I also drill a extra hole next to the original hole in the spinner ( with a small space between the two ) that allows me to insert both ends of the wire from the rear of the wing after twisting to the right length, then I pull the wire up tight & twist the pigtail.
Once I have it twisted & trimmed I can bend it down into the recess in the front of the wing where it is out of the way & harmless.
The finished job is very neat & tidy in appearance.

Craig

[Jamo]

Cheerleader has become adept at using my safety wire plier to wire up her roses to the fence (using a rubber collar around the branches).

My gardener (not knowing about the tool) was mightily impressed.

[Kramer]

Pat- I just wanted to say thanks for the thread. My car is finally finished and I need to wire my wheels and I found this thread very useful.

I appreciate the time to post the pics as well.

Kramer

[LMH]

Just checked out your pics Kramer! Wow, really looks outstanding.
Larry

[Aussie Mike]

I've been running the safety wire through a short length of clear plastic tube where it wraps around the wheel spoke. It stops the wire from damaging the paint on your wheel centers. When you replace the wire you keep the piece of tube and thread the new wire thru. It's a thin plastic tube they often use for windscreen washer jets.

Cheers