Safety wire twisting tools - recommendations needed.

Grimly

Grimly

XS650 Junkie
Top Contributor
Messages
895
Reaction score
3,727
Points
243
Location
Ireland
Jim said:
'Bout all I can tell ya is get the 9" ones. The 6" ones are a bit fiddly... at least in my experience.
Click to expand...
Probably right. Since my history is line maintenance, mine are 6 inch variety. Blue Point is the brand. I’ve had them for 35 years. Still good as new. Small was a priority for me. I can’t recommend getting that spendy on a rarely used tool. I used mine every day.

Buy cheap and buy 9”. If they don’t work out, you won’t be out a fortune.
 
Bought a cheap pair back when I had a plane, raced motorcycles. Kept the pliers when the plane went, never used much, but they died anyways. IIRC the twist mechanism stripped. There's very little missing from the only roll of safety wire I ever bought. :shrug:
Went looking but they've gone AWOL, not even in the tub of useless tools, no loss.
 
Mine fell out the back of an Air Force truck back in '72. :wink2:
No telling how many rolls of wire they've twisted in that time. Still work fine.
No brand name on 'em, so who knows. :shrug:
 
Jim said:
Mine fell out the back of an Air Force truck back in '72. :wink2:
No telling how many rolls of wire they've twisted in that time. Still work fine.
No brand name on 'em, so who knows. :shrug:
Click to expand...
Yep, those old GSA store Air Force safety wire pliers helped hold together many, many jets I worked on over the course of a lotta years! :thumbsup:
 
Perhaps not useful here but as a food for thought

In construction to keep the rebar where it should be one uses wire with small loops at the end
The one loop could be done before inserting and the other once inserted
Or cutting one of these ? and use .perhaps to poor steel ?
Depends how hard the used wire is. But I reckon mild steel

Then one uses a rotating hook to twist it
Could be easily manufactured fitting a hand held battery powered drill

They dont cut the loops off .But that can be done in this case perhaps



1694424389666.png





1694424336208.png
 

Jim said:
Mine fell out the back of an Air Force truck back in '72. :wink2:
No telling how many rolls of wire they've twisted in that time. Still work fine.
No brand name on 'em, so who knows. :shrug:
Click to expand...

Nothing like that ever happened when I was being issued gummint tools. :whistle::sneaky:

However, when I was in Iceland, we had access to "small stores" for personal use, limited to $XX per month. Nice Kennedy machinist tool box was like $40 or something.
 
Downeaster said:
Nothing like that ever happened when I was being issued gummint tools. :whistle::sneaky:

However, when I was in Iceland, we had access to "small stores" for personal use, limited to $XX per month. Nice Kennedy machinist tool box was like $40 or something.
Click to expand...
Keflavik NAS, Iceland?

I was stationed there 1999-2000.
 
Milbar also appear on EU Aircraft Spruce.
Hoping their cheapest ones aren't shit, I'm seriously tempted by them at €80-ish.*
That's why I asked on here, as I know some are well acquainted with the use of these things.
I'd only come across the more expensive Milbars, so hadn't really considered them.

* Either them or the Draper set at £50 on Amazon UK.
 
I can tell you this much for certain....the ones from Harbor Freight are complete crap. I mean they're better than hand twisting, but just barely.

I've had the HF pair for years...really should find an old school pair like I used in the Air Force. Problem is, I don't think about them between uses and always end up re-using the crappy pair because I need them at the time. :shootme:
 
Grimly said:
The choice over here is a bit sparse, and most seem to be cheap rubbish, with the exception of €40 ones from Aircraft Spruce.
https://www.aircraftspruce.eu/econ-safety-wire-twister-6-quot-.htm
Looking on the Amazon US site, there are a lot more and of course the price ranges all over the shop.
Anyone got a recommendation for a good general-purpose set that would do for bike use without busting the bank open?
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=safety+wire+pliers+aviation
Click to expand...
After considering your question, my own experience, and other’s comments, I think I’d recommend just leaving them alone. Anything that works well is going to be expensive. I don’t think you can buy drilled metric hardware, so you won’t get a lot of use. Get duckbill pliers and safety with those. They work fine.
 
Downeaster said:
Yup. 87-88. Worse 16 months of my life...unaccompanied tour, a-hole for an exec and the most consistently awful weather I've ever encountered.
Click to expand...
Totally understand, I was unaccompanied there too for a year.

People always say how beautiful it is...I always tell them, yes it is...."From behind a windshield!".

Always had a zip tie on my antenna so I knew for sure I was parked into the wind so my door would not rip off its hinges.

We had record snowfall/blizzards the winter I was there too....our shop truck was 100% buried more than once and I had to dig it out every time. 😳
 
Back in the day when the Snap On truck made it's weekly dig into my wallet... I bought one...of course being Snap On... not cheap.. but with any tool it felt right... and worked ! so worth the price. I loaned to a " buddy " .. who later moved out of state. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :mad::mad::mad:
 
motormike said:
Back in the day when the Snap On truck made it's weekly dig into my wallet... I bought one...of course being Snap On... not cheap.. but with any tool it felt right... and worked ! so worth the price. I loaned to a " buddy " .. who later moved out of state. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :mad::mad::mad:
Click to expand...
Those pliers got used several times a day. They came from the Snap-on truck. Still working like new. Cost a small fortune. I never used to let them go out of my sight.
 
If I could buy metric bolts, drilled for safety wire, for the brake rotors and rear sprocket, maybe a few other places, I'd do it. I'm not going to drill them myself. We could probably obtain some from Russia, assuming they build airplanes with metric hardware and use safety wire. Airbus hardware is not metric.

Have any of you seen metric hardware with safety wire holes? My bike has safety wire on the grips, just because I can. I have plenty of stainless wire and Blue Point safety wire pliers.
;)
 
Back
Top