Veteran Tool Spotlight: Safety Wire Pliers

It's been a while since I did a tool spotlight so I think I am going to discuss safety wire pliers. Like most mechanics I have a couple of pairs of safety wire pliers and have "gone through" a couple more. When I first started out in the industry I had a large pair of Mac safety wire pliers that were "liberated" from me by someone who thought he could take better care of them. I pretty much used those pliers for the first three years that I worked on airplanes.

A good pair of safety wire pliers is pretty much an essential to a good mechanic. Like the Ford Wrench I wrote about in an earlier post the safety wire plier can be a multi-use tool. Of course there is the obvious use for twisting wire, but I have known guys who use their safety wire pliers for cutting wire, zip ties, etc. pretty much replacing their diagonal cutters (dykes) with their safety wire pliers. By the way before I get too far along there are two sizes of safety wire pliers typically found: a 6" and a 9-12". The larger version is what guys in the hangar use. If you are reading this blog and just getting into aircraft maintenance than I suggest buying both. I personally only used a large pair until I got laid off and then started working line maintenance. In the line maintenance world just about everybody uses the smaller 6" version. Working the line you are safetying items that use .032 or smaller wire and not much .040 wire so we can get away with the smaller plier.

The larger pair of safety wire pliers I own were given to me by and old guy at Hayward Airport. They are Milbar Wire Twisters and are all silver (kind of unique). They are also unique in that the bar that you pull out to create the twisting action ratchets back into the plier instead of wisting back in. The smaller pair that I used for years is a no-name plier I bought new off of a truck. They worked very good for a long time and I only retired them because I got a better replacement. The safety wire pliers I carry in my line bag now are Bluepoint reversable safety wire pliers. The Bluepoints are very good and I like the fact that they can be reversed although I have to admit I rarley use that feature. The other thing I like about the Bluepoints is that the head of the plier is very small compared to an el-cheapo brand.

There is a funny thing that happens to line mechanics when they get used to using their own safety wire pliers. It is very awkward to use someone elses. When a buddy hands you his pliers to safety something they just do not feel right. I have also noticed that guys will use those pliers long past their useful life. I've seem some pretty messed up safety wire pliers being used after the lock or return spring thing is busted up. That just goes to show you how attached mechanics become to their tools (or are we a cheap bunch?) and how important useing a tool that one is familar with is to mechanics.

As in most Tool Spotlight posts I have to admit that I have used my safety wire pliers as a hammer before, but is that really that unusual? For all you guys with busted up safety wire pliers I even included a link to Amazon.com so you can pick up a new set!