Used to fight with safety wire pliers, now I twist by hand for most jobs

For like 10 years I swore by the fancy twisting pliers. Bought a good pair after busting my knuckles on a Cessna exhaust in Wichita, seemed like the answer. But last spring I was doing a long stretch of landing gear work where you're in tight spots, and the pliers kept snagging on everything. Got so frustrated I just grabbed two pairs of regular needle nose and twisted the wire by hand like the old-timer across the bay always did. Took me about 4 tries to get the tension right, then it clicked, in a slow way, not a sudden one. Now I only break out the pliers for really long runs or stainless wire. Hand twisting gives me way better feel for when it's just tight enough, and I don't cuss as much. Anyone else ditch a tool for the old school method and never look back?

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jesse_craig2217d ago

My buddy Ron went through the same thing over at the hangar, he had that really nice Miller pliers set and everything. One day he was redoing the throttle cable on a King Air and the plunger on the pliers jammed up on him, stripped the wire end too. He threw them across the toolbox and just started doing the twist and pull method with his aero snips, real angry style. Took him two days to admit the feel was better, but now he won't touch the pliers unless it's lockwire on a turbine. Says he can tell the exact twist count by hand now, and his wrist doesn't ache after a long day. It's funny how we get so attached to a tool until it screws us over one too many times.