New tool (toy), a safety wire twister

XJ
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I was not happy with some of the safety wire work I have done, or others have done, on the IRS trailing arm mount bolts and brake calipers on our Jaguars so I purchased a safety wire twister and tried my hand at it. It was an inexpensive Harbor Freight tool but it did the job and the safety wire looks much more professional than before. I may get a better one that rotates both ways and is a little easier to use for some upcoming brake work. This one was a bit limited and difficult to use but it worked.

Paul

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Paul

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A cordless drill will do the same job and both ways.:grinning:

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Bought mine from Mcmaster years ago.

HF would be less expensive.

I needed the left and the right twist, so I bought both, serios overkill but still make me smile when I use them.

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Jimbov8,
What kind of bit do you use in a cordless drill to hold the safety wire tight. Keeping both strands of safety wire tight was one of the problems I had with the safety wire twister that I used.

Paul

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Provided you don’t pull very hard, the two wires just clamp in even a hand-tightening chuck with no special bit. I use a small vise-grip as the time lost is pretty small doing it by hand. I need to buy one of those jigs for drilling at the corner of two hex flats for the lockwire.

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It’s just me, but I did them by hand… takes more time though.

Aristides

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I have one of those 'special pliers". Unknown specie. I forgot where I got it. used it on my Roadster project. Some sorely needed, and some just to look “cool”.

I did make a jig from angle iron to drill the flats of bots, as Pete describes. Some OK, others too durn hard!!!

The cordless drill idea touches base here.

And, too bad. I had a small hand drill. the one with a geared wheel and handle.

Or even easier,. a “Yankee drill”. I have a small one in my box of old tools that I restored to use. Wood work things.

Son was over yesterday. installed an auto fill device for
Billy’s water bucket. brought his own drill driver. why, he figured mine were probably not charged??? left it here… could not find it when0 he went home.

I figured out where it was. Solved. he pleased…

Carl. .

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Aristides,
That is nice safety wire work, especially done by hand. I have tried to do exactly that in the past but the twists never came out that even and it always bothered me when I saw the uneven twists. I was pleased with how even the twists looked using the new tool even after just a few practice tries.

Paul

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Thanks Paul.
The secret is in the angle of the wires when you twist them. As long as the angle is the same the result is quite uniform.
And the more you spread the wires apart the tighter the weave.
The magic number is about 120°.

Aristides