Locking Wire Pliers

[MIKES]

Wanted, a set of genuine WD locking wire pliers. The sort that used to be sold in every surplus shop in the country! Also, some locking wire or clues as to what / where to buy.

 

 

[Paul Drake]

https://www.airpart.co.uk/page/aircraft-locking-wire-safety-wire

[Paul Drake]

 

In the RAF .022 stainless steel wire was used for nuts/bolts/pipe unions etc. Fine copper wire was used on electrical connectors.

The use of those pliers was frowned upon, as it was expected that you should be skilled enough to twist wire to the correct number of twists per inch with ordinary pliers.

Edited June 8, 2021 by Paul Drake

[utt61]

If you type "lockwire pliers" into Google you will find many, many sources (including Amazon, Machine Mart, etc).

 

Edit, oops, just noticed you want genuine WD pliers, which I am sure makes the search more difficult. Sorry, I should have read your post more carefully.

Edited June 9, 2021 by utt61

[fesm_ndt]

21 hours ago, Paul Drake said:

 

The use of those pliers was frowned upon, as it was expected that you should be skilled enough to twist wire to the correct number of twists per inch with ordinary pliers.

we used them all the time with stainless.  Copper was generally by hand, I remember the emergency release on oh58's were copper. Uh60''s had very little amount of safety wire and I often got asked to do it as I had spent my time on the older airframes

[andym]

I use stainless wire on all my vehicles, works a treat but needs a bit of practice!

Andy

[Richard Farrant]

I was given a  pair of surplus locking wire pliers unused, by someone who did not have a clue what they were for! Also bought a big reel of stainless locking wire from a stall at an airshow, labelled Hawker Siddeley. Use it a lot on restorations.

[fesm_ndt]

Great for yanking out split pins

[andym]

35 minutes ago, fesm_ndt said:

Great for yanking out split pins

That depends on the state of your split pins!  Out of four recently on my RB44's ball joints, I had to drill three out as they were just solidified rust.  The remaining one was fine as I'd replaced it previously - with a stainless one. 🙂

Andy

[fesm_ndt]

Some clowns like to tighten the nut a tad to stop it wiggling.  we used to cut the bottom side short and flatten and top piece cut it and twist into the castlelation.  This was to prevent hooking parts of your body on them in confined areas.

PS stainless is the best..I still have thousands of the buggers.  Carbon would be such a nuisance due to your road salting (never had to drill one out...yuck)

The beauty of lock wire pliers is the locking onto the split pins and the long arms for leaverage..unless you got the short ones.. mine are from memory close to 12 inches long....