The one tool that saved me 3 hours on a gearbox swap

I was working on a King Air prop governor last Tuesday and spent forever fighting with that stupid lock wire. My coworker Dave walked over and handed me a pair of these little Knipex mini bolt cutters. I thought no way those things cut through .032 wire clean. But they cut it flush in one snap no jagged ends no scraping my knuckles on the case. I used to twist wire by hand and file the ends which took like 20 minutes per bundle. Has anyone else found a random tool that just killed a recurring headache for you?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_webb5d ago

I'm gonna push back on this one a little. Spending 20 minutes filing each bundle sounds like you were making a mess of things anyway. A proper twist and a quick clip with cheap shears leaves a burr sure but you just run your finger over it once and it's fine. I've been using the same $7 pair from the hardware store for years and never had a wire come loose or hurt myself. Those fancy Knipex cutters are nice but you're paying 10x the price to save maybe 30 seconds per job.

juliaa655d ago

The whole "run your finger over it once" thing always makes me cringe. Yeah it works until one day it doesn't and you get a nice slice while you're working on something critical.

wadejenkins5d ago

Wait you were actually using a file on .032 lock wire? Every single bundle? Man that takes me back to my first year in the hangar when my old lead made me do that by hand too. I thought there had to be a better way so I bought one of those cheap pair of wire cutters from the truck but they always left a little burr that would catch on everything. Those Knipex mini bolt cutters are no joke though they bite right through like butter. I still remember the first time I used a pair and just stared at the clean cut for like five seconds.