[ARC5] Retaining rings..

[Michael Hanz]

I totally agree with that philosophy, Craig - and have machined special 
dimensions into more than one of my tools for such purposes.  Some of 
them look pretty scary to others..."Why did you do that to that poor 
tool" was a common question.

But I found in experimenting before I started modifying the pliers that 
the plastic used in both the Cannon and the Facom plug pliers gets a bit 
squirrely when you bite down on an non-centered workpiece.  A 0.110" 
wide workpiece on the edge of a 1/4" plastic tool is not something it 
enjoys doing - it deforms and squirts the cylindrical workpiece out like 
a lemon seed without much pressure on the handles.

I had finally decided to simply make offset curved inserts for the 
Cannon pliers out of soft 1100 aluminum to replace the plastic ones.  
About that time these three tools below from the ARC morgue showed up at 
the door, compliments of a friend.  They sorta put a damper (and a sigh 
of relief) on further research.  🙂

Best regards,
Mike




On 8/19/2025 3:00 PM, Craig Cantwell via ARC5 wrote:
> Mike: I'd buy the cheapest pair I could find new, and take the time 
> and grind/trim one side of them down almost flush to the insert. I 
> would leave a small amount of metal, like .030" or less, to be able to 
> fully support the inserts. If one has the gorilla grip and breaks them 
> while removing a ring, maybe they need to try the ring by hand, 
> without tools. Emoji
> I'm not above modifying a tool, new or used for a very specialized 
> task. Had lots of them when I worked on the production floor.
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