Show me your customised pliers

**Lucy** · 15-07-2010, 06:02 PM

Well yesterday whilst making a really cool project at work, my boss was cursing me for not having the right pliers for the job! Anyways - after a quick trip to the store to pick up 8 pairs of cheap pliers, I'm ready to start doing some more griding

I have the basics, bevelled edges, cut downs etc and a few of my own fancies - but I'm always so surprised (and educated) whenever I look in someone eles plier drawer! SoI want to see you're customised pliers - what have you done to them to make them perfect for a specific job?

**Dennis** · 15-07-2010, 08:51 PM

Commercial snake ends are very neat, but for craft jewellery which can be on the heavy side they look quite skimpy. So I make my own out of tubing by pinching the end with round nosed pliers and adding a jump ring. For snake and cable I spread the end with a little epoxy and push it into the tube. Before the adhesive sets I make two small pin pricks in the tube with my customised pliers. This creates two bumps inside to resist withdrawal. For thong I drill fine holes first so that when the pliers are used a sharp rim results.
Here are my customised pliers, made by adding a sharpened screw and locking nut to one beak and filing a groove in the other. I've shown you mine, now let's see yours. Dennis.

**Joe** · 15-07-2010, 10:34 PM

No photo, sorry, but I have some needle-nose with one side heated red-hot and bent towards the other forming a blunt-cone against an anvil (not altogether different from yours Denis, but a bit cruder and rustier!).

These I use to widen the ends of 1.2mm tube through brooch pins to act as the axle, which I prefer to rivets which can ruin a piece if applied too tight. I make a few brooches...

**Dennis** · 16-07-2010, 10:30 AM

That sounds interesting, Joe, it opens up a whole new subject about how to spread the ends of tube rivets. I noticed an advert in Craft Jewellry Magazine for a screw-down effort which had me thinking about adapting an upside-down G clamp. Kind rregards, Dennis. But Where Is That Lucy?

**Lucy** · 16-07-2010, 04:11 PM

very cool looking pliers

I dont think I have done any riveting.

I got carried away in the studio (making a mokume pendant and practicing some strange setting my boss wants me to do!) yesterday and before I knew it it was time to hit the town for some beers

some piccies will have to wait til monday though as they're at work - but I will get a few today

**Joe** · 16-07-2010, 09:52 PM

Was this the rivet tool you mentioned Dennis 1/16" Rivet Piercing/Setting Tool? It looks beautiful and precise but... my rubbishy looking pliers are much quicker and more flexible in narrow spots! I'm set wondering though whether your design could have interchangeable bits and so lend itself to being a whole range of things (just by grinding a few small bolts)...