# Holey Pliers



## Blogwitch (Sep 10, 2011)

No, not another Batman saying, but a resurrection of an old post I did on another site.

I bought myself a few pairs of pliers last time I went to the market. These are a pair of long nosed electricians ones, but if you want to make the thing I am going to show you, get the ones like this, beefy around the nose, the thin scrawny ones just won't hack it.





Find something to hold the jaws apart slightly, I used a 6mm washer.





Clamp them up tight in your drilling or milling vice, and get out your rough set of drills, metric or imperial, this can be made with either, in fact buy two pairs and make one set of each.





Running down the centre line of the jaws, I started of at the tip with a 2mm, then going up in 0.5mm sizes, I ended up at 6mm.
It doesn't need to be very accurate with the distance between each hole, as long as there is the shape of each hole afterwards.
I find that these cheap pliers drill like a little tough cast iron.





Drilled and deburred, but what the hell are they used for. The next couple of pictures show it all.





For holding thin rods





To even thicker ones.




How many times have you tried to hold round bar for working on, say grinding the ends, or holding while tightening up a nut?

These cost me one UK pound from the market, and 30 mins of my time. Where else would you get a very useful tool at those sorts of prices.


John


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## billinecin (Sep 10, 2011)

Very handy! Another one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" ideas.
Bill


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## Blogwitch (Sep 10, 2011)

Thank you gents for the comments.

I am sure that there are loads of members on here that have made simple little tools like this to help out in the shop, I have a few knocking about myself.

So how about showing us what you have been making up that makes life a little easier in the shop.


John


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## Blogwitch (Sep 11, 2011)

Thanks Bob.

Bill,

I used to, and still do occasionally, rebuild engines for people, getting them to run after they had tried to build them or just generally bringing back rather older classical steam engines back from the dead after they were worn out.

The one you see is in fact a Stuart Turner V-twin, which a chappie had tried to build but made a bit of a hash of it.

This is a picture of the initial problems found after he had tried to 'run it in' with an electric drill, a certain killer of model engines that won't run.




This is the finished engine, plus he also asked me to make him an exhaust condenser as well.






This is a rough video after a few weeks basically repairing and rebuilding from scratch. I haven't yet fathomed out how to put a you tube video directly onto the post, so here is the link.

http://youtu.be/-ah9YHFR6iw


John


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## Highpower (Sep 16, 2011)

Have any friends that are into archery? Those would serve well as "nock" pliers also.   
Great post.


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## ejames (Sep 16, 2011)

I did that to a pair of needle nose pliers but I just drilled it once. Use it for a specific purpose when working on my pipes. Didn't think to drill more holes for other things!


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## Blogwitch (Sep 17, 2011)

Ed,

I class these cheap 'market' tools as a disposable asset, they are usually only a pound or so each, and I drill and grind them at will, maybe like yourself, to do one specific job. 

They are not like expensive quality tools, you can easily drill them, which makes them perfect for modification. Besides, it's not something you would want to do with something costing 20 or 30 pounds

Whenever I am out at the market, I always have a scout around the cheapo stalls, just in case I see a tool that can be modified to do a specific job.

I'm just a cheapskate really.


John


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## Highpower (Sep 17, 2011)

> author=DaveH link=topic=3503.msg26118#msg26118 date=1316181465
> Willie,
> I know about a "nocking shop" ##
> 
> ...


Only *one*?? ## 

Sorry Dave,

While I do enjoy a great deal of British humor and slang, I'm afraid I haven't learned but a small portion so far. So if I stick my foot in my mouth (in UK terms) please realize it is not done intentionally...... _most_ of the time. 
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
 ;0


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## Blogwitch (Sep 18, 2011)

It doesn't matter what a job looks like, if you are happy with it, and it does the job, why worry.

'Chuffed' - a feeling of well being, happy with what you have achieved. #@clap2@&amp;


John


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