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docjjrmd

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What is anybodies preference? 6" vs 9" ? Favorite brand? I have not been happy with what I've found online to date. Opinions wanted, not fights..... Thanks.
 
I have and use both. If I had to have only one, the shorter one does fit some places the longer one wont.
Brand? They’re so old, I don’t know if there’s a brand on either. i do like the ones with the spring retraction.

Bill
 
25 years A&P. Get the smaller reversible one. Snap-On, Blue Point, or Milbar, all make good tools that will earn a spot in your toolbox.

I had a cheap non-reversible harbor freight one that I brought when I was in A&P school. I would loan out it out to new mechanic’s til they could get their own.

It doesn’t take much to figure out that reversible is way better and smaller is better than bigger.
 
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When I met Louise, she had been somewhere that had an unbeatable sale price on the 6” reversals Millbars, and she bought several pairs to give to her then-local friends that helped her maintain her purchased RV-6. She gave them all away except one pair, so I had to marry her for her safety-wire pliers…… 🤣
 
Milbar 25W's.....They have the urethane inserts to capture the cut tails. Safe-T-Cable is great and almost all we use these days at work, but like rocky says, the cables and ferrules are a bit expensive for general use. On top of that , a tool, with both nose pieces and the calibration check block is a quite expensive acquisition.
 
dmattmul said:
This is one of the best safety wire tools out. Lycoming and Pratt & Whitney use now. (And no more bloodshed)
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The pain with these comes when you find out that the hand operated gun is $500, while the powered versions running between $1,500 and $4,000. Plus you need a separate gun for each diameter of cable. And yeah, depending on diameter, the cables can run upward of a buck each.

So yeah, in a production setting where you can set it up and then do the exact same task over and over, they will pay for themselves in labor savings pretty fast. But no way can I justify something like that in my personal life.

I still have the Harbor Freight safety wire plier I got in A&P school, They're kinds junky but they work. Really, I haven't found anything on an RV that's hard to wire with any pliers, Except maybe the Constant Speed prop, and thats a colossal pain on any airplane. When these break I'll probably replace them with another $10 pair.

The millibars are nice since they reverse, but I'll just crank my wrist the other way and keep that $100 in my pocket.
 
Desert Rat said:
The pain with these comes when you find out that the hand operated gun is $500, while the powered versions running between $1,500 and $4,000. Plus you need a separate gun for each diameter of cable. And yeah, depending on diameter, the cables can run upward of a buck each.
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You used to not need a different gun for each size, but rather different noses. Until we got enough kits in at work, we had one gun and six noses to cover the three sizes we use. It only took about 30 seconds to change a nose out, but you also had to do a calibration check every time you did. That was the hardest part about converting over to the cable system, getting guys to do the cal check every time.
 
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I bought a 9” single direction cheap pair years ago. I figured I would upgrade them if I used them enough. Probably 10 years and many containers of wire later , I am not sure the value the more expensive ones do for a hobbyist. I do put a drop of oil on them every year or so to keep them running smooth.

I guess if you are a career A&P, get the nice ones.
 
cvairwerks said:
Milbar 25W's.....They have the urethane inserts to capture the cut tails. Safe-T-Cable is great and almost all we use these days at work, but like rocky says, the cables and ferrules are a bit expensive for general use. On top of that , a tool, with both nose pieces and the calibration check block is a quite expensive acquisition.
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Mine 25W's just went stupid. Won't twist or retract. (the urethane inserts fell off years ago) I've been trying to find the actual company for a warranty claim and it's a wild goose chase. Seems that the product has been sold off multiple times. The website is for a closed factory, and the supposed parent company phone goes nowhere. I think they are made in Taiwan now? (lady at Spruce seemed to think so) Anyway, they are also very backordered. Love them when they work!
 
cvairwerks said:
You used to not need a different gun for each size, but rather different noses. Until we got enough kits in at work, we had one gun and six noses to cover the three sizes we use. It only took about 30 seconds to change a nose out, but you also had to do a calibration check every time you did. That was the hardest part about converting over to the cable system, getting guys to do the cal check every time.
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I purchased the DMC model that has the tension pre-set and calibrated at the factory and 2 nose pieces (5 in and 7 in). The 5 in nose is fine 90% of the time. 032 cable I use 95% of the time. Yes, the cable and ferals are about a dollar but how many does one need a year? It makes safety wiring the prop a 10-minute job and no cursing or bleeding. Oil filters safety wiring 5 mins at most and looks great!

dmctools.com

SCT32 Tools*

.032" Manual Pre-Set Tension Safe-T-Cable® Application Tools
dmctools.com dmctools.com

 
Once you’ve safetied a Constant Speed Prop with. Safe-T-Cable tool, you’ll be spoiled and never want to go back. Need one? No….want one? Well yup - I have mines, and I use it for all my routine maintenance. Honestly, there isn’t that much safety wiring that gets routinely disturbed on an RV - brakes, oil filter, and the prop once in a great while. I bought about 400 cables and ferrules on eBay a few years back when I got my tool, and have hardly made a dent in the supply, even with six airplanes. I’ll probably never have to buy more.

For stuff that gets done once and never disturbed, I keep my safety wiring skills honed and use the Milbars….
 
Our kits have the tension check block within and we are supposed to do a tension check every time to kit gets check out. Don't know the cost to have one of the fixed tension ones calibrated. Factory calibration is listed as a flat 100$ on the website. If you have the check block, you might never have need to send the tool in for calibration. If you are destructive on tools, all bets are off....;)
 
cvairwerks said:
Our kits have the tension check block within and we are supposed to do a tension check every time to kit gets check out. Don't know the cost to have one of the fixed tension ones calibrated. Factory calibration is listed as a flat 100$ on the website. If you have the check block, you might never have need to send the tool in for calibration. If you are destructive on tools, all bets are off....;)
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Also remember - you’re not working on spacecraft, tactical military aircraft, or airliners….you’re working on your simple experimental. How do you check the tension on your safety wiring job? Do you?
 
Girraf said:
6" reversible Milbar. love em.
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Also my favorite.

I have the longer safety wire pliers in both the quality made and the CHEAP foreign made imitations. The little reversible Milbar is by far my favorite followed by the quality made longer ones.
 
cvairwerks said:
Our kits have the tension check block within and we are supposed to do a tension check every time to kit gets check out. Don't know the cost to have one of the fixed tension ones calibrated. Factory calibration is listed as a flat 100$ on the website. If you have the check block, you might never have need to send the tool in for calibration. If you are destructive on tools, all bets are off....;)
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I can see if you are building a turbine engine recalibrating every use might be needed but that is probably for the unit that you can manually adjust the tension? For an extra 50 bucks you can get the one with factory preset tension. The tool as expected is very robust.

The other nice thing is it uses a cable so very flexible and not prone to work hardening like traditional safety wire. Cable even comes in 2 alloys of Inconel!
 

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cvairwerks said:
You used to not need a different gun for each size, but rather different noses. Until we got enough kits in at work, we had one gun and six noses to cover the three sizes we use. It only took about 30 seconds to change a nose out, but you also had to do a calibration check every time you did. That was the hardest part about converting over to the cable system, getting guys to do the cal check every time.
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I called and asked Daniels if I could buy different diameter nose pieces to use for different diameter cable on my 032 handle and was told NO! Glad to hear you can use different size nose diameters on the same handle without issue. Are you using the manual set tension (black wheel on the side) or the preset cable tension version?


Like a lot of tools, the Safe-t-cable are not necessary but man are they nice to have. I have cheap HF wire pliers that spin one way and they are horrible. I have a 6” set (not sure brand name) that are reversible and they are a step in the right direction. The Daniels product make wiring the finger screen a ten second event. Same with the oil filter. Do the cables and ferrules cost more than 1lb spool of wire? Of coarse they do but for the time they save (and blood) I don’t regret paying for them. Buy once, cry once.
 
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AV8ER said:
I called and asked Daniels if I could buy different diameter nose pieces to use for different diameter cable on my 032 handle and was told NO! Glad to hear you can use different size nose diameters on the same handle without issue. Are you using the manual set tension (black wheel on the side) or the preset cable tension version?


Like a lot of tools, the Safe-t-cable are not necessary but man are they nice to have. I have cheap HF wire pliers that spin one way and they are horrible. I have a 6” set (not sure brand name) that are reversible and they are a step in the right direction. The Daniels product make wiring the finger screen a ten second event. Same with the oil filter. Do the cables and ferrules cost more than 1lb spool of wire? Of coarse they do but for the time they save (and blood) I don’t regret paying for them. But once, cry once.
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I'm fairly sure you cannot use different diameters in the same main tool. You can change nose lengths, cable lengths but not diameters. 032 seems to be ok in 95% of the applications on the RV. (Beringer disk brakes calls for 1 mm or 040)
 
Ironflight said:
Also remember - you’re not working on spacecraft, tactical military aircraft, or airliners….you’re working on your simple experimental. How do you check the tension on your safety wiring job? Do you?
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Paul: Except my daily use is on tactical aircraft...that's what pays the bills and buys parts and materials for the airplane projects at home.... Our tension limits for cable or wire is .1" of deflection for close spacing of hardware and .25" for long spacing.

AV8ER: I would believe Daniels on the current tools not being interchangeable. We had some very early tools, but all of our kits these days are set up with a short and a long nose, miscellaneous small tools and a calibration check block for a single cable diameter. All of ours are manual tension units. There are times we have to use cables that don't have the length to lock into the tensioner, so those get done by hand. We only keep the 18" cables out where I work, but the main plant may have the 24's Most everything we do is .032", but we do use .020" and .040" in a few places.

The system is definitely a time and ultimately cost saver in both the commercial and tactical world. Once the cost for tooling comes down, with more and more used stuff on the open market, I think we will start seeing it more in the smaller shops
 
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