Toolamanjaro
Milwaukee has just announced an interesting new set of pliers, designed mostly for electricians. At first glance they appear to be fairly standard push-to-adjust pliers. They have nice V-groove jaws which are sized to perfectly fit on electrical connectors. The jaws are also meant to be thin enough to easily work in electrical boxes. All pretty standard stuff. The party trick of the new pliers however is the tip of the handles and the back of the head. Electricians will frequently just strip the plastic off the handles of their pliers and use that to ream conduit. Milwaukee has taken this to heart and designed the pliers to be used like that from the start. The tip of the handles are bare metal and shaped to ream out up to 1″ conduit. For larger pipes this can be awkward though, so the back of the head is also specifically designed to deburr 1-1/2″ to 2-3/4″ conduit. Look for them to show up in stores in October.
Source: Milwaukee
Irwin has updated the vernerable Vise-Grip locking jaw pliers. Originally designed in 1924 by William Petersen, the Vise-Grips haven’t changed much in almost a century. Of course there have been a plethora of supposedly improved versions, but few of them worked better than the original. Irwin (who through the wonders of corporate mergers is now the same company as the Petersen Manufacturing) however has tried their hand at improving the design. They seem to have gone the smart route though, and kept the improvements simple, added a cushioned grip, and a new one-handed trigger-less release. They claim the new design provides 3x the locking power of the traditional too.
