Yesterday I wrote about Milwaukee’s new adjustable wrenches, and before that I posted about a lot of Milwaukee’s other new tools for 2015 and 2016. Today’s post will be shorter, and will look at two of Milwaukee’s specialty pliers.
Milwaukee came out with a whole slew of new pliers earlier this year, and I very briefly looked them over at the new tool media event. It looks like Milwaukee has brought a respectable number of pliers and locking pliers to their hand tool lineup. I wish I spent more time playing around with the new pliers, but we had to move to the next station before I could get around to it.
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One of the interesting tools that I saw were these PVC pipe pliers. I don’t think they were mentioned at the event at all, and they didn’t really stand out until I looked over my photos from the event. Are these new? Current generation pliers? Last generation?
Am I even right in believing them to be PVC pipe pliers? They look like they could be oil filter pliers as well, but I don’t think Milwaukee designed them for such purposes, or to stand up to automotive fluids. So let’s just say they’re PVC pipe pliers.
The Milwaukee PVC pliers look like many of the other such tools on the market, such as Channellock’s 9-inch PVC pipe pliers ($16 via Amazon).
Maybe these aren’t new, or maybe there’s just not much to be said about it. Either way, it looks like Milwaukee’s got some PVC pipe pliers on the horizon.
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Another standout were the 20-inch straight jaw pliers. Yowzers, these are big pliers! They’re big and heavy, but other than requiring a two-handed grip, they adjust and work in the same way as smaller adjustable pliers.
I believe these are the 48-22-6320 20-inch pliers, as they were the biggest ones on the table. The 16-inch pliers were also on the table, as were the 6″, 10″, and 12″ pliers. Yup, so looking at the first photo on the page, it’s clear that the whole line of 6″ to 20″ straight jaw adjustable pliers were on the table, and so these are definitely the 20″ pliers.
I have used a huge adjustable wrench once – a 24-inch monstrosity that opened to about 2-1/2 inches. I used it to adjust a fastener or two on a Carver 25-ton hydraulic benchtop laboratory press, or something like that. It was a one-time thing, so maybe my memory is fuzzy – could have been a 30-ton press.
According to Milwaukee, these pliers can grip pipes up to 5-1/2″ wide. I can’t imagine that they’re comfortable to use, but it’s nice to see Milwaukee expanding their lineup with 16″ and 20″ models.
These are both somewhat specialty pliers. Would you have a place for either of them in your toolbox?
fred
The PVC Pliers look a bit like the Channellock series (#209 – 9 inch, #212 – 12 inch and #215 – 15 9nch) of what they call oil filter pliers. I have a Vim V250 that has a similar jaw configuration but is based on a generic vise-grip style pliers.
http://www.amazon.com/Tools-Locking-Filter-Pliers-V250/dp/B00OBSADEA
The 20 inch behemoths – also look to compete with the Channellock 480G
fred
Sorry Stu – I see your post already linked to the Channellocks
Jeremy
I think they’re oil filter pliers. In the background of the image there is a chain locking oil filter plier as well.
Stuart
Not necessarily. I couldn’t find info on those, but they could be locking pipe pliers. They could serve as oil filter pliers, but that’s probably not what Milwaukee s going for, at least not primarily.
fred
I have a pair of Nebraska-Made Vise Grip #27 chain-grip pliers that I welded on a 1/4-20 stud – so that I could mount a ball joint camera mount. Gripping on a fence post or pipe railing – this setup was strong enough to provide rock-steady support for my old Mamiya C33
Aaron
Those pliers are for strainer basket nuts under sinks. They also work perfect on water filter housings. Being a plumber that’s how I use them!
SteveR
Actually, those pliers are for oil filter removal, but it doesn’t matter. I have a Lock Nut Wrench by Wolverine that I purchased a while back. It has a cast straight arm with a secondary, pivoting arm; together they grip and turn the large strainer basket nut under a sink. But being a plumber, you already knew that.
It perhaps works a little better, but kudos for taking a tool and turning it into another tool to perform a difficult task. You could probably also use a strap wrench to do that, or a Vise-Grip Chain Wrench would work as well. In a pinch, you could even use an old slotted screwdriver and a small hammer to drive the lock nut on or off. More people have probably tried that one rather than stopping and buying the “proper” tool for the job.
If no one places limits on how we can use something, we can turn it to almost any purpose we want to when the need arises.
Drew McD
I’m not a pro, but I could see two immediate uses for myself: 1) working bike stems, which for my bikes requires a 40mmwrench, and 2)opening jars, instead of a strap wrench, which I’ve busted one in trying to get a jar opened. Plus they’d be good at scaring little kids with. :>)
Matt
You are correct that they are oil filter pliers. I use them currently(I have channel lock) to tighten up my p-trap assemblies . I honestly don’t know what I would do without them!
Jim Felt
Did you determine in what country are these made? Or am I being rhetorical?
Mike
I doubt anyone from Milwaukee will read this or care if they do, but I’ve got a couple of suggestions anyway.
The first is regarding the reaming features on the 20″ pliers, and frankly on any of their pliers larger than 12″. On the smaller pliers the reamers do a passable job on EMT 1″ and smaller that has been cut using a smooth method. But on conduit larger than 1″ there is simply too much metal to remove without a real reamer. As a result, the reaming handles on the larger pliers are useless and unnecessary. They take up too much room on the handles that can’t be used for hard gripping, thus effectively making the handles shorter than they would otherwise be. In other words, the reaming features on the larger pliers don’t work well on the conduit sizes they are intended for and their presence detracts from the usefulness of the tool.
The second is about the PVC/oil filter/whatever pliers. They’re pretty much a clone of Channellock’s version (even right down to the GripLock style adjustment channels, I might add) and have the same limited usefulness. It would have been better to use the V and half round grip profile of the Craftsman/SK wide capacity pliers. That profile doesn’t make the tool any larger but allows it to grip a much greater variety of sizes and shapes. I’d certainly buy something like that in larger and smaller sizes than what Craftsman/SK offers.
I’ll get off my soap box now.
In the photo I also see some crimpers and cables cutters that I haven’t seen before. Are those recent additions to the lineup?