Milwaukee is coming out with quite a few new pliers for 2015. Many of the new releases are redesigns of existing models that are lighter (by up to 30%) and also built with slimmer grips and trade and application-specific features.
Milwaukee’s Bobby Shaw, Director of Marketing, said:
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We are excited to introduce 14 new, lightweight and innovative solutions that save time and increase productivity for our focus trades.
This is in line with Milwaukee’s tendency these past few years to address specific needs of different users. Consider their torpedo levels, for example – one is designed for plumbers’ needs, the other for electricians.
To start, there will be new straight jaw pliers, with sizes ranging from 6″ to 20″. These pliers feature partially gripped handles with exposed tips and aggressively ground heads for reaming and even punching applications.
Milwaukee says that these pliers were designed such that the exposed handle ends and reaming head can be used for reaming and cleaning EMT conduit, and for punching out electrical knockouts.
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There will also be new hex-jaw/V-jaw pliers in 8″, 10″, and 12″ sizes. These pliers’ jaws are optimized for use on 6pt hex bolts and fastening applications. They also feature an adjustable jaw opening mechanism, which Milwaukee says offers a “best-in-class” number of adjustment positions.
There will also be new comfort-gripped cutting pliers, including 9″ high leverage Lineman’s pliers with crimper, long nose pliers, and diagonal cutting pliers.
All of these cutting pliers feature Milwaukee’s (patent-pending) reaming head for deburring EMT conduit, and an integrated fish tape puller for wire-pulling applications.
The redesigned 9″ high-leverage Lineman’s pliers feature some of the same features, but also has an on-board crimper for INS and NON-INS terminals. It also sports iron carbide cutting edges for longer-lasting blade life.
The long nose pliers, which Milwaukee says are commonly used in wire pulling applications, feature a full 2″ of gripping surface for hard-to-reach applications.
The new diagonal cutters will be available in 6″, 7″, and 8″ sizes, and are designed for cutting wires in close quarters and for flush cuts.
ETA: March 2015
New Milwaukee Pliers Models
- 12″ V-jaw pliers (48-22-6212)- replacing 48-22-3112
- 10″ V-jaw pliers (48-22-6210) – replacing 48-22-3110
- 8″ V-jaw pliers (48-22-6208) – replacing 48-22-3108
- 20″ straight-jaw pliers (48-22-6320)
- 16″ straight-jaw pliers (48-22-6316)
- 12″ straight-jaw pliers (48-22-6312) – replacing 48-22-3212
- 10″ straight-jaw pliers (48-22-6310) – replacing 48-22-3210
- 6″ straight-jaw pliers (48-22-6306)
- Straight-jaw pliers 2pc set 6″/10″ (48-22-6330)
New Milwaukee Cutting Pliers Models
- Linemans with Crimper (48-22-6100)- replacing 48-22-3309
- 8″ diagonal pliers (48-22-6108)- replacing 48-22-4108
- 7″ diagonal pliers (48-22-6107)- replacing 48-22-4107
- 6″diagonal pliers (48-22-6106)- replacing 48-22-4106
- 8″ long nose pliers (48-22-6101)
First Thoughts
To succeed in a hand tool market that is already very well saturated, Milwaukee cannot just slap their color and name on good-looking and good-quality pliers; they have to offer something new.
While I personally prefer for general-purpose designs, I think that tradesmen will definitely see appeal in these new pliers. At the least, it might save them from having to track down a separate reamer when the pliers are already at-hand.
What do you think? Do these pliers offer enough to be able to go head-to-head with traditional favorites such as Klein and Channellock, and other brands that have been gaining ground, like Knipex?
As an aside, did you notice the locking pliers in the first images? In case you missed it, you might want to read up on Milwaukee’s new locking pliers and fast-release locking pliers.
mike aka Fazzman
Man those are some nice looking tools. Designs look useful to me for industrial applications for sure. I like the partially exposed handle design.
Chris
Last I checked the Milwaukee hand tools weren’t the most well liked among tradesmen… They might be alright for Milwaukee tool snobs and diy guys but that’s it… Everyone keeps talking about how Milwaukee is ahead of everyone and keeps adding tools but many tool forums haven’t hd much good to say. Not to mention Milwaukee’s hand tools are usually quite expensive for what you get… They are a tad overpriced
Stick with channelock, knipex, Klein who know pliers and you won’t be disappointed
Jon
Are they quite expensive or are they a tad overpriced??
I LOVE my Milwaukee hand tools. Their snips in particular are excellent. I own reds and greens in all three configurations. I don’t care for the Wiss style, though many people prefer them over these. Personally I don’t care to use any others. My only complaint is their need to put Milwaukee Red on EVERYTHING, so even their green snips have one red handle making them easy to mistake for reds. Silly design flaw but still well worth the tradeoff for me.
Jason
I wasn’t thrilled with the last few milwaukee hand tools I bought ( ratcheting screwdriver, wire strippers, 10 n 1) but they have held up nicely.
These might make me get the credit card back out though. They look well thought out and designed.
T
As a side, Milwaukee appears to be forcing retailers, indies inparticular, to pack shelf space with this stuff. My guys do not like, nor want space wasted on tools that nobody in the trade(s) is buying. Power tools, awesome/great/wonderful/sell like hot cakes, handtools not so much.
Toolfreak
Hard to say for sure how well designed these are without handling them and trying them out.
Some of the pliers certainly look innovative, but that may be the problem. Too often this stuff is designed to look good first and function comes in a distant second, then you wind up with tools that don’t sell because they don’t really do the job as well as traditional tools, even with the few additional functions they offer, or they just plain aren’t comfortable for all-day use at the jobsite or in the shop.
It’s actually pretty amazing that companies like Knipex haven’t been more innovative with their pliers and don’t come up with more speciality tools to add to the lineup. It seems that lots of companies are more than happy to just make traditional tools, with occasional improvements and an innovation every so often.
That’s too bad because there is a LOT of room for high-end specialty tools in the market, which is dominated by low quality, overpriced tools that nobody else makes.
Chris
You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel every day… Companies like Klein, channelock, knipex realize tradesmen and most people want a good quality simple tool without the gimmicks… My linesman pliers don’t need to make me breakfast… They need to be linesman pliers. Milwaukee should put their r&d money into building a quality tool instead of adding little gimmicks into them…plud hr price point is a little high especially here in Canada, for a few bucks more can get something that will last decades
Grady
The exposed handles are nice. However, all the electricians and tradesmen I know have modified ther tools right out of the box.
Mizzourob
Still no regular slip joint pliers? It seems that is the only thing missing from the set.
John C.
…….So much for 2015 being the year for Dewalt!
Chris
Well me personally would rather not see dewalt come out with overpriced questionable quality pliers… Milwaukee can have them
John
….coming from a dewalt rep
Chris
I’m far from a Dewalt Rep, thanks… Dewalt though puts money into places I’d rather than spend money in like power tools… Leave the pliers too companies that know what their doing… You may gush over everything Milwaukee puts their name on but I won’t… I don’t own any dewalt pliers or hand tools for that matter because simply put, others do it better… Klein, knipex, channellock, and many others have been doing it for decades and all pro’s will use do I use them too.
Scott
Mathias would be so proud. Klein, channellock and knipex make some great tools,of which I own many, but jeez dude get off the “pro” train. I’ve seen master electricians with Pittsburgh hand tools in there pouch.
Pablo
Looks like some mediocre stuff for Milwaukee nerds to drool over and line some execs pockets with their dollars. 😉
Rich
I personally have their needle nose stripers and I really like them, they’re very strong and were such a good idea Klein made their own a few months after Milwaukee
Pablo
You mean like the ones Knipex has made for a decade? 😉
http://www.amazon.com/Knipex-1302160-Comfort-Electricians-Pliers/dp/B000CDVYQE/
Rich
Never looked for electrical tools outside of klein till home Depot started selling Milwaukee hand tools.
Pete
I really like pretty much all of their hand tools. The only exception being the plain needle nose pliers, which I’m not a fan of plain needle nose pliers anyways I preffer long nose pliers. While I wont go out buy any just because theyre “new” if the need arises I will go take a look at the milwaukee first.
shdoors
I have one of their ratcheting screwdrivers(no major complaints really) as well as the needlenose combination pliers(the latching mechanism is less than genius) and they are very task specific to say the least. I prefer knipex and channellock. I’ve yet to find ANY combination pliers that are geared toward smaller diameter wire like 20 AWG or above. Any suggestions?
Robert
While the reaming surface on their pliers makes practical sense and could eliminate the need for separate tools, it would seem that the surface would be abrasive to a typical tool pouch or pocket. That might seem minor or trivial, but it appears equivalent to repetitively sticking a file in the same places. I’m not sure I’d want to continually do that.
Again, probably trivial to most.
Lenny
Not impressed. For pliers I almost always use Channellock (sometimes Klein). Outstanding quality, reasonably priced and made in the USA. The Milwaukee pliers I saw at Home Depot seemed a little junky to me and were kind of expensive with gimmicky features. Made in China by a Chinese owned company. No thank you.
Stan
I 100% agree with you. I only have American made Channellock, Klein or SK pliers. All of which aren’t that expensive, but are truly built to last. These Milwaukee tools might look cool, but made in China and are vastly overpriced in my opinion. There was a time when Milwaukee products were still American made by a American company no less, but those days are long gone.
I’ll stick to what works and has served me well. I don’t need or want gimmicks, I want real dependable tools.
Noah
Hopefully they’ve changed their diagonal pliers. They made them with points for digging out staples, which are great for staples, and bad for anything else you’d want a nice pointy tip on your diags for.
I like their multi bit screwdrivers and their wire strippers. The rest of the pliers line is pretty uninspired. I have been drooling over a set of their pass thru, spline head nut drivers, which i have heard good things about.
Tool Monkey
Looks like all they did was cost reduce their current versions. Took off the black and reduced the amount of metal to make them lighter. Getting cheaper and cheaper.
miss franciene
These look really nice I take one of each. thank you very much
joe
I’m not a plumber nor electrician but I’m a handy man and I cringe on using pliers to tighten/loosen copper/stainless steel fasteners (hex-jaw/V-jaw pliers). I have no problem using such pliers on plastic ones though. Having said that, I can picture struggling trying to get the p-trap off under a sink with those straight jaw pliers.
Justin
The new Milwaukee line of hand tools are nice quality, and most DIYer’s will love them. However, I bought a pair of their side cutters, for $15 or $20 and they are nice, cut well and very comfortable. But the after 6 months of use they are dull. So, in that respect I don’t believe their side cutters are for every day use. I will stick with Klein tools or the German made Knipex tool line and spend the 20% difference.
Josh
I find it funny that everyone is complaining about the price of milwaukee’s hand tools. I paid 29.99 for their screwdriver set here on Canada and they are outlasting any Klein or greenlee screwdriver that I have ever owned and for a fraction of the price. Their snips are good and nut drivers are in a league of their own. I see a steady trend of people moving to milwaukee’s hand tools.
David
Channellocks are better made and a lot less money.
The Milwaukee hand tools to date have not been worth the extra cost.
Our customers additionally are voting with their dollars against them.
They do not sell to our customers.
Scott
I’ve been using the 10″ and 12″ tongue & groove pliers along with my channellock tonge &grooves of the same size for building maintenance for over 6 months now. I have to say I really see no difference between the red and blue in performance, quality and durability. As far as “gimicky” goes my channellocks look the same as the Milwaukee’s only without a reaming head ( ends of blue grips cut off.)and are used the same. I most likely won’t try any of there other pliers because I’m already set with linesmans,dikes and wire strippers. Although if any ever come up missing Milwaukee may be getting thrown in the mix between Klein, channellock, and Irwin. Don’t knock em before you try em. As far as price here in Illinois/Iowa,Milwaukee is about $5 more than channellock and about $7-$10 less than Klein.
Johhny
3 years later, Milwaukee still rules. In this review, their lineman’s pliers confidently included in the top 10 — [spam link removed]
skfarmer
spam 3 years later?
top 10, top 9 whatever……… it hardly says milwaukee pliers rule.
if anything it barely made the list being right at the bottom and only because it is one of the few that has a crimper. clearly say it is big and bulky.i would pick all of those over the milwaukee. especially the irwin and knipex. channellock has the new xlt version that looks better than the one tested. even the sbd fat max gets a higher review and it is the run of the mill wal-mart one.