Modifying junk locking pliers

[WastedAgain440]

I have a couple pairs of visegrip knockoffs that don't work for ****, was thinking of welding up some pieces of flat stock to jaws of one pair to bend thin gauge metal. The other one is needle nose style, drawing a blank on what to do with those.. I hate to throw these away would like to turn them into something useful. You folks have any suggestions?

 

[countryroad82]

I have a set of needle nose style Vice Grips I needed to be longer than they made so I welded some square key length to them to make them do what I wanted...... retrieve a detent spring I dropped in a transmission!!

 

[Larwyn]

I modified these to serve as the clamp in a bicycle work stand I was building. It has proven to be useful for bicycles as well as weed eaters and also serves as a positioner/holder at the welding table for fabrication projects.

 

[smogtech]

I filed down the teeth on mines to make line clamps pinching off coolant/ps/fuel hoses.

 

[4x4gearhead]

I filed down the teeth on mines to make line clamps pinching off coolant/ps/fuel hoses.

I have also done this with a pair of old needle nose vise grips, just slide some pieces of heater hose over the jaws with some adhesive and you have a pretty darn good set of pinch off pliers.

 

[amp281]

I have seen people modify vice grips to put a bead on intercooler/turbo piping

example: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/custom-fabrication/324132-homemade-intercooler-pipe-bead-tool.html

 

[larry_g]

I gave mine flying lessons, they crashed somewhere in the neighbors field.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Big Gus]

I'd give it a try; what do you have to lose?

I use my low rent vise grip knock-offs on the welding table. Well, the ones that didn't piss me off anyway. The ones that pissed me off ended up in the scrap metal bin.

 

[Outlawmws]

I have a couple pairs of visegrip knockoffs that don't work for ****, was thinking of welding up some pieces of flat stock to jaws of one pair to bend thin gauge metal. The other one is needle nose style, drawing a blank on what to do with those.. I hate to throw these away would like to turn them into something useful. You folks have any suggestions?

If this is a problem why bother with them? (I'm assuming the locking mechanism is the issue?)

If it is just the jaws, then there are lots of things you can do to make them useful. The sheet metal tool you mentioned, extended grips for welding, bull nose tongs for straightening bent edges on things made of sheet metal (I use these a lot on tool box refurb), cut the lower jaw off and add a stud& wing nut and use it on a DP table for holding things down...

 

[WastedAgain440]

thanks for the ideas guys