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Comment by causality0 | Hacker News Reader

I bought a pair after every reviewer seemed to love them and ended up absolutely hating them. They combine the worst aspects of adjustable wrenches and pliers. Unlike pliers you have to manually resize the opening for the bolt head before starting and unlike adjustable wrenches your torque depends on you keeping a vice-like grip the whole time you're turning it or they'll slip. Fuck those things, man.

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> your torque depends on you keeping a vice-like grip the whole time you're turning it or they'll slip

The post contradicts this. It shows the pliers gripping onto fasteners with only light finger pressure from one side. My own experience with these tools corroborates this -- as long as I'm pushing the moving handle towards the fixed one, the tool has a strong tendency to remain closed. I've only ever had to squeeze hard when trying to loosen well-rounded fasteners and when using them as a convenient parallel press.

A neat upside is that if pushing on the moving handle rotates the tool in the desired direction, then when you loosen your grip and twist the other direction, the tool will open wide, sort of ratcheting around the fastener to the next flat face. It's not as fast as a ratcheting wrench, but far faster than an adjustable wrench's procedure of place, tighten, rotate, loosen, remove, and repeat.

I love 'em but I don't usually use them on nuts, since there's better tools for the job. The fact that they're parallel makes them good for a lot of situations, like pushing something into another thing, or even just gripping onto things over a larger surface without marring them too much (e.g. I use them to get 3d prints off the print bed when they're really on there and refuse to give. Although I've also occasionally used the tiny version of them for e.g. installing a new faucet, when I couldn't get other things into the space.

It's a good tool but I wouldn't reach for it first in every situation. If you have a regular nut with plenty of space, there's better tools.

I’ve yet to find a use for mine, mainly because the correct wrench or socket is often available.

I guess they’re better than standard adjustable wrenches?

I keep two (a 5" Knipex and an 8" Irwin) in my ~~tool~~ bags. (The small one in my everyday backpack and the bigger one in my toolbag.) They're much smaller and lighter than a set of wrenches.

They're also useful as parallel clamps/pinchers/vices. I've used them to (un)seat many press-fit parts like bike chain pins, small bearings, and shaft keys.

I think that's the place they go; like a multi-tool they're never the best tool for the job but they're often the best you have on hand.

I’ve only ever used mine as portable vises, or to apply controlled pressure like snapping shut a press-fit watch case back. I always use sockets for actual nuts.

Like you, I find them much more useful as wrench-like pliers than as pliers-like wrenches.

Don't buy these if you think they'll replace your fixed size wrenches. Do buy these if you're often doing weird crap that you'd never even dream to use fixed wrenches for. And consider them if you hate your Channellocks but wish you didn't.

If you push one handle, they grip tighter. If you push the other, they loosen off. I think you just used them backwards.

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