Tool name for wire-locking wheel nuts (B737)
 

Possibly completely off the grid but back in the halcyon days of BA Out-Station Engineering when we had to wire-lock each individual wheel nut after the odd nosewheel change in the driving snow and -20C, what was the name and even part number of the very useful spinning hand-held tool used to speed the twining process prior to the seal being clamped into position?

You may be looking for locking-wire pliers such as these, but maybe Boeing had a special one.

https://www.heamar.co.uk/wire-twisti...151822569.html


https://www.heamar.co.uk/43605-thick...-plier-250.jpg

Yep as above, Wire Locking Pliers or Wire Twisters.

Much quicker and neater than a hand job, so to speak.

Not just for wheel nuts, obviously.

I have to politely disagree here. Long strands, ok, in part, yes, every other form, hand and pliers . Bit like marmite really....;)

£147 for a set of Bahco ones... still using a set of them ex RAF Bahco and still going strong and in daily service 40 years on, springs gone and cutter jaws a bit knackered because some idiot tried to cut to thick a wire (me)

New Blue Point ( Snap On ) £50

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Snap-On-B...8AAOSwcSxfulzO

even cheaper US Pro tools £18.20

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/US-PRO-To...Cclp%3A2334524

Accessibility
 

Finding room for both hands in order to hand wrap often detemines the need for wrapping pliers or otherwise; I'm sure we have all had the skinned knuckles and accompanying fruity language. I think they are a great piece of thinking for a simple tool (not me, the pliers). 🤔

Yup, aircraft engineering is like gynaecology, often peering up and working in small confined holes... it just on average smells better. ;)

you can get locking pliers in several sizes btw.

Yep! And seen grown men (and women!!!) scream in sheer frustration and anguish when they have spent ages, and ages, and ages ..... only to find they'd anti-locked the hardest of hard things to wire lock! I found investing time in figuring the correct direction while suspended, inverted, at full stretch round a most inconveniently placed bit of pointless Sooty ducting designed purely to frustrate access to said bolt or whatever was time well spent!

Ah, happy daze!!! :ok:

Or you think just one more twist to tighten it and it snaps, or you twist it down and find its still loose as you had to many twists between the two items.

I'm with you KnC.
I have used then but didn't find them that useful in confined spaces.
I also used to have a piece of 3/16 rod with a file handle at one end and two 1/16 holes in the other end that was very useful for hard to reach places. I lent it to someone and it never came back.
Favourite job was BAe 146 NLG retract jack pin in the E&E bay, over the Football on the LH side. Those that know will know what I mean.

Dixi, they do those too, two different lengths included, see

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIRCRAFT-...wAAOSwh9FZ1LAd

😂 A road we have all been down; arm in a direction that nature never intended, neck at an obscure angle, whilst denying direct vision and using your eyes only once you thought you had finished, simply to confirm that it was time to snip and start again.

It shouldn't hsppen to a vet.

H&H - did you ever rotate your forefinger back and fore before deciding where to start? I know I did. 😅

Still do............

Safety wire pliers, and yes many times I’ve found out the hard way that the nut would loosen if faster the easy way.

Amateurs 😆

https://www.crimptech.com.au/product.../safe-t-cable/

Well, that advert wasn't filmed up the top end of Zone 19 on a Tonka at 1 a.m! Lol! :E

Just looked on Nutloose's ebay site, nostalgia central. These look just the job, although we used to make our own from scrap. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIRCRAFT-...UAAOSwdGJaui2B

I have a set of those, the good thing it they are hard so the drill tends not to mark them.

Don't know if certified for aircraft use, but Frost auto supplies have wire twisting pliers. frost.co.uk

.... and scratched my head while trying to "imagine" what it was that was cunningly hidden from view that needed locking! There are some things in life I'm really glad I've moved on from. Wire locking is one of them!!!! ;)

Mine was home made.

I don't remember ever having to have my fingers certified for aircraft use. :O

That’s what my licence gave me ;) certified fingers.

fourteenbore, most tooling is simply the same as one would use on a car, true there are specialised tools, but that is the same car wise. Professionals tend to buy better quality tools as they need them to last, better spend £20 on a spanner that’s will last a lifetime than 10 that won’t at £10.

Don't forget the spanners that have to be 'reworked' to get in awkward spaces. You wouldn't want to use your expensive ones for that. Got quite a few with ground down ends and funny bends.

I now deligate wire locking to those under the age of 45 who can actually see what they're doing...in the dark...rain fogging up the glasses that keep falling off, and who's fingers have not evolved into Cumberland sausages.

Righty tighty...Lefty loosy.

Except when its a Learjet 45 rudder servo and you're looking in a mirror.... ( been there, done that)

Ttfn

Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh !!!!!!!!!!.....that term !!!!!......:{:{...what about on oxygen couplings then...hah ! ;) anyway, in my working life, I actually met not one but two people who would count the twists per inch and the length of the rats tail.....both were un related to each other as far as I know.

Yep, most of my automotive (racing) tools are very good quality, but I intentionally bought cheap ones more than once when I wanted to modify them in some way. Not only were they cheaper, the poorly hardened metal was much easier to 'rework' for the desired mod. One mod I recall was getting a cheap set of socket wrenches - we drilled and tapped them for a set screw to lock them onto an extension shaft. I doubt I would have even been able to drill - never mind tap - properly hardened sockets but the cheap ones could be done in just a few minutes.
Shortly after I started racing I picked up lock-wire plyers at a local discount tool store (there were safety rules that dictated that certain parts - such as some brake components - needed to be lock wired or cotter keyed). They weren't exactly cheap, but still a small fraction of what Snap On would have cost. They worked just fine, and the first few times I used them in the pits some of the other drivers looked on in amazement - never having seen such a tool. As a result they were often loaned out, but amazingly I always got them back and in fact still have them.

Quite early in my career I discovered that left hand O2 unions were not an international standard. Especially as many airlines did not routinely service the O2 every night. Hence the dodgy set of various brass adapter couplings in the (Not to be shown to the CAA) cupboard at the far end of stores. We don't even have an O2 rig any more. The O2 qty is monitored and the bottle changed as required.

As for twists per inch, I am that man and I claim my prize. ;)

But we digress....

Safe-T-cable = Brilliant ! especially doing boroscope plugs on a CF6 or a V2500 downside of them was expense ( often in BA at LGW they were nil stock on the wire or the thimbles )

Most intricate wirelocking I remember was on the coal burners ( JT9 s) the throttle cable adjusters and the myriad bleed valves buried under the diaphragm ( seemed to be at least one for every day in the month ! )

Blink182 the throttle cable adjuster being a letter W to wire lock if I remember rightly!,