Instructables has a short post on a quick way to make your own bicycle lockring, or head race, pliers that I find quite elegant in its simplicity. You take an inexpensive pair of water-pump (a.k.a., channellocks, or tongue-and-groove) pliers. Then file or grind away most of the teeth except the front ones, and, voilà, you’re good to go — and at a much lower cost than for a dedicated spanner or lockring pliers that can be $30 to $50 or more.
It seems like these might also work well on those electrical box connector nuts when pounding on them with a screwdriver doesn’t seem to do the trick.
DIY Lockring Pliers [Instructables]
Hozan Head Race Pliers Via Amazon [What’s This?]
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8 Responses to DIY Lockring Pliers
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Toolmonger on Flickr
This is sweet nice find….
ShopMonger
What a great money saving idea. I’m going to pick up a check pair of channel pliers next time I’m at Harbor Freight buying crap tools.
What a simple, sweet idea! Thanks for the find. HF is going to sell out of the cheapo version of Channel-Locks when everyone sees this.
My only concern would be crushing the part with pliers vs. using the spanner, but even after saying that, I know which one I will be using.
It seems to me that one of the advantages of the proper tool is its thinness. These modified pliers will hold the lockring, but won’t fit in the small space available between the bearing outer shell and the top lock nut.
yes I would assume you need to grind down either side of the this home made tool to fit in the gap but otherwise great idea!
If you really want a wrench you just need to cut and grind some flat bar stock to the right dimensions. If you have access to a torch anyway.
SWEEEEET!