Coolest tool for working on your airplane

[EricJ]

32 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

It's interesting to ponder why one almost never encounters a loose fastener held in place by safety wire.  I know I have never seen it in decades of being around aircraft and aircraft maintenance.  I think it's more likely that safety wire simply makes it much less likely that a fastener will be left improperly torqued/tightened.  I am a proponent of torque seal when performing critical maintenance.  It started out of necessity because owner assisted mx means two people are involved in the process. I now use it in many non aviation maintenance projects. The likelihood of missed fastener increases when a project spans a few days (say hanging an engine). Safety wire gives a good visual verification that things are as they should be. Torque seal does the same with less effort. It's clear that auto manufactures share that thinking. There is no safety wire on either of my autos, but almost all critical fasteners were marked with torque seal during assembly.

I think safety wire is just to prevent a fastener from backing out in the event that it does lose torque.    This prevents an assembly from separating.    A buddy had the airbox in his Cherokee completely separate from the carburetor and the majority of the fasteners were awol.   If it had been safetied like it was supposed to be it wouldn't have disassembled itself and trailed fasteners across the countryside.

A local with an experimental airplane put a large chunk of ballast in the tail and secured it on top of a horizontal piece of sheetmetal by putting captive nuts in the ballast plate and bolting it from below.   It was about the only way to secure it given the limited access at that particular spot.   I safetied the bolts since they were pointing up and if one came out it'd be FOD flopping around right around the control mechanisms for the tail feathers.   They might still lose torque, but they won't back out and get stuck in a control pulley or horn or something and the ballast will remain in place.

[201Steve]

I follow an A&P Group on Facebook, they frequently bring this topic up. Almost universally they rave about the Knipex Wrench. More or less a locking channel lock or adjustable wrench. I bought one but... meh.

[Shadrach]

12 minutes ago, 201Steve said:

I follow an A&P Group on Facebook, they frequently bring this topic up. Almost universally they rave about the Knipex Wrench. More or less a locking channel lock or adjustable wrench. I bought one but... meh.

I think it would be a rare occasion when working on an airplane for one to say “you know what would be ideal for this application is a pair of water pump pliers“…

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, 201Steve said:

I follow an A&P Group on Facebook, they frequently bring this topic up. Almost universally they rave about the Knipex Wrench. More or less a locking channel lock or adjustable wrench. I bought one but... meh.

I have a set, and they are *very* nice, but I rarely use them.   One of the best inadvertent uses I've found is squeezing small rivets.   Because the jaws stay parallel it's actually really good for that.

[201Steve]

2 hours ago, Shadrach said:

I think it would be a rare occasion when working on an airplane for one to say “you know what would be ideal for this application is a pair of water pump pliers“…

That’s not what they are but yeah

[Shadrach]

On 11/16/2022 at 3:54 PM, 201Steve said:

That’s not what they are but yeah

You’re right, closer inspection reveals that what you posted is a hybrid combination of water pump pliers and an adjustable wrench.

Nevertheless, if you search water pump pliers on the Knipex website they show up.

 

 

 

[Marauder]

Biggest "Wow" factor tool for those non-mechanic types that might be hanging around the hangar seems to be a borescope. 
What wire tracer do you have?

This is the tracer I have.


There are a number of manufacturers including Klein and Fluke. I’m sure there are others.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Fly Boomer]

20 hours ago, Shadrach said:

Your right, closer inspection reveals that what you posted is a hybrid combination of water pump pliers and an adjustable wrench.

Hybrid of water pump pliers and these parallel pliers:

https://www.amazon.com/SARGENT-Tools-1026-Cutting-Pliers/dp/B00VNOBNMG/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=parallel+pliers&qid=1668708732&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

[EricJ]

4 hours ago, Marauder said:

This is the tracer I have.


There are a number of manufacturers including Klein and Fluke. I’m sure there are others.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

That's the one I have as well.   They take a little bit of skill to use sometimes and aren't always effective, but can be a huge time saver when they do work.  They're really good for figuring out which pin on a connector a signal goes to.

[Joshua Blackh4t]

On 11/16/2022 at 8:25 PM, FlyingDude said:

You go to the nearest Walmart, get some steel hanging wire, get the job done and once you reach the place where things can be procured, you redo it per ac43.13...

Haha, that is very amusing. I can't add a location on here, but go to maps and type in "Alexandria Station, N.T. Australia" we can talk about nearby Walmarts. 

[carusoam]

On 11/16/2022 at 8:43 AM, A64Pilot said:

 

Army used those on the 30MM chain gun, most of safety wiring is gone or going away, for instance there isn’t one piece of it on the GE T-700 series engines and that design is at least 40 years old by now. I’ve always wondered about how useful safety wire really is, for instance have you ever heard of an auto oil filter coming loose?

Look at all the things we don’t safety like spark plugs, plug wires and magneto caps, cylinder base nuts to name a few

Magnetos are the things that have caused the most challenges….

1) Somebody Re-uses the cheap star washers…

2) Mag loosens up and falls away….

 

Oddly, my battery has two wing nuts holding it in place… safety wired together… 

Plenty of room for improvement still….

Best regards,

-a-

[FlyingDude]

6 hours ago, Joshua Blackh4t said:

Haha, that is very amusing. I can't add a location on here, but go to maps and type in "Alexandria Station, N.T. Australia" we can talk about nearby Walmarts. 

I'm sure you can find a skinny snake to use as safety wire or long snake for tiedowns or a scorpion for monkey wrench. People adapt to their environments.

You even have a town named after the dude who's famous for evolution and adaptation

[A64Pilot]

Anyone noticed the four nuts holding their carburetor to the airplane aren’t safetied, or the manifolds aren’t or the cylinders?

Ever noticed none of the hardware in a Lycoming engine is fine thread aviation hardware, it’s almost all course thread like an auto engine.

For some reason it seems most accessories bolted to it are though.

Just have always wondered about it is all, seemed odd

[N201MKTurbo]

2 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

Anyone noticed the four nuts holding their carburetor to the airplane aren’t safetied, or the manifolds aren’t or the cylinders?

Ever noticed none of the hardware in a Lycoming engine is fine thread aviation hardware, it’s almost all course thread like an auto engine.

For some reason it seems most accessories bolted to it are though.

Just have always wondered about it is all, seemed odd

They must know what they are doing. Nothing falls off.

Except for the occasional mag.