I finally tried a safety wire twister vs doing it by hand and the difference is huge

Been twisting wire the old way for 12 years at my shop in Houston. Last week I borrowed a Midwest 8 inch twister from a coworker and did a set of four bolts on a Cessna firewall. Took me half the time and the tension was way more even. Has anyone else switched and found it worth the $40 or so?

2 comments

2 Comments

sage5217d ago

Oh man I gotta push back on this one. I've been twisting safety wire by hand for close to 15 years and I just don't see the big deal with the twisters. The problem I've run into is the tool forgets how tight you want things and you end up with some bolts torqued way too much and others barely snug. Especially on those tiny 4-40 screws on instrument panels, a twister will absolutely tear them up if you're not super careful. By hand you can feel exactly when the tension is right and stop before you break something. Plus on crowded jobs like inside a landing gear wheel well where you cant even get the tool in there, hand twisting is the only way that works for me.

the_sean17d agoTop Commenter

Used to be all about the twisters myself, actually. Thought I was saving time and getting a nicer looking twist. But you know what, a couple years back I snapped a 4-40 clean off in a radio stack and that was the moment I switched over to hand twisting for good. Now I keep a twister for the big stuff like landing gear bolts but for anything small or tight like instrument panels, I'm strictly by hand now too. Your point about feeling the tension really hit home, that's something a tool just can't do.