Lineman's pliers (substitution)
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Lineman's pliers can be used in place of other tools and other tools can be used in place of lineman's pliers.
[edit] Extended Uses -- General
Although designed to cut small and large-diameter wire, and heavy-gauge cable, lineman's pliers may be used to cut many materials, including nails and screws (up to #10); note, though, that use on hard metals such as steel screws or heavy steel wire may dull the cutting edge and reduce the tool's effectiveness in normal applications.
[edit] Lineman's pliers substitute for other tools
- Needle-nose pliers: Lineman's pliers are fundamentally the same tool as needle-nose pliers: both tools share a typically solid, machined forged steel construciton, durable pivot, gripping nose and cutting craw. The main differences are that the slender nose of the needle-nose pliers reduces its overall weight and makes its shape less suited for double-duty as a hammer, than is the lineman's pliers. Also, needlenose pliers tend to be smaller (for electronics applications, they may be 1/10 the size), having less leverage for cutting large wire or cable.
- Hammer: Lineman's pliers weigh about 10 ounces and have broad, flat surfaces on either side of the handle joint. For many tasks of an electrician, such as positioning hardware and materials, chiseling plaster, lath, wood studs and other components of walls and ceilings, and for driving staples, the pliers they use routinely are more suitable than the hammer they need very rarely.
- Screw-cutter: Lineman's pliers may be used to cut steel screws up to #10, and virtually any dry-wall screw. Although, unlike some multi-purpose wire-stripping pliers, lineman's pliers will not always maintain a clean thread-continuity after the cutting, drywall screws typically will still function in drywall or soft woods such as those used in light-frame construction; driving the screw in reverse with moderate pressure will 'drill' a starter-hole, allowing the remaining threads of a cut screw to engage and draw the screw in normally. A machine screw cut by linemans' pliers may function properly about 75% of the time.
- Crimper: Lineman's pliers sometimes include an integrated crimping device in the craw of the handle side of the pliers' joint. The nose-end grippers of lineman's pliers are designed come about 1/16" short of positive contact, when the pliers are fully closed. The pliers' gripping end may be used to squeeze soft metal flat, and function well as a crimper in some applications.
- Reamer: Lineman's pliers have a tapered nose suitable for reaming the rough edge of a 1" or larger conduit, or cleaning sharp metal from the inside of a standard metal knock-out in an electrical enclosure such as a junction box or breaker panel.
[edit] Limits -- General
For single wires over #2 or multi-wire cables larger than #6/3, a ratcheting cable-cutter or metal-cutting saw are a better alternative. Electricians often carry side-cutting diagonal pliers along with lineman's pliers as a part of their standard tool complement, and the 'nipping' action of diagonal pliers' cutting edge makes them useful for cutting large cables one wire -- or even a few strands -- at a time, as a make-shift in the absence of a proper heavy-gauge cable cutter or metal saw.
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