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by John W. Pollins, III
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| Most of my
tongs are too heavy and pliers are too slippery and short handled. So I put longer handles on an old pair of rusty
pliers. Tongs have a “V” groove on the bottom and
one hold down finger on the top. I modified the top jaw by opposite ball
swages (actually hit it hot with a ball pein while holding it over another
ball pein in the vice or a small ball hardy) then I sawed off about an
inch of small angle iron and welded it to the bottom jaw while holding it
in place by the bump I’d made in the top jaw. After you hammer out a
couple of 4 to 6” extensions for the handles you have to tweak the
handles a little at both wide and narrow settings.
With two settings inherent to pliers they’re great from 1/8 to ¾ inch round, square, bar and plate but didn’t pick up worth a hoot. So I ground a little “V” notch across the end of the angle iron and knocked the flux off a welding rod throwaway and welded that along the top of the top jaw. It can pick up a dime.
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