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G’day,

I recently started a new job, and have come across in the toolbox this set of “pliers”.

I’ve never seen these before, and I can’t find them anywhere online.

Can someone tell me what they are and what they’re used for?

Thanks! birds-eye view top-view

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  • What is your job? Knowing what industry it is could be helpful.
    – JPhi1618
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 12:54
  • I’m a Systems Administrator - IT job. Found them in the company’s toolbox in our server room. There is a grey pair of these as well.
    – Thomas Jones
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 21:18
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    Google “Lead forming pliers” I don’t see anything exactly the same, but there are a lot of similar pliers used to bend the leads of electronic components into appropriate shapes for soldering into circuit boards.
    – Mark
    Commented Mar 23, 2018 at 12:23
  • They look like lead bending plyers to me also, If you company stuffs boards they may be custom for specific components I know years ago when I worked for a company that had a Manuel line there were several specific plyers that were used to shape the leads to keep the components in the correct location or height off the board prior to wave soldering.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Mar 23, 2018 at 14:18

3 Answers 3

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Based on the previous answers and a reverse image lookup which turned out to be pretty accurate. I was able to identify these as:

"COIL CRIMPING PLIERS"

These are a few features listed from an online store detailing the tool:

  • Cut and crimp your plastic spiral coil in one clip.

  • Comfortable Plastic Grip for easy crimping.

  • Pliers utilize a twin metal spring design to bounce back. The mechanism retracts after the pliers cut and crimp actions are complete.

  • A Red dot marks the orientation for the proper direction to cut and crimp.

To be honest with you, I don't exactly know why you would need a special tool for this. Can I link video links?

Here's one in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtClAvRoQUU

And here's a close-up image of the "desired" end result which was produced by a coil crimping machine! Added this to my answer because you can really see the details of the cut & crimp.

enter image description here

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There are similar tools that are used to create the ruffled end of a circular stove pipe or vent pipe. When you cut off the end of a standard metal vent pipe that was factory made you will end up with a piece that does not have the ruffle crimps and you may need to make some. Here is what I refer to:

enter image description here

The ruffle crimps on the end of a vent pipe or fitting make the overall outside diameter of the pipe slightly smaller so that it can fit inside of the next piece of straight pipe.

The ruffled end crimps in a factory are made on a large machine that has rollers that act kind of like gears. However out on a job site a hand tool is much more convenient in the few odd cases where ready made parts need to be cut and modified. Here is a picture of one of these hand tools.

enter image description here

And finally here is one shown in use:

enter image description here

The pictured hand ruffle crimping tool has multiple jaw sections which makes it easier to step from crimp to crimp around the pipe to get a consistent spacing. Your tool only has one crimp jaw and may be designed for a similar but different application than I have shown here. However it may give some ideas as to the actual function of the tool you pictured.

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  • Also known as a "downspout crimper".
    – isherwood
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 13:08
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    I think it may be more along the line of the downspout crimper, since the male end of the downspout only has one crimp in each corner
    – Jack
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 15:11
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The shape of the tool lacks the beveled edges of the downspout crimpers, while the hole near the pivot of the tool implies a wire forming type of use. I was able to locate ligature forming pliers but they have a couple of disparities to the tool shown and are smaller, more refined (considering they are used for dental work).

I believe this is a custom or specific wire forming pliers. My first thought was a z-bend tool, for radio control aircraft linkage, but the entry angle is different by 90° from that type of tool.

I found no matching photos to support my reference, other than many variations of wire forming tools that are close in design to this one.

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