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Re bar tie tool


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I have a pair of locking wire pliers bought many years ago and they are useful for loads of things, including twisting rebar wire.  The ones I have are an age-old design, and were even in the very first aircraft tool kit I was issued with back in the late 70's.  Looking around you can get them for less than £15: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blackline-7-Lockwire-Safety-Locking-Pliers-With-Cutter-Tool-Twist-Wire-Twisting/331543672387?hash=item4d318af643:g:xnQAAOSweW5VQ32F

 

The ones I have are American made, and came from an aviation supplier, so were a lot more expensive, but probably not a lot different in terms of use or life, I suspect, but they are finished in a nice hard chrome plate..............

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1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

Any thoughts

I believe that with the permission of your slab designer and BCO you can use plastic tie wraps. So much easier than wire tying. Although when you watch a pro doing wire tying they go so fast tie wraps would be much slower.

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28 minutes ago, Alexphd1 said:

 

 

Screenshot_20180309-103140.png

Very tidy work with the dpc, what is the tape you are using and is it double sealed along both edges or one double sided and the upper edge over taped? I guess there is a rising section of EPS in the centre to be fitted as well. Why were you not a  fan of the tie wraps?

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Some of ours in the retaining wall was fixed with pre-cut iron wire with loops on the ends, and twisted up with a pull tool with a hook on the end.  I had to go in and buy a pack of these wires for the guys when they ran short, and IIRC it was around £20 for 1000 pre-formed wires from the local BM. 

 

Seemed a neat system to me, no need to cut wire and the tool was like one of those spiral screwdrivers, but in reverse.  They just wrapped the pre-cut wire around the rebar, hooked the loop of the tool through both wire eyes and pulled, and the act of pulling the handle of the tool neatly twisted the wires up tight.  I've no idea how much the tool was, but it was so simple that I doubt it was expensive.

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Get yourself a twisting tool as suggested by @JSHarris. I have had one for years and I use it regularly. You can more than double the strength of wire when you use it to twist a long length, or just tie off the short ends super quickly.

It takes a bit of a knack getting used to, initially you break (over strain) a few strands, but you soon get a feel for  when you're going to break the wire. 

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The things to consider are 

 

the price of the tool ( usually a lot of money although I have never seen the one in the video before)

 

how often do they jam and how hard are they to “unjam” 

 

how tight do they get the fixing 

 

realistically how many ties are you going to have to put in. 

 

We have always used the pull twisty things everyone else has linked (locally called potato sack tiers) 

 

it all depends on available money and how much you want to use the fancy tool. If I could afford it I would get the best tool I could get and potentially sell its afterwards  ( realistically it would just end up on a shelf.) 

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I used the loop ended ties with the ratchet twisting tool for some steel work, but I found the cheap ties are very thin wire and not strong enough for walking on the steelwork without being careful. They are good for basic work but if your steelwork is heavy/multi layered, then look for something heavier. Possibly you can get heavy gauge ties but I haven't looked. Proper tying wire is much thicker and really strong but requires more skill to use... 

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I used to use both of the hand twisters and the drill type when I made up piling cages and to be honest there isn't much in it. The drill type does jam up but it's usually because the wire it's bent so misses the guides where it feeds in and bends. 

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I am a big fan of the machine. Wire is more expensive which is a negative.  We didn't have much wire jams in fact I can't remember any (maybe selective memory) but we only used it in dry weather I do remember somebody saying it doesn't like wet maybe that's something to do with wire slipping jamming? 

 

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Because of the way I built our reinforced icf garage walls -  creating the mesh from vertical and horizontal bars - , I needed to do around 1500ties. Wasted so much time at first until I hired a machine. Was worth the money for the significant time saved. I'd go so far as to say to anyone with over a couple of hundred ties not to waste time doing them by hand. You could spend two days just doing manual ties or less than half a day with the machine. And get a better tie with no effort. 

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