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TIL that pre-bending safety wire around a socket before twisting cut my lockwire time way down
I have been doing safety wire on engine hardware for going on 9 years and always did it the slow way, twisting by hand with pliers, feeding the wire through one hole at a time and pulling it tight. A guy I work with at the shop near the Burbank airport showed me something simple. He loops the wire around a deep socket, crosses the tails, and uses the socket as a guide so the twist stays even the whole way down. The first time I tried it on a fuel pump bolt circle I finished in about 4 minutes instead of my usual 12. I honestly thought it was a gimmick for new guys until I saw how tight and clean his runs came out. Now I keep a 3/8 socket in my box just for this. It took some getting used to the angle at first, but after a handful of jobs it felt natural. What other small habits like this do you all use that a guy with years in the trade would not think to try?
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cole_walker2621d ago
That socket trick saved me on a PT6 exhaust clamp job last spring, cut my time from 15 minutes to about 5. Another one that helped me was pre-cutting a bunch of wire to length before I even start, so I am not fighting the spool while I am upside down in a wheel well. Small stuff like that adds up fast when you are doing a whole engine.
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