zip tie unlock key

chop wrote on 1/24/2023 12:29 AM:

Use a good old 'safety pin'.

How-to unlock and re-use a zip tie

I just use a small/tiny screwdriver.

You might have to put it in from the inside, and I've always been able to, but maybe that gives an advantage to the safety pin.

Not as useful as the correct tool.

Not as convenient as the right tool.

Still not as convenient as the right tool.

FFS how expensive is a fresh zip tie compared with your labour?

Here's one example - but it shows "unavailable" on amazon <?>

- they'd work also - just have the band-aids handy ! :-)

John T.

This video clip shows a few examples where it is difficult to get under the cable tie to cut it - and his tool works like magic !

snipped-for-privacy@ccanoemail.com wrote on 1/24/2023 5:41 AM:

It is available on amazon.ca but quite expensive.

Cable cutters, knife, scissors.

I do use a safety pin occasionally, but always forget the right direction to push it in. The YouTube will help me remember it as an orthodox procedure.

They might not be a speedy or as effective, but if you have one of them and you don't have "the right tool", then they are much more convenient.

With big thick ones you can definitely use a small screwdriver. I have a dozen more than 3 feet long that sell for about 50 cents a piece that I took off tellephone poles, used for illegal advertising.

I used one to snake a wire from the left side of the windshield to the right, when I put in sun-visors with lights, and I've used it for something else similar that I forget right now. They are excellent

You could have used your finger to lift the rubber rim of the windshield on the inside to slip the wire in. I think all the rim covers on the inside of the car can be pried open easily to conceal wires.

I think not. I don't think you've been working on my car.

That's not the type I want. The type I want is a small flat metal thing, roughly triangular with a hole in the middle.

And the name doesn't produce anything on aliexpress or ebay either.

That's a lot closer to the one I want, but the one I want doesnt have the crucial bit at right angles at the end.

Or a key blank, but the ribbing is undesirable.

Maybe feasible to cut the whole of the ribbed end off and just file the little tab into what used to be the big round bit with a hole in it.

But someone must be stamping them out in china. The problem appears to just be what you call them.

I saw the one I want in a short video on facebook and the unlocker was incidental to the purpose of the short video which was a handyman project. I didnt think to ask the poster about it, assumed that I could search for it on aliexpress and ebay and there is no way to find the short video again on facebook, it just dumps stuff into your feed with a bit of selectivity about what you have chosen to view in the past and and occasional question about whether you want to see more like what you have just viewed.

Yeah, I do too, but want the dedicated device.

Those are a bit more likey to damage the cable tie.

chop wrote on 1/24/2023 12:53 PM:

"Sim tray pin" should work.

You're a hack . Stuffing wires into the gasket can cause leaks .

Spark plug gapper - file/grind a couple tips onto it for big & small cable ties. It already has the keychain hole in it ! :-)

That is nothing like what I want. I already have those and they don't work anything like as well as the one I want.

I am not talking about the rubber gasket of the real windshield. I am talking about the inside of the car there is a rim run along all the windows and in front of the driver near the top of the windshield. I saw the technician pushing the wire into it when he installed the antenna for my remote car starter. The rim is designed to be pried open easily so you can hide wiring inside. Why do you think you don't see electrical wires hanging all over the place inside your car?