Todays mystery object

Simples !

It's a wire hose clip applier as per:

but the second one doesn't require much space.

Andrew Mawson used his keyboard to write :

Got it in one!

Did you look at CTclone2, 3 and 4.jpg ?

Its obviously a tuit.

Brian

That would be cheating :-)

There wasn't a CTclone4 anyway!

No, I've had that link to the clampit bookmarked for over 5 years waiting to find roundtuit time !

AWEM

Andrew Mawson formulated the question :

They do seem rather expensive in that link, compared to other similar tools and the simplicity of cloning one - so quite intrigued by the idea, I roughed one out to test, not expecting it working much better than simply winding wire around and twisting the ends up tight.

To my surprise, the idea works very well indeed. You can get it much tighter than you can by simply twisting the wire up and probably even tighter than you could a Jubilee clip. Unlike a jubilee, it works one even the smallest of pipes. You just wind the wire round, tighten it with the tool, then rotate the tool 90 deg to lock it before removing the tool. Rather than keeping lots of different sizes, you just need wire and the tool for any size of clamp.

The only disadvantage, seems to be that the wire can dig into a soft pipe and that you need room to rotate the tool around the pipe to lock it off once tight. The first issue might be overcome by putting some thin metal strip under the wire, before it is tightened.

I'm quite impressed by those - the marine versions are pricey, but the general use one isn't too bad and the sheer convenience of a one-size-fits-all solution is worth springing 30 dollars for.

Even seeing your final result the usage of your version of the the tool isn't clear. How do you get away without the pins at the end? According to this they appear essential.

single wrap. I suppose I could add the extra pin or I could simply drill a hole through the nose as a means to hold the wire.

Can we add a couple of those pics to the iron wire article in wiki?

NT

Is the nail varnish essential ?