![]() I totally agree with the question about the overly large ratcheting section, the lower portion of which can't even be used.that confuses me (as I stated in my review).Īs far as the mechanism "not feeling right,". I've been wanting to read this post since Thelon mentioned he didn't like the pliers in another thread. I rate these TWO ROASTED GOPHERS UP because of their large capacity (opening AND depth) in a compact tool, their European design and manufacturing (which I hope means well-hardened jaws), and their bargain price. Only time will tell how hard the jaws are. Look and feel of the jaw teeth remind me very much of Knipex cobras. These are some serious deep-throat pliers. LOVE the depth of those jaws! From throat to tip of the jaw is a whopping 2". If you open wide, you can ratchet it closed to the adjustment you want without pressing the thumb button. The thumb button adjuster looks plastic in all the photos but it's not, hurray. (Interesting, it looks like you could tease a little more opening capacity out of these if you'd file or grind a protruding flange on the foremost grip, where the soft grips end and transition to the metal.) That's a lot of opening on any plier, let alone a 9" plier. That's pretty serious capacity, so despite the redundant ratchet settings, I list this as a big positive. At that location, max open is 2.25", much more than the advertised 1.5" (it is 1.5" closed at max opening). When you squeeze the handles at max open, you'll get three ratchet clicks to the first useable notch. The bottom three ratchets are not functional at all (so why are they there?). Max open size is 2.5", but is unusable at that opening. Really do have a capacious opening size for 9". It's a function of the design, so you can't expect the top and bottom jaws to close in perfect alignment each time. Lower jaw moves side-to-side about 1/16 inch in either direction from the top jaw. But that's not a lot of jaw swing between open and closed. The workaround, obviously, is to adjust the pliers to fit the project. Jaws move just 3/4" of an inch from open to closed. A little quirky, like you'd expect from the French, but I'm keeping them. The 8231s arrived the other day, and they actually measure 8-3/4 from tip to tip (should be called 9" pliers). Seems emergency plumbing always calls for really large pliers. I was curious, because I've been looking for big capacity in the smallest possible pliers for my "traveling" box that is always over capacity. Their claim to fame is that they ".feature 12" capacity in an 8" pliers!" Max open jaw size listed 1.5" which seemed OK, but it looked bigger in the photo. They look to be similar to the 7" sold by Snap-on for $46 or the 10" sold for $52.
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