Tool Wire Tie Cutting Tool

[someidiot]

Two in one action!

Look at picture number three, the vertical features grip the zap strap and pull it tight. See the horizontal jaws? Once the pull tight has been accomplished, the full squeeze of the handles pinches these jaws to cut off what is not required.

You can 'half-pump' the handles to tighten a too loose strap, but when you want to cut it off, you do the full squeeze.

I can't see the part I can't see, so I just don't see it. Looks to me like only two stampings and the little grabby pawl, so I can't visualize any cutting mechanism.

 

[someidiot]

I have never been a fan of the automatic style of zip tie cutters. I find that they under tension them before cutting. A few weeks ago I picked up the Tsunoda flush cutters. The serrated part of the pliers is offset for easy access. You pull the zip tie tight then cut it off with the flush cutters. The pliers work great and only cost about $25 on Amazon. They were surprisingly well made for the price.

Hmm... maybe I should take a look at those. My go-tos have always been the SnapOn E710CG (the part number evolved a little over the years). For day-to-day work they might as well have been a prosthetic - never left my hand. Since I started using them around 1980 I've always had about three in rotation: The edge-is-cherry pair for fine work (down to AWG31 or 32), the (older) pair I'll do house wiring with, and the (oldest) pair I'll chop anything with that doesn't break the jaws. A few years back they were - incredibly - discontinued, and when that happened I bought a few NOS on ebay, though I think SnapOn put out a redesigned replacement; as I recall, a rep told me that they didn't like the E710's tendency to break off the point of the jaw when dropped on concrete. Since I'm stocked now, though, I haven't followed up. Seemed to me that discontinuing the best pair of flush cutters I'd ever touched was pure insanity; maybe they're even better now,
but probably at more than a hundred bucks.

Back on the wire tie front, though, I think Panduit makes a couple of different guns for different size ranges, so you may have just been using a tool meant for a lighter tie.

 

[trevj]

I can't see the part I can't see, so I just don't see it. Looks to me like only two stampings and the little grabby pawl, so I can't visualize any cutting mechanism.

You can see the cutting mechanism on the bent jaws quite clearly, in the picture. Look forward of the ratchet pawl axle, and you can see the matching rounded ground surfaces that do the cutting. The cutting edge runs more or less parallel with the hand grip, in use.

 

[someidiot]

I mean, I don't want to beat this to death, but all I see is a tapered groove with a slot between those tangs, not a cutting mechanism.

 

[Susquatch]

I mean, I don't want to beat this to death, but all I see is a tapered groove with a slot between those tangs, not a cutting mechanism.

I'll send you a photo of how mine cuts tomorrow.

 

[trevj]

I mean, I don't want to beat this to death, but all I see is a tapered groove with a slot between those tangs, not a cutting mechanism.

Those two points I highlighted, move closer and farther away from each other, while the ratchet draws the strap tighter. They are at a right angle to the plane that the ratchet works at, When it is as tight as wanted, you squeeze down hard, and it cuts with the edges I have highlighted. Simple, and few moving parts.
Truly, it is hard for me to understand that you cannot 'see' that !

You said earlier, that you only saw two stamped parts. Yes. You have to se how they were bent,to see how it works.

 

[someidiot]

Yeah, it's just that I can't see from this angle whatever it is that pushes the cutting edges together.

 

[Susquatch]

@someidiot

As promised, here is a photo of my two zip tie tensioner tools.



The top one is a Klein. It works really well. The regular big handle tightens the zip tie, and the top orange handle moves a sharp blade that cuts the zip tail off flush with the zip head.

The bottom tool is a piece of garbage. I only keep it to loan out to others so I don't end up losing my good tool.

 

[Ishmael]

And here, I hope, is the last word on my fool tool.

I wrapped a zip tie around a piece of pipe to illustrate how it works. I think that the pictures show that the notched bottom plate does not move, is not sharp, and plays no role in cutting the tie. I did find, however, that twisting the tool after tightening the tie works just fine, as the tie bears against the bottom plate and Is severed flush with the ratchet head of the tie.

So, I have a manual tool that cuts--sort of.