One of those simple every day consumables we all wished we invented! So many ways to use them - what do you do with them that is out of the ordinary? Here's one - Skid Steer drive chain joining link tool
You darn skippy I wish I had invented. LoL Spring compression tool.
Not bad ATCO, 12 mins to reply complete with a picture as well! :notworthy :drinkup
LMAO, I just noticed I placed that spring next to the "Danger - Avoid Death" decal. Bah ha hahahaha :lmao
Yep, use them for all kinds of things. Holding the chain so i can measure it and cut it to length.
Ummm Lee, that's not a piece of heavy equipment, you're disqualified :wink2
I just use them for everything I can't find the right hardware for. They are one of the handiest things ever invented.
used the for everything from holding a fake tail on a horse to compressing springs, holding drive shafts on trucks after the been removed for towing, they one one of the more handy inventions. Buy them 1000 at a time from the local supply house.
You'd fail scrutineering Lee - the R-Clip (lockwired as well of course) is missing out of the rear axle nut ....... Nice sticky Metzeler Racetec M3's on it as well. What is it..?
Of course the R clip is out, I was installing a new chain and sprockets. Once the chain is connected then the tension can be adjusted and the axle nut torqued to 80 ftlbs. That was my GSXR750 before a nasty high side totaled it.
They make great boot laces in a pinch. Also work good when you forget your belt. And for some of use, we need heavy equipment to hold our pants up
I bought a cannister of assorted colors and sizes to keep on hand for color coding multiple hydraulic lines. Oil won't hurt them and they stay on forever. We used to change attachments on a hydro-axe once in a while..could never remember which line went where.
Very handy to hold together a rose joint or ball end on various machine linkages to keep em going until a replacement can be obtained - throttle linkages etc, same as a bit of "cocky" wire but more flexible. also as emergency hose clamps on low pressure applications.
I have had some so long that they are getting brittle and crack and break when you bend them.They are made out of grey material whatever it may be.Ron G
Wow...so many uses over the years but no pictures. If you are using them outdoors for a permanent installation make sure you use the black ones as they are UV resistant.
I have one holding the windshield wiper linkage together on my old '83 Dodge pickup and ran it for years that way.It is still holding and has outlasted the grommets that the Dodge dealer sells to fix it.Ron G
a-men on using the black ones out side in the weather
Don't forget to get the ones that you can take apart and reuse, some days they are worth their weight in gold, the cheap ones don't work as well to take back apart as the better ones with the little tab on them. The only thing more usefull than zip ties is tile tape, way better than duct tape, it won't rot or decay in the elements, if I'd have invented that stuff, I could be sipping mixed drinks on a warm beach right now instead of working for a living in the cold and soon to be snow.
Hey keep quiet about the tile tape. Best to keep it secret.
Yeah, good stuff
There is one thing I won't use zipties for, and that's for securing stuff in a very high vibration environment. For example, using zipties to secure a hose to a Cessna's engine mount assembly will result in the zip tie actually cutting into the engine mount and damaging it. You'd think this would not happen with the plastic zip tie and the metal mount, but it does. But for most everything else, they are awesome, for sure.
another great tip i just remebered today, makes hanging holiday lights a breeze
My wife said the same thing when she hung ours.
I think that's unusual. I have zip ties over everything that isn't cast aluminum in my 0-360-A4k. Some I put there, others were put there by an A&P. I've never seen or heard of a zip tie damaging a hose or wire. However, I always make a standoff with two zip ties, one around the engine mount and hose or wire, and the other as a "belt" around the first twist tie, between the motor mount and the hose or wire. Makes a very nice looking installation, and isolates the hose or wire from the motor mount. There should be minimal vibration transferred from the mount to the hose.
Here is something I like using with the zip ties. They are very handy when doing a lot of wiring and stuff like that.
The zip-ty trick I like, Is to contort your hand and arm in positions to not cut and scrape the skin off from zip-ty tails that are not cut flush and with the correct cutters when reaching in tight spots with ty's placed every inch.
:iagree 110% :yup
Great idea InsleyGuy
hope i can explain this clear,,,had to install 1/4inch screen on hyd. cooler on street sweeper took tie wrap slid steel washer over tie wrap where it stoped at large end ,ran the small end thrugh screen and cooler .when it came through cooler slid another washer over the tie wrap and takeing a second tie wrap and runing the lock on the first,,then cut off excess ends and would hold for years with out hurting cooler ..
Another thing I was taught was, if ya wanna keep a neat, OE type appearance, use black zip ties, as loom to protect wire, and hose, is normally black.
If you can't cut them off flush, or someone else did a bad job of it, use the tip of a soldering iron to melt the end and take the sharp edge off. You can plug the iron in to get hot, then unplug it and carry it to the job and work for a minute or two if you need to.
make a redneck belt out of them (use one through 2 of your belt loops works good)
What kind of tape is this? The only Tile tape I can find is either for use in wet bathroom corners and is stuck fast with tile setting compound, or is adhesive on both side to stick tiles to a flat surface. Or are you pulling our legs?
I did that a few days ago, but I needed a zip tie on each side to make my paints feel right.
Phildirt, the tile tape I was referring to has nothing to do with bathrooms, its ag drainage tape used on plastic tile lines, anything plastic it will stick to, we buy it by the case rolls of around 24 or 48, they are about 3 inches wide and the stuff won't rot or break down underground, in fact it will look brand new if dug up years from now, duct tape rots over time if left in the sun or underground, it usually lasts only about 4 years if you bury it. Prinsco, ADS, Agridrain can get tile tape for you, most any of the major drainage tile suppliers can get the stuff, there is better brands of it, I'm not sure what the name of the stuff is we get, I know it just by looking at it weather its the better or cheaper stuff. It looks a lot like electrical tape only a lot wider and sticks better, its one sided and will stick to anything plastic, we use it on about anything because it will stick to itself so if you wrap it around several times to about anything it'll stick and stay put, wiring harness's on trucks we use a lot of it on those applications, especially if its outside in the elements, in the colder weather it still works fine and sticks if you use the better stuff, the cheaper stuff needs to be put over an exhaust pipe to warm it up first in order to get it to stick, thats why I don't like the cheap stuff, it'll stick if its used under water or if the plastic your sticking it to is wet or even muddy to a certain extent. We've been installing waterlines this week along with drinking fountains and anytime we need to tape plastic or pvc pipe to anything to hold it in place, while we're backfilling, we use tile tape to do the job
You must get the wash rack guys at your shop to do your bike also. That thing is too clean.
Use them to hold my inter cooler boot on my n14 when the clamp broke. Took a bunch to hold it but it held until I got to a parts house.
that saying something, some days i could barely get the actual clamps to keep the intercooler boots on some engines.
Sears has some really nice precision side cutters that do a wonderful job of cutting off the ends of ties nice and close. As for using the ties, on GM truck hood releases(I had a 89 and 97) the cable would stretch and would not release the hood. I took one of the tiny ties and put it around the cable between the latch and the very end of the cable and that works nicely to fix that problem.
get one of the 24" ties and tie it to a friends drive shaft. it will drive 'em nuts.
also works if you put it round the harmonic balancer...
We usually do two pointed in opposite directions... Sounds like the truck is about to come apart.
Smittysrepair in the 37 years as an electrician I have never used the tye wrap tool. Have always used Kliens to tighten them. We don't use side cutters anymore to cut them pull them and twist them off with the Kliens. If you want to tighten something up more double wrap them and they will streach more and hold better. The black tye wraps are better at resisting UV for braking. Leaving them uncut is okay if you don't want to or have to cut them, they stay fairly soft where there not streached then they don't cut you. I cut my left hand open years ago 1 1/4" by 3/8" by 1/8" deep, boy did it bleed!!!!
I'm a retired electrician. We used thousands of ty wraps building new automated machines. One of my biggest pet peeves was the way those things get cut off. They are razor sharp if not cut off flush. The easiest and cheapest were a small pair of flush cut side cutters from home depot Model # D275-5, about $10.
There's something satisfying about threading one with one hand when you're up to your elbow in hoses or wires.
I really like the zip tie "gun" that Harbor Freight sells. It pulls the zip tie tight, and then cuts it off flush. I never liked the look of installations when the zip ties were cut off with dikes, and the angled ends could be seen. As pointed out above, they're sharp, too.
oh, yeah! :notworthy:thumbsup:exactly:beerchug
Some one zip tied my cluch and brake pedal together once, it took a little while to figure it out, evertime you go to throw the clutch come to a screaming halt