Wubbers Parallel Pliers

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I have a very old pair of parallel pliers that I’ve used for a few decades (and the tool was old when I got it) in the shop and it works beautifully. But edges are now a bit chipped and rounded and I can’t clean the jaws well enough for use on papers, chipboards and etched brass, so I went looking for a new pair for those uses. I tried 3 different parallel pliers in the $20-25 range and none of them closed squarely and the action on the mechanism was very rough and clumsy. So after some more research it looked like Wubbers was the quality tool.

 

These are great, very square closing action all the way down and no gaps when closed or clamped on good parallel bar measures. Jaws are a very nice polished stainless so should not leave any marks on softer stocks. Action is smooth and feels like my very old quality pair. It’s a quality tool that should last! 

 

Nice addition is the screw stop where you can limit the opening of the jaws. This is helpful if working repeatedly on thin stock as you don’t have to try to limit opening of the jaws by squeezing them to keep open only a bit or have to do the whole large stroke in and out, big fatigue saver! This also helps if you are doing careful alignment of stock as you can set it just wider than the stock, line up the stock in the jaws without having to hold against the springs, the when aligned just a tiny press clamps the stock and little issue of stock moving out of alignment in the tiny squeeze.

 

Works great for folding etched metals, metal stock, and paper/chipboard. Once clamped I just dried it up against the edge of a metal bench block (or piece of steel square stock in your other hand) and then bend onto the block top. Acts like a little tiny metal brake/folding press for clean, square folds. I have several etched metal bending jigs, but I enjoy using the parallel pliers on longer folds as easier to quickly align.

 

They also make pairs with some different sized and shape jaws as well.

 

https://wubbers.com/wubbers-parallel-mandrel-pliers/

 

At $60 they ain’t cheap at all, but they are super quality and function as parallel pliers should and after three failures of different cheap ones I’m happy with these as they will last me my lifetime and hopefully will end up with someone for decades after me like my old pair was to me!

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CZ3WDKJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1’

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff