7December 2021
Adam Savage here in my cave with a
spotlight on another one of my favorite tools and in order to talk about this
one I'm gonna need to talk about a tool company I admire and that tool company
is Erwin they are most famous for the being the makers of the official vise
grip which is one of the greatest rounders of the corners of nuts that has
ever been invented I'm kidding these things are basically vise clamps
that are mobile and handheld and every makerspace should have all sorts of
versions of these needlenose everything else
I love these but that's not what I want to talk about Owen also changed my whole
life by inventing the quick clamp this thing a handheld clamp that you can
operate with one hand but that's not what I wanted to talk about forever
makerspaces have to deal with this issue of taking a piece of sheet metal like
this and making a really nice precise bend in it and for the longest time that
was done by clamping a piece of sheet metal into a vise like this bending it
over and using a hammer can make that bet I mean we've all been there and
that's a totally reasonable way to bend sheet metal but there's but there's a
better one and it's this this is an ER win vise grip sheet metal tool and it's
effectively a little handheld metal break now there are a lot of companies
that make versions of handheld metal breaks and I have many different
versions but if you're thinking about whether or not this tool will be useful
to you the Erwin one is the one to get it's relatively inexpensive it's under
20 bucks and because of these wide jaws you can grab a piece of sheet metal and
you can make a really nice Bend very quickly with these pair of pliers no
hammering needed no vise needed nearby if you have two of these and I recommend
if you're gonna get one you need to because you want one in each hand for
bending the metal that you're gonna be bending this is a fantastic addition and
this this falls into the category of a certain kind of tool which is like
you're just not going to find out about these unless someone specifically tells
you about them it's not like when you're looking through the hardware store this
is gonna be really obvious it's a pretty esoteric part of the Erwin tool
landscape but the moment you incorporate something like this into your shop
process it just makes a whole bunch of things a lot more possible that is
today's spotlight the Erwin sheetmetal tool a small handheld brake thanks for
watching fun fact the sound that a vise grip makes when you open and close it
has been used for the sound of guns cocking action movies yeah Foley artists
they have crazy skills but seriously if your gun sounded like this it's time to
take it to the shop