Warren & Brown (WB) Tools has the answer to the age-old problem of removing all those burred, stripped, rusted or damaged screw heads that are impossible to remove by drill or with standard pliers.
The range of patented screw-removal pliers will remove screws where other pliers have failed miserably and even made the problem worse. And they’re not only for screw removal. They’re multi-purpose and great for all other day-to-day uses. This is one of those classic situations where the solution is relatively simple, but it’s taken a company that understands the issues and problems tradies face every day to solve the problem. We decided to take a closer look.
The range has the PZ55, PZ56, PZ57, PZ58, PZ59 and the PZ60, all with their own benefits and specific uses. The PZ58, PZ59 and PZ60 multi-purpose pliers are designed for stuck screws, but also for twisting and cutting wire, gripping nuts and bolts and for general use. The PZ60 are excellent for getting into tight work areas where their strong gripping jaws can bite into the material, and the cutting blade cuts through the wire with less grasping power.
The essential addition to these awesome pliers is the vertical grooves added to the horizontal grooves of traditional pliers. The vertical serrations or grooves create the gripping power that makes these pliers so successful.
TEST 1: DAMAGED SCREW-HEAD REMOVAL (LARGE SCREWS)
We were at a renovation job perfect for testing the WB screw removal pliers. There were heaps of rusted screws and damaged screw heads around the site. We had a row of batten screws with bored-out hex bit heads and the impact driver wasn’t getting them out. First we tried to remove a screw with our standard pliers with horizontal serrations only. They had a very small point of contact with the screw head and that wasn’t giving the pliers a good grip on the screw head. Slipping occurred with nearly every turn. It took a lot of muscle to get a decent turn of the screw and a lot of skin was taken off knuckles and fingers trying to get the job done.
Next up we tested with the Warren & Brown PZ59
The PZ59 and its siblings have both horizontal and vertical serrated teeth, along with specially designed jaws which provide a non-slip grip. This gives the PZ range multiple points of contact around the screw heads and maximises friction for unmatched gripping power. The pliers didn’t slip off the screw heads once, and I had to use a lot less gripping power to get the screws out.
Very handy!
TEST 2: NEEDLE-NOSE AND SMALL-SCREWS PLIERS
For these tests, we grabbed the PZ60, PZ57 and PZ56 along with some hard-to-get-out screws and a few test blocks to simulate different applications. The small screw wasn’t an issue either. These pliers have a range of use of 2mm-5.5mm, 2mm-3.5mm, and 3mm-8mm screw heads. A lot of tiny screws have slippery, rounded heads, but
the PZ57 pliers had no issues. Each and every screw we tried was removed with ease, and our standard tools could neither grip nor get into the tight spots easily.
From rusted screws to shiny, slippery screws, the Warren & Brown pliers were kicking arse on the work site.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
The handles on the PZ range are very comfortable to hold and use. The grip is fantastic and you won’t be letting these slip out of your hands. The grip also has a pretty cool design that looks like its straight out of a Transformers movie, but this is probably why the grip is so effective. The specially designed jaws with horizontal and vertical teeth are what makes these multi-purpose pliers stand out from of the rest. The multi-point contact on the damaged screws puts pressure in all the right places and makes it so easy to remove difficult screws.
I highly recommend having a few of the range, or at least one of them, in your toolkit. The time saved on that one damaged screw-removal task you’ve been avoiding could pay for the pliers on your very first job – as well as leaving your skin safely in place on your knuckles.
For more information visit http://www.wbtools.com.au