It's sometimes difficult to get pliers with a straight tip in between components - inside an engine bay, for example - so 45° and 90° options are available.Ĭhangeable heads: If you add up a few sizes and a few different tips, it's easy to see how a snap ring pliers set soon ends up including a half dozen or more tools. This is why these pliers are mostly sold in sets.

If you're working with even a small selection of snap rings, you’ll soon end up needing several tools. Snap rings can be damaged if overstretched or distorted, so these tools open less than standard general-purpose pliers to prevent this. Thus, the snap ring is extremely popular.īestReviews Snap ring pliers set features There are other means of securing things on shafts - using a washer and cotter pin is a fairly common way - but they almost always require more than one component and more than one operation to fit, and they are more expensive to make. Snap ring pliers either close the O to fit inside a shaft, and the ring then springs open to fix itself securely in the groove, or the pliers open the O a little to place it over the shaft and then “snaps” closed when released. To suit both applications, there are external and internal types. In most cases, snap rings are designed to fit into a narrow groove, providing a physical barrier that prevents a component from sliding off a shaft or out from inside a bore. Sizes range from less than 1/10 inch to over 40 inches (the latter requires special tools - there's no way to make snap ring pliers that big). Retaining rings are usually flat, but some have beveled edges, which helps with proper location. These holes allow the insertion of the ends of the snap ring pliers.

On each of the ends there's a lug with a hole in it. Most are a steel O shape that isn’t quite a fully closed circle - it has a break in it, a small gap for opening and closing. They have a number of names, including circlips, C-clips, and R-clips. They're also called C-clips and Seeger clips, the latter after German engineer Willi Seeger whose company developed an early version. Snap rings are also widely known as circlips.

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