Inside the Channellock Tool Factory
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- Опубликовано: 30 мар 2020
- The history of Channellock pliers spans over 100 years. The company started as a one-man operation where tools were forged and then sold by horse and buggy to blacksmiths in upper Pennsylvania. The first tools made were for attaching and removing horseshoes. After the turn of the century the company moved onto other types of pliers, receiving a patent on several models.
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To manufacture a tool that is so simple to use is a complicated process that involves high quality steel, computers, heavy machinery, dyes, heat, and manpower. The making of pliers begins with the dye, which carries the outline of whatever tool is to be forged. Channellock uses a sophisticated electronic drill machine to etch the outline of the specific tool onto a 1000-pound block of steel. After the etching is made a worker hand polishes the dye smoothing over rough edges.
Pliers began as high carbon rods of steel approximately six feet in length. Each rod is heated in a furnace to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, which takes approximately 15 minutes. Workers using gloves and safety gear hand carry the heated-rods to a press that stamps the metal into the shape configured in the dye. The press exerts about 24,000 pounds of pressure as it smashes the hot metal into the rough form of the pliers. The forged steel is then brought to another press that shapes the pliers further and snips them off from the rod. The remaining steel is put back in a furnace and the process repeats itself until most of the metal is used.
The rough-cut pliers are then heat-treated in a process called “annealing”. Simply put, the pliers are softened so that the machine shop can precisely cut the metal into the desired shape. Annealing makes it easier and faster for equipment like grinders and cutters to work with the steel.
After the two metal parts are snipped, grooved, and cut to specifications they are attached together and introduced to another heat process where they are tempered and hardened; this ensures that the pliers will be durable.
Channellock also tests every cutting tool that is made. The company first sharpens the edges by hand and then sends each tool to two different stations. The first test involves cutting piano wire, which is extremely hard. After the wire is snipped, the tool is checked for any indentations or holes. If it passes, the pliers then go onto a second test where it’s required to cut twine, a very fibrous material. If the cuts aren’t clean, the tool is re-sharpened.
The pliers are eventually polished and then sent through a 400-degree oven where the metal is heated again. The pliers are then dipped into a liquid blue plastic, which soon hardens. The plastic grip gives Channellocks their patented look.
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Хобби
Alot of joy using US tools when you watch tours like this.
Thank You So Very Very Much For Staying In The U.S.A.!!! God Love Ya'll
Can never go wrong Channellock products probably one of the best pliers out there keep up the great work and always keep it home in America🇺🇲👍
Channellocks are the only pliers I'll buy. 👌
Made in America! Thanks to the hard workers in Pennsylvania, they make the best pliers in the world!
Knipex is way better man.
@@jeffbelton9796, I’m just a home shop guy, but I think I’ll try some Knipex out, they get so many good reviews. But Channelocks are a great tool and have been for a long time. And I was giving the people who make Channelocks a good plug.
I checked to see if my job was on this video and saw your comment. Thank you for the nice words a year ago lol. We make em so the Chinese have one less product! 🤣
@@jeffbelton9796 debateable.
They both are great tools, but one costs 1/3 the price and you don’t mind using more aggressively and the other you tend to baby because they cost more. I wouldn’t use a pair of knipex to tap (beat) out a fitting when I don’t want to crawl out of a crawl space to go to the truck for another tool.
Agreed. I only buy Channel lock pliers now.
Channellock are truly the best pliers and cutters. Also the best customer service.
Channellock are good...kleins much better though
When this plant goes to Asia, we can all just start learning Chinese. Best hand tools on earth at a fair price. Keep it up!
i hope that day never comes. im going to buy a set of USA made channel locks to replace my harbor freight junk.
USA USA USA USA
we are encouraged to take chinese instead of spanish now in my school... good idea i think, i anticipate much more international business dealings in my generations future. we are told that china may even become the new largest economy and world currency during our lifetime.
If I buy pliers channellock is always my first choice
Yeah absolutely love Channel Lock tools 🛠 👍🏽
Great Job guys.
used them for over 40 years, the best
I love channelock
Thanks for sharing this.
Bought every tounge and groove you can think of nothing beats Channel Lock. You could buy another brand but you will still end up buying channel locks.
Until you discover knipex
@@jacobrael9872 lmao, quite a late reply to a late reply but 100% correct. Unfortunately we like to scream ‘MERICA when it comes to tools ignoring the rebranding that essentially all brands do including Channelock. Guess what that means? Not made here… Lots of their products are but not all.
I love all of mine
Huge Channel Lock Fan
In dealing with "what brand of tool is better", in this case Channellock, Klein, Ideal, Wright, Cornwell, Snap-on, and Knipex, all have their "speciality tool" they are known for, i.e. "Klein Linesman pliers, Channellock Pump plies, Snap-on socket or wrench sets". You get what you pay for. Personally, I try to stay with USA manufacturers, but i have a few Knipex tools that i use.
could have gone on a tour years ago when my daughter was going to college in Meadville, but she wanted to go to a moldy museum in town instead so sad.
it is weird they show the old style of end nippers cutting the piano wire must be an old tour they have big frankenstein bolts on them for many years now.
i have some form before they had blue handles
Much Rather my 10" Knipex Alligator Pliers' I pocket carry them Daily at Work 💪
Now watch Knipex factory tour and draw your own conclusions'
Honestly I have respect for both companies. I own tools from both of them and they serve me well, some more than others depending on the situation and vice versa.
Both brands have their place. Love them both, but there’s something soulful about using a true American tool everyday. Even if it has its quirks and limits versus the German companion.
Klein tools are way better