pvreditor's Full Review: Craftsman 13" Pliers, Arc Joint
These are not my favorite pliers, but they’re close. My Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers are very heavily used in my workshop, and they work well for things as diverse as toilet repair to oil changes, but maybe I should give you a little background first.
The Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers are what I normally refer to as “Channelock” pliers, named after the company that originated this design. I have also seen this style of tool referred to as “water pump” pliers, although I’m not sure why that term is used. I’ll call them “arc-joint” pliers and try to explain why I like them so much.
First, this is a big, beefy tool that measures 13 inches from top to bottom. The Craftsman 45386 is constructed from tool-grade steel and has deeply serrated jaws that hurt like hell if I clamp down too hard on the wrong thing. On the things I intend to clamp on — such as oil filters, large fittings and toilet tank nuts — this thing grips with tenacity.
As I said, this is a big tool and its jaws open very wide. There is a long slot to slip the two halves of the tool apart and a total of seven grooves that guide the two halves when I apply force. The Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers are very rugged and the grooves are made to take a lot of force — I’ll use these things for almost any squeezing/clamping/twisting task, and a few other things that were never imagined by the manufacturer. A substantial bolt/nut holds the joint together and it has never given me a moment’s trouble with loosening.
The handles of the Craftsman 45386 are covered with a heavy blue plastic coating. Well, mine were blue before they became blackened from years of handling with greasy hands. The plastic is a little tattered in spots but is still mostly there, despite at least 15 years of ownership and use. With its sturdy metal handles and the plastic coating, the tool is comfortable to grip and squeeze.
The metal that extends from the plastic-coated handles is plated with nickel-chrome to prevent rust. Sure enough, my Craftsman 45386 pliers are not rusted, although the tool shows the scars from many battles with car parts and domestic repairs. These minor nicks mean nothing to the usefulness of the tool, which remains constant. This is a good, strong pair of arc-joint pliers that can handle the biggest nut-twisting and clamping chores.
I first bought my Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers when I needed to remove a recalcitrant oil filter from a car. None of the special oil filter wrenches would work and I even tried driving a screwdriver through the filter to give me a twist handle. Uh-uh… nothing worked. In desperation, I went to Sears and bought the biggest pair of arc-joint pliers I could find, the Craftsman 45386. (I don’t remember what I paid… probably around $12.)
Sure enough, with this monster gripper, I clamped hard on the oil filter and twisted that nasty thing off. It has been a favored oil filter removal tool ever since, although I usually try the more traditional methods first.
I hate plumbing and will do anything to procrastinate over projects that involve pipes and running water. But a couple of days ago, I could put off a toilet repair job no longer and yanked the tank off the toilet in the half-bath downstairs. I had to install one of those flapper/drain thingies in the bottom of the tank and this meant removing the existing flapper/drain thingy — which meant I needed something to twist off the 3.5-inch nut on the bottom of the tank. The Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers worked just fine and sped this less-than-exciting job along. The same tool tightened the new nut on the new flapper/drain thingy, too. But my dislike of plumbing still stands… one of the screws that holds the tank to the bowl was leaking after the job and I’m not sure that I’ve yet gotten it fixed. This lapse in my plumbing prowess had nothing to do with the Craftsman 45386 pliers, which was used on a part of the toilet that is not leaking. Yet.
(As an aside, this was the day that I did a load of laundry, took my wife to breakfast, repaired a toilet, replaced a light in the dashboard of one car and straightened the steering wheel in another, all by 2PM. I was feeling very handy that day and I don’t want to get any guff about my hapless plumbing skills!)
The Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers is a big, beefy tool that weighs quite a bit for a tool of this type. That’s okay because I’ve never come close to breaking it. If I did figure out a way to break the Craftsman 45386, it has a lifetime warranty and can be exchanged for a new one at any Sears store.
If you tackle more than an occasional project around the house, you will need a decent toolkit that includes a variety of pliers. Although the Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers are bigger than the usual pair of Channelocks, sometimes you need a jaw that opens this wide to twist off the really big stuff. I can’t say that everyone needs to run out and buy the Craftsman 45386 at 19 bucks a pop but Sears often puts sets of tools on sale and you might find a bargain that includes this big guy and a couple of his little brothers for $25 or so. Now that’s a deal, as smaller arc-joint pliers are very useful too. Save the big tool for automotive and heavy plumbing work and use the smaller tools for building a bicycle, installing a faucet and assembling a picnic table.
The Craftsman 45386 arc-joint pliers are a favored tool in my workshop and have proved themselves over many years of rough labor. If I needed a big pair of arc-joint pliers for another toolkit, I would go straight to Sears and get another Craftsman 45386. I recommend this tool highly.
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