Running pliers come in many different brands and types. Some are plastic and some metal. My preference is metal, with plastic or rubber coated jaws. Over the last 28 years, I've only had two pair of them, both metal. They hold up well and last almost forever if taken care of.
How To Set the Opening of the Jaws
Good metal pliers have a screw on top. This screw is for setting the jaw opening to the proper width, so that the pliers do their job, but don't crush the glass. There are two ways to set the screw. Both ways will get you exactly the same setting.
Method number one:
Loosen the screw until the jaws just slip over the glass while you are holding the handles closed. The jaws need to be touching the glass snugly, but should slip on and off without having to open the handles. Now take the pliers off the glass and tighten the screw one full turn.
Method number two:
Open the jaws and place the pliers on the glass. Tighten the screw until the end of it touches the other handle. You will have to hold the pliers up, so you can see the end of the screw, while doing this. Take the pliers off the glass and tighten the screw 1/4 turn.
With both of these methods, once the screw is set, it should be okay for most glass, unless the glass is extremely thick or extremely thin. In other words, you won't need to set the screw every time you use your running pliers.
Here is a 7 minute video showing how to use your running pliers:
Your pliers should always be used with the screw facing up towards the ceiling.
There should be a black line in the center of the top jaw, on the end that touches the glass. If there isn't a line, draw one!
If it is a long score, after squeezing and hearing a click,
go to the other end of the glass, and repeat the gentle squeeze
until you hear the click. Go back to the first end and squeeze
once again. At this point, the score should separate.
Occasionally you'll have to repeat this process a couple of times, but
usually the glass will separate easily with your first or second squeeze.
Just remember to squeeze gently. Don't "manhandle" the running pliers.
Don't limit your pliers to just the straight lines. They work amazingly well for almost every score you could possibly make. Here is an example of running the score on
a deep semi circle.
Once the score is completely run, hold the glass just like
I described for Running the Score With Your Hands.
Wiggle the semi circle and the piece surrounding it
until they separate.
Practice with your running pliers. They will run small pieces, large pieces, curves, straight lines and just about everything in between. Use some cheap glass, or better yet, double strength window glass. Try various cuts, see what happens when you do this or that. Get comfortable using your pliers. I'm sure you will find that they make cutting glass a lot easier.
If you have questions or comments about running pliers, please feel free to
Contact me
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