International VG6000BK ViperGrip 6-Inch 2-in-1 Self-Adjusting and Locking Pliers

This tool may have flaws and/or weaknesses, time will tell. I've only been using it for a couple of months but it works so well that I can find no valid reason to give it less than 5 stars. It does what it does better than any other locking pliers that I know of.Vise Grips in all their various forms were a great inovation and still are an essential tool. But my God they're inconvenient to use. Mostly because you need to be constantly resetting the pressure. Heaven forbid you're having to regrip bevelled pieces.For several years now my go to locking pliers has been the Lockjaw brand(looks a lot like a Vice Grip). Great tool. Set the pressure once and forget it until you want a different pressure. Pressure is independent of thickness of the items clamped. However, the set screw is counter intuitive and fully opened the handles go all the way to 90° making one handed operation next to impossible in certain situations. In this handle aspect, Vise Grips really aren't much better.ViperGrip is a complete redesign and a great improvement. I love them. True one handed operation is possible because with the jaws wide open the grip is natural and comfortable. Plus the jaws are spring loaded to open automatically.The regular pliers function was not a selling point for me but as I've used it I'm coming to really like the tool as a pliers and am beginning to think that it's actually a better pliers than your standard pliers. But rather than going with just carrying one tool I'm going to carry two ViperGrips the other being the needle nose variation.Ah criticisms, . . . maybe.The size may not be adequate for larger jobs. Perhaps but, in many cases you can do a one handed lay up with ViperGrips and then apply heavy Vice Grips or other clamping to finish securing the job. Still in many cases easier than trying to set things up with Vise Grips.They're quirky, you have to learn how to use them. Yeah but if there's another tool out there that even more easily does what these do let me know, please. I'll gladly fault these and take away a star or two. But really, . . . it's not that hard. Just play with them. Minimize the clamping pressure and just play. Pay attention to what they feel like as you operate them. The whole process should be smooth and not forced. If not back off and retry. It pretty quickly becomes second nature. At that point your new tool has become an extension of you. What a good tool should be.The one problem I have had, and it's only happened twice, is the return spring on the release latch has slid out of place and jammed between the release lever and frame. There looks to be a little too much gap there. It may just be this pliers but I still see it as a slight design flaw that such would even be possible. If it happens again I will try making an adjustment with a vise or hammer or maybe something more reasonable.If this problem happened more frequently or, particularly if it happens with others I might be tempted to deduct a half star.Barring a major failure I will continue to hope that this tool sells well. You never know it might inspire an even better design.

True to the description, the self-adjusting grip really works and is very useful for hopping between different size nuts quickly. The parallel grip is especially useful for clamping flat surfaces, while the angled inner jaws will still work on bolts.Once you remember that the initial grip must be done at the forward (ie 2nd n 3rd fingers), it will automatically lock in place. It takes some time to figure or even remember but once you do, it's really intuitive.However, the spring that holds the unlocking/switching lever unlatched after a few use, I cant get the spring to latch back at all.The plier still works but the lever is now free swinging and cannot engage the non-locking mode anymore, but otherwise the locking mode still works ok.Lastly, the metal seems a bit soft compare to the normal visegrips, but it doesn't affect the grip.-1 star for the spring that unlatched so easily, doesn't affect the locking function but with the lever hanging freely is annoying.Despite this, I intend to get another one for the self-adjusting and parallel grip. The parallel grip is something that the straight jaws visegrips is poor at, simply due to the pivot point of such pliers.Update: I managed to latch back the spring, but it still come off easily. Though can be latch back fairly easy, still annoying.

the concept is great but it just doesn't work when i need it. every time i have tried to use this to loosen a bolt, it cinches down like it is supposed to, but when i apply pressure to turn it, the mouth loosens up and doesn't keep grip on the bolts. this is a good tool if you are trying to strip the corners off your bolts. junk!!!

In theory, and in a perfectly-controlled situation, these work well. But in practical use, where you cannot precisely center the work-piece or engage it exactly perpendicular to the jaws, it is often very difficult to get then to engage properly. Either the jaws catch on something and lock prematurely, or they slip very slightly when they are supposed to lock, and wind up not locking at all. I've encountered the same frustration with the similar Sears/Craftsman products, so in my experience this problem is not unique to Viper Grip.

Piss poor quality, some of the laminated pieces are missing their serrations. Good idea but rushed and ultimately will be returning this pos

Any one that is giving this tool a bad review is not using this correctly. It has become the go to tool in my arsenal.there are a few tips to get to using this well...1) there is a small round knurled knob on the tool, this set the pressure at which the jaws clamp down - if this is set to "light" even the slightest pressure on the moving jaw will lock the jaws.2) the lower (skinnier of the two) handle has a tongue on it, if the tongue is out the jaws can cam on and lock, if the tongue is set in the jaws will not lock3) the top (non moving) jaw should be placed on the work piece and then the lower jaw brought up to tighten and lockI love this tool. for 9.99 you cannot go wrong. I have ordered multiples and give them out as birthday and christmas gifts.

Solid tool, works good. Although it looks different, it functions and works the same as a standard locking vise grip. It's just more light weight, cooler looking, and less expensive. It also seems to feel better in my hand than a typical vise grip, although that's probably just a matter of preference.So far it seems just as heavy duty as your normal vise grip. Time will tell.