I have been a mechanic for 50+ years and this is the first time I have ever seen such a vice grip with that in the bolt.

That's actually a somewhat recent feature on Vice Grips locking pliers. I have plenty of old Vice Grip (10+ years) and some knock-off locking pliers and none of them have the hex socket in the adjusting screw.

I am 74, handy with tools, and do a lot around the house. You just taught me something I did not know. Thank you!

I did not know this because none of my genuine Vise Grips have that hex feature. TRUE STORY...I'm a retired dentist. Over my 35+ years in practice I saw quite a few "DIY dentists". You know, the ones too cheap to pay a pro so they try to do it themselves. What I'm talking about is removing their own teeth! They ALWAYS use those huge Vise Grips and put them on their tooth. Then they snap the handles together............and crush their tooth AND THE NERVE!!!!! Intense pain immediately follows. Like many mechanics, I charged them a "DIY & you effed it up" surcharge on top of my normal removal fee. NEVER take your own tooth out. AND NEVER TRY IT WITH VISE GRIPS!!!!!!!

I believe the allen keyhole was meant to release the pressure when you are ready to remove the tool. The problem is not being able to tighten the pliers tight enough but opening them back up without the pliers flying off, busting your hands up or not even being able to open them back up because you got monster strenth to lock em in but not to release them. Im just saying though.

I'm a 72 year old retired mechanic. I just learned something new. -----I just went out to my garage and looked at my 50 year old vise grips and they don't have that. What a nice addition to an already indispensable tool. They probably added that 20 years ago. Good to see something new.

Amazingly enough, I just checked all ten sets of vise grips (curved jaw, flat jaw, body jaw, and needle nose) and none of them had the hex inset. Then I looked in my other tool bag and found the very newest Vise Grip, a 7" curved jaw I bought 5 years ago, and finally found one set which had this. It's a great idea. Too bad it wasn't universally used. My favorite is the 6" needle nosed pair. I keep one in my BOB. (Disclaimer: OK, a couple are HFT, and 1 is a 50 year old galvanized flat jaw, not VG.)

Thanks. Something I didn't know that was shown to me in a way that didn't make me feel stupid. Had my dad or any of my friends(if they themselves knew)shown me it would have definitely been one of those "Come sit under the learning tree." experiences. More stuff like this if u have the time please. Thank u again.

A gripping story ! Unfortunately, like many others, mine are so old they don't have this (useful) feature. I usually tighten to get a first grip and then maybe one more turn after that. Don't use them often but they are needed when they are needed. Years ago I bought a pair with a large flat dual surface for sheet metal bending. Those work great to hold small pieces for filing or cutting , etc. when no vice is handy.

I’ve always said if you’re not careful, you can learn something new every day. I am 60 years old and I’ve been crushing my hands for years trying to get the right tightness on these things. Thank you very much. !!

Great video. I recently upgraded my tools to decent ones and got the Malco Eagle Grips, one of the best tools in my box by far, and it has a 6mm hex recess on the adjusting bolt. My newer Craftsman vise grips have a 5mm recess. This really changes how I use these tools, thanks. For those that don't have a hex recess, a set of pliers can tighten the nut. Never really thought about doing that, either, until this video, crazy how we get into a habit and never get out of it.

Great video! Been working as a backyard mechanic for close to 50 years and did not know this. Thanks for sharing.

If yours doesn't have the hex key hole you can always use another set of vise grips on the knob.

That looks like a great way to strip the threads of the tightening bolt! I always #1 clamp #2 tighten #3 unclamp #4 tighten ½ turn #5 clamp. Always perfect!

I've been using that tool for years and I've never ever ever seen that... 👌 U the man. Learn something new today thank you.

Vice grips, like standard pliers, have 2 types of jaws. The inside serrated surface is either flat or curved (concave). The curved jaws are for gripping rounded surfaces. When you want to get a better grip on flat pieces like in this video, you should be using the flat serrated surface jaws.

I spent years as a pipefitter working in shipyards around the Puget Sound. I remember seeing vise grips that people had welded a washer, standing upright on end, onto the tightening nut and this made it more like a wingnut. It made it easier for turning the tighten/loosen nut.

The Alan wrench thing is new. I have lots of old Irwin Vice Grips that do not have it. Still able to always get them tight enough that they don't slip and are not easily taken off. Used them in my Dad's steel fabrication shop.

I was gripped with anticipation. It was worth the wait. Thanks!

That is the first time I have ever heard about that. I am going to use your information the next time I using vise grips. Thank you very much it was very useful.

I have been using vice grips all my life and in many configurations. If not used properly they will hurt you. This is an excellent video showing how not to use V Grips. If one grip is not holding strong enough.....use two.

I'm from the UK, I started using the UK-made 'Mole grips' in the 1970s but soon discovered that the original Petersen Vise-Grips made in USA were much better. I used to buy myself a new pair every few years and continued buying them after Unwin took over the brand. However, about 10 years ago I noticed that the quality suddenly went down - they just didn't feel the same or operate quite so precisely, I believe this was when production was outsourced to China. The 'Chinese' ones can be identified easily because the release-lever pivot pin which is flush in the original pliers has a protruding head in the later ones. Bad move Irwin! I've never bought a new pair since, but when I'm visiting the USA I search around yard sales and secondhand shops and usually find a pair or two of the original ones to bring home with me.

Thanks Bud. I admit I didn't know about that and the truth is I was using it exactly the way you figured most people would use it and I've always struggled with that. Thanks very much!!!!!!!

Awesome info. I find myself with an urge at the moment to go and look at all of mine on the pegboard in the garage right now. Thanks for sharing!

I've used "Vice Grips" for over 50 years. I never knew about the Allen wrench tightening technique. Thank you very much!

I started collecting top value stamps from floor sweepings in a grocery store where I used to clean as a kid. After about a year I had enough stamp books to go to the redemption store. That got me a small and a large “brand name” vice grip plier set. No hex in the end on these, but I use those things all the time bending metal, extracting screws and nails, you name it. Very versatile tools.

Brilliant! No, had no clue but got 3 of these things and used tu use them like you showed (before you showed how to really use them). Thanks mate!

I didn't know about that, like you I took Autobody in high school. Keep these videos Rolling. NICE. Watching from Calgary, Canada

Not only I've never had a pair of vice grip with that allen imprint, but I can also guarantee I've gotten vise grips tighter than you did in the video, because if it's not at least a little bit of a pain to release, it wasn't tight. Also such a small allen would probably strip before you get it as tight as you can with just the regular method. Also you don't just guess and check to adjust them. Get the plier on the piece your working on, start to close the vice grips until right before it starts engaging, turn the knob until you feel it's close or even slightly pushing them closed and then you good, no back and forth.

I got my very first genuine Vise-Grip pliers back in 1962 as a kid, that one did not have the allen-type screw there. I still have, and use it. I did "lose" it twice, once gripped on a VW clutch cable on one of our rental VWs in 1974, and once underneath my own vehicle where it was clamped on a bolt head. Each time, I found it by chance about a month later. By the way: I absolutely love Vise-Grips 12LC.

its more then 18 years i use this tool now i have come to know how to use it thank you so much

I used to use them when building tower lines. To pinch and clamp the steel, after lining up the bolt holes with a drift pin. It wasn't an always thing. It was just another handy method to include in the skills of tower construction.

As a Vietnam vet aircraft mechanic, I was issued my first toolkit with all the goodies needed to keep our aircraft flying. Including a good-for-all-purpose, (no grippy feature tho) vice grip.

Mine are also too old for this great feature. However, many years ago I replaced the knurled bolt with an eye bolt. Does double duty: Let's me hang 'em up by the handle easily AND if I need to tighten (as you did) I can just grab a screwdriver, slip it through the eye and crank on it like a vise. Yes... I did that. Vise. thanks for your content!

Great piece of practical knowledge. Great stuff!!!

63 here, thought I knew it all... apparently not! Thanks for this- THIS is terrific teaching!

I have to check mine. As someone else wrote, the newer tools have that neat feature. Excellent post, Clint!

If the pliers don't have a hex key in it, you can always use another vise grip pliers to tighten. Or replace the knob with a hex head bolt so you can use a wrench.

Handy tip, I’ve used vice grips for decades and didn’t know that . Thank you 🙏

Thank you for keeping this video short and getting directly to the point. So often guys turn these into 15 minute videos that are mainly just a stupid waste of time.

It’s the one tool that can fix the damage you did with all the other tools. Need to pull a nail with a mangled head? No problem! Need to extract a broken bolt? No problem! And if all else fails you’ll already have something in your hand to throw across the garage.

Mine ain’t new & fancy like yours so I have to adjust mine the old fashioned way. Thanks for educating the ones who didn’t know. Keep’m coming

A really good and practical trick. Thanks

I never knew this about vice grips. Thank you for teaching me a new trick!

😊The first locking pliers, with the trade name Vise-Grip, were invented by William S. Petersen in De Witt, Nebraska, United States in 1924. Later, in 1955, in the United Kingdom, M K Mole and Son, a hand tool manufacturing company, under the managing direction of Thomas Coughtrie, began making nearly identical pliers. From Wikipedia.

I was so fascinated, that I checked my vice grips. Sadly, there is no hex insert. They are decades old. Now, you have gone and made me try to find a replacement screw for this tool.

I have one , but I thought it was to remove nuts. Now I know it is for gripping plates. Thank you for this wonderful information.

I will put this to great use; im posotive the goodies we have laying in our garage have this and I was just never aware. Not sure in high school but these last 7 years in manufacturing this place has only had old or cheap so again I never knew this existed. Learn something new every day💡

When I was in HS way back when many of the kids wondered why our auto shop teacher had welded 9/16" nuts onto the vise grips. They all thought it was because the knurling was worn out. He never spoke up unless you specifically asked him face to face. The day I saw this is a day I'll never forget.

My Dad was a pilot and aircraft mechanic in the western arctic, back in 1956 he was using a pair of Vice Grips to open a barrel of Avgas to refuel a floatplane, a passenger boarding the plane said " Oh you use these on planes too! " the man was the son of William Peterson, Vice Gripe inventor & founder of Peterson Manufacturing of Nebraska, he was in Yellowknife on a fishing trip. Dad would always carry a small Vice Gripe with him, in the bush he would frequently need them!

I've been a mechanic for 40 years of my life and I never saw that done that is really cool thanks for the tip

Been doing mechanic work at 28 yrs and never saw a vice grip with an Allan key slot lol. But we learn something everyday...thanks for the video

I have used that tool for several years and never knew about the hexagonal tightening part. Thank you for an excellent tip.

I don't think my vise grips have that feature but I am going to be sure to check it out. 😮

Cool chit main!!! Been wrenchin since 1972 ish....73 for soitin....did not knowify that smidge. THANX!!

You're right, I did not know...mainly because I used cheap knock-offs all my life, which did not have that feature before stepping up and buying a complete double set of true Vice Grips. Thanks for the education.

I do a lot of work on a linishing machine grinding plate steel. Far and away my best 'vice grip' pliers for the job have flat jaws, one of which swivels, so that they can be parallel even at 1" grip, and because of the contact area, they hold exceptionally well. Beats me why they are not more readily available.

I'll be 50yrs old this year. I had absolutely NO idea about this hack! Awesome!

Mine doesn't have this feature but this gripping video gave has given me the idea to use vice grips to turn the knob.👏👏👏👊

I too have a drawer full of vice grips from the 60's on up. It has been my experience that this feature first appeared when Irwin went Chinese (after they were acquired by Newell-Rubermaid.) Non of my Petersen, Irwin US made have grips it. The domestic models have a roll pin that attaches the release lever, when you see a rivet, it's Chinese. The good news is, the Chinese ones seem to be of very good quality as well.

Hi, thanks, been using these for 55 years and I didn't know you could tighten them after you had used the cam type lever! Dashing out to my garage to try it now.

You taught me something, I had no idea... kudos to you my brutha!!!

You taught me something today. Thank you!

Just been out to my garage/workshop where I have three vice grips (British spelling) hanging up. They vary in age from being handed down from that great boat builder Noah to a pair that are a couple of years old. None of them has the hex bolt. The pliers are more commonly known as Mole Grips here, after M K Mole and Son a hand tool manufacturing company that made them here in 1955.

Bought a smaller pair of vise grips a couple of years ago. Sure enough, it has this feature. I never knew about this until today. Vise grip brand. Thanks for the video.

I inherited a vice grip that my father stole from the quartermaster's supply closet early in his army career that had a hex nut for the knob instead of a burled knob. I think it was 1/4" so you could use an open ended wrench or a socket wrench or even a pneumatic wrench to really get it tight. But then I was always taught to use a clamp when you needed a clamp and the vice grip was for situations where you needed to keep a bolt from rotating while using a wrench on the other end to loosen or tighten a nut with a pair of pliers or another wrench. I was told by my eighth grade shop teacher it was for when you needed two hands to work opposing torque.

The Milwaukee have that sweet sweet knob you can put a screwdriver in or easy purchase with pliers I saw on realworldtools the HF ones take the 1/4” sq drive so can put a ratchet on it.

I believe Vise Grip is a brand name of a company that makes many tools and not just "locking pliers", much like Cresents adjustable open end wrench

Thanks bro. Did not know about that. Great technique to tighten using the Allan wrench or impacter drill 👍🏼

Thank you. I am not a tool savvy guy and this was great info.

This was one of my Daddy’s tests! The man was a genius & brought life lessons into EVERYTHING we did: we couldn’t get: our allowance without memorizing which presidents were on which bill, a car until we could change a tire, etc. I don’t recall what the task was with this tool; but the test served me perfectly when I was in the Fire Academy. Thanks for sharing this with the world!

Non of my vice grips have that feature, just the knurled knob. I did purchase all of them in the 70s. I bought a new pair of small ones recently and saw that. I wondered when they started that I always wanted a hex bolt on the back. I have used vice grips to tighten vice grips a few times. I knew some guys that put a hex bolt in place. Good times. Milwaukee has a nice version.

I'm just getting used to tools now that I am on my own. I have a pair of vise grips and did not know this. Thanks for sharing.

Have to be honest, used them for decades and did not know this, always had the painful grip and difficult spring release, thanks for sharing 😎😎😎

I believe that you can damage them by doing that and that Malco recommends not tightening that screw excessively,it is mostly for release purpose that the hex drive hole in the screw (on newer Vice Grips and Eagle Grips) is provided although the Malco is probably more resistant to damage to the threaded area where the screw passes in that it has an extra ring of metal surrounding the crimped area through which the screw threads pass

That's a good idea , the ones I have are old and don't have that allen wrench feature , the one this fella used seemed awfully shiny and clean , almost like it was brand new

I was unaware! You taught me something useful, thank you very much!

Wow! I never knew this. Thank you for sharing and informing many of us!

Never seen that on any of my8-10 pairs of vice grips but never looked either. I thought you we're going to show everyone that they are directional like channel locks and adjustable wrenches. On a fastener, they grip way better if you turn toward the movable jaw.

We use a lot of chain vise in the movie industry and I find this very helpful.

I've always been frustrated by vice grips, mainly because I knew there was something I wasn't understanding about how they should work. Great video.

For over 50 years I have been using vis-grips... but I have never noticed that feature! ( some cheap ones don't have it! ). Thank you for the tip. Now for the next 10-20 I may have left... I'll know !

To be clear, "Vice-Grip" is a brand name of what are otherwise known as locking pliers. I currently only have 4 sets of locking pliers, but only one of them is the Vice-Grip brand, and the other 3 do not have the 5mm Hex on the end. One of the sets is Craftsman brand from the 1970s, and, fun fact, they're the only set that I haven't had to replace due to bending or breaking at some point. And the tips of the jaws are so sharp and precise I can use them to remove hammered-down, and/or rusted carpet staples from hardwood floors when nothing else can even grab onto them. They're as precise as a set of surgical tweezers. The knurling around the end of the bolt allows for pliers to be used to tighten other brands. Any more force than that and you risk damaging the screw mechanism, or stressing the metal over time and risking failure when you least expect it, which can lead to damaging whatever you're working on, or worse, injuring yourself.

I’ve never used the try it and readjust until it works method. I make the grips over-tight and then while squeezing, loosen until i can take a grip. This allen-wrench this is a good idea, thanks.

Thanks for this. It was right in front of my all these years.

I have 3 brands in my tools box, Craftsman, Kobalt, and old Vice Grip and none have that Allen head. I guess one could buy the right size Allen head grade eight cap screws and modify the end that fits in the tool to match the adjuster you'd remove. The cap head could be knurled if you wanted.

Nope! Didn't know that. I knew the first tactic, but that was it. Thank you, Clint. Peace and God be with you! 1😎🎸👍

I just learn something new today. Thank you so much. 😊

I didn’t know about that method, very handy to know, thanks, Dave, Liverpool UK.

Well you earned a subscription with this tip. The same day I saw this video I needed this technique to grip down on a socket to bust loose a frozen bolt in super tight quarters. Thanks man!

The problem with newer vice grips is that the thread is way too course ! I have an older pair of German made VG's that I was given by a retired auto mechanic, with a fine thread that works so much better.

Thank you for using the right name spelling. It's amazing how many people think they're "vice" grips. Didn't anyone watch Dragnet, etc? Vice is gambling, etc.

Been using them for a long time, genuine Vise Grips, not knock offs. I have multiple types big, small, needlenose, etc. For a second you had me saying "wow, can't believe I missed that" , then I checked and none of them have a socket for an Allen wrench.

Some cheaper grips don't have that feature. Another thing I see a lot is when ppl try to pull them apart and don't realize all you have to do is squeeze the little lever and then pull apart and it makes it so much easier exactly like he did in this video

Ive owned several pair of vice grips over the years and I have never had an allen key hole on the bottom of the adjusting knob. I always just cranked them down with channel locks LOL

the phillister head was added by Snap-On about 5 yrs ago. we used to use a box end to torque them further before they added the philister head.

75 yo and I never knew this. And I have used them in a professional and DIY capacity for YEARS. I am going to make sure my sons know this. Thank you.

unfortunately I've never made use of that feature despite noticing it because the handful of times I've actually needed that tight of a grip from them I also couldn't afford to actually tighten them that hard because they'd make surface blemishes in the part I was making.

Great intel. Must admit, I had no idea. Thx again.

I didn’t know about this feature. Good information, thank you.