Cable cutter, will any cutter do?

[midliferider]

I want to buy a cable cutter. I did a Google search on cable cutter, rather than looking at cycle shops.
I found that Scew Fix has a cable cutter for under £10 with good reviews.
The question is will any cable cutter do? Do I need cycle cable cutter?

 

[subaqua]

I want to buy a cable cutter. I did a Google search on cable cutter, rather than looking at cycle shops.
I found that Scew Fix has a cable cutter for under £10 with good reviews.
The question is will any cable cutter do? Do I need cycle cable cutter?

yes any cable cutter will do but depends on your technique.

i use a scrap bit of inner when i cut outer and a scrpa bit of outer when i cut inner. my knipex cutters which i use in work as part of my day job as a spark work fine.

buy a decent quality pair.

there are some who say you need bypass cutters and fancy cycle specific but thats bonkers

 

[Apollonius]

All you want is a clean cut. Even cheap cutters will achieve this a time or two before they are not man enough. Since decent ones are quite expensive (Cyclo are around £20, I think) it may well be cost effective to use cheap ones for a one-off job. Just do not have an uneven cut nor any stray strands. They will cause mysterious gear-changing problems that have you fiddling pointlessly with the adjustment all the time, before you work out what the problem is!

 

[Profpointy]

You need a good cable cutter -.key word to look for is "piano wire" in the description. £10 sounds a bit cheap, but may be OK. Good pliers and cutter brands are Lindstrom (the Rolls Royce of pliers - I lost an awsome pair of Lindstrom heavy duty cutters - no longer.made so irreplacable), Elliot Lucas, CK - and good brands for tools.generally Facom, Bahco, Gedore.and a.few.others.

I'd not get a bike brand tool for a generic tool like wire cutting, nor allen keys.etc

 

[slowmotion]

I 've got a pair of Draper Expert cutters that cost about £10, You can find them on Ebay and Amazon. They are excellent.

 

[midliferider]

This is what I saw at Screw Fix

http://www.ie.screwfix.com/forge-steel-cable-cutter-8-210mm.html

 

[bpsmith]

No excuse for not getting this deal:

http://www.tweekscycles.com/Product...&utm_medium=Discount+Code&utm_campaign=118327

 

[midlife]

No excuse for not getting this deal:

http://www.tweekscycles.com/Product...&utm_medium=Discount+Code&utm_campaign=118327

That's not a bad price. I use heavy duty Mauns cutters that a dental lab would use at 25-30 quid.

Shaun

 

[Deleted member 23692]

This is what I saw at Screw Fix

http://www.ie.screwfix.com/forge-steel-cable-cutter-8-210mm.html

I've got one of those and it's perfectly OK for cutting copper cable, but is useless on steel.

 

[gbb]

I cant see which ones you're looking at midlife....but if its the Forge Steel ones...id avoid.
We have a trade account with Screwfix and we've never hqd anything Forge Steel manufactured that was any good...in fact, its bloody awful stuff.
While I cant speak for the functionality of the Irwin ones which are £11 odd iirc, they will be far far better. I have some of their side cutters and they're fine.

 

[midlife]

I cant see which ones you're looking at midlife....but if its the Forge Steel ones...id avoid.
We have a trade account with Screwfix and we've never hqd anything Forge Steel manufactured that was any good...in fact, its bloody awful stuff.
While I cant speak for the functionality of the Irwin ones which are £11 odd iirc, they will be far far better. I have some of their side cutters and they're fine.

I was commenting on the Park Tools pro cutters at Tweeks.

Shaun

Sorry, just noticed the OP is a midlife too lol

 

[slowmotion]

Whichever model you get, reserve them for bike cables only. The cutting edges are extremely sharp and will blunt/chip if you abuse them by trying to cut stuff that is larger than they are designed for.

 

[midliferider]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
With my extremely limited knowledge and experience of using any kind of tools, I will stick to a tool where it says cycle cable. I am now attending a bike maintenance course. This has really highlighted my lack of basic skills in using tools.
Park tool cutter sounds like a good one for that price.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I use a pair of pliers, stick the cable twixt the little sharp cutting edges and then whack the plier jaws sharply with a hammer. Beautiful clean cut every time and cost nowt as I had the tools anyway.

 

[Milkfloat]

+1 on the draper experts. If you do a search you will find plenty of people here that are more than happy with them.