I went through my old tools and found the worst pair of needle-nosed pliers that I had, put them in a small bench vise, and took a 1/2" triangle file and shaped the last 1/4" tip to a rounded shape. All of the material is removed from the back side of the tips.
My additional costs were $0 + 10 - 15 minutes time.
If you can break these, this tool isn't your problem.
I can take pictures if you need me to, let me know.
later,
Another possibility is haemostats (artery clamps). I can get those for next to nothing locally.
Ask at your local hospital.
The good (and frighteningly expensive) German ones are all made in Pakistan (but chromed in Germany) - just get the dirt cheap Pakistani ones as you don't need (or want) fancy chroming or quality control.
You should be able to find those for DX prices locally in anywhere in the world that has a population of people from Pakistan.
Oddly enough, the world's supply of surgical instruments is made in Pakistan. Mostly in the same places they make firearms.
$3.99 if you have a HF near you...
http://www.harborfreight.com/snap-ring-pliers-with-interchangeable-heads-3316.html
Cheers
Thanks for suggestions, again!
About pliers and hemostats: I don´t think they can reach the biggest retaining rings with such ease as those divider calipers.
For example, DRY has the holes 30mm apart in tis retaining ring.
I have some pliers but if I sharpen them, they must be opened fully to reach and then the angle towards holes is not good.
What are the chances of you posting an example photos?
Try a watch case opener - the one I have opens to about 65mm.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/professional-watch-case-opener-52314
or if you want to pay more for what appears to be the identical item.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/professional-watch-case-opener-52354
This will not work if the ring is recessed by much though. Watches can take considerable force to open so this will be plenty strong enough as long as the pins can actually get to the ring.
The Dry's retention ring is quite weak, you can unscrew it with the pressure of your fingers or some steel tweezers.
Or you can unscrew it with some retaining ring pliers that will open for 40mm, I have a pair that opens for 42mm and it fits the DRY very well.
Chances are good, I’ll take pics when it arrives. Should not take long from UK.
The eBay link is mentioned above.
Ok, some pics.
They arrive like this, heavy bubblewrapping all over.
Notice generous amount of (a bit dried up) grease.
They open up as wide as this, naturally they close down to zero.
Spring has nice tension. In this pic, I wiped them a bit with paper. I´m sure you can figure out dozens of solvents which to use not to make your hands dirty from greasing. Well, I left some to keep it from rusting, just paper wipes...
Opening (for a test) a Solarforce L2 2011 tailcap.
Notice, how the "shoulders" of the sharp points make contact to threads.
A bit iffy but got it open no problem.
These are long enough to offer god grip. I like the way they can be set up for just the right diameter.
The sharp points are here.
Red lines indicate, where I would use a little bit of sanding/grinding to make these even better.
These are 155mm in size BTW, these can be bought in various sizes.
Shipping was fast, for the price I would say these are recommended.
I buy the cheap $0.98 straight tweezers (I believe I got mine from Hank @ IntOut.) On one of them I grinded the points down about 1/4 of an inch (63.5mm for you metric folks) making them alot more ridgid. Now they're hard enough to pick gold & silver from a dead guy's cavity without bending them.
Here are my ring retainer pliers. Work very well with the DRY or other flashlights. However for Shadow flashlights they are too thick, so I use some stainless steel tweezers, which work just fine if you grind the tip down about 2-3mm. I have slightly grinder the tip thickness of the pliers too, but they worked just fine for my 4Sevens flashlights without any grinding.
WeiTu tweezers good or not good for the job? :)
in my next DD order i will include 1 or 2 pairs of tweezers. i dont possess many flashlights or challenging retaining rings, i guess.
rather challenging are rear springs in the bottom of the body (AAA lights).
Hey CheapThrills,
After seeing your pictures, I had to smile, I have an 8" set of calipers, (inside, outside, and dividers), hanging above my head in my basement woodworking area. I use the dividers so infrequently that I had forgotten them altogether 8-)
Good use of your tools!