There is a distinct difference between c-clips(circlips) and snap rings. Although many times they’re all called one and the same, incorrectly.
C-clip pliers won’t work as they have a flat surface to push on a c-clip, no pin or point to insert in a snap rings holes/slots.
As an engine builder, I have many sets of both snap ring pliers and c-clip(circlip) pliers.
Snap rings have holes in them and can be inner or outer types. Cir-clips are c-clips with no hole and most commonly are inner type retainers, such as on piston pin holes. What I’m getting at is many people call all of them the same names, but not all tools work on all retainer type rings. Some ring pliers open the ring, some close it, some rings have holes some don’t. Some are just round spring wire, some are flat spring type metal with holes. So be sure to look at the tool and get the one you need/want.
I can use any of probably a dozen ring pliers I own, but after many attempts at trying to find/use one that works the best, I now use a small pair of pointy tweezers stretched out to the correct diameter as needed.
Reason being, no need to have a big heavy duty tool that must be held opened/closed to the right size and clumsy too use on delicate lights retainer rings.
Tweezers works fine. I’ve been meaning to take my tweezers out to my shops grinding wheel and flatten out the pointy tip a little and round out the sides a little, but haven’t yet as they seem to work fine so far on all the limited amount of flashlights I’ve worked on so far. Have slipped a little and scratched a ring or 2, so will end up modifying them a little to get rid of the sharpness and make them more blunt.
Snap rings of similar diameter and hole size (to our flashlite rings) usually use medium to big pliers to be able to force against the heavy spring torque of this size clip.
This torque capability is not needed for us at all, since our driver/star board/pill retainer rings, are only tightened to ‘nice and snug’ no real torque is needed over what a small pair of properly held tweezers can handle.
IMO anything more then tweezers is overkill, and much easier to slip and damage an led. Much easier to control a light pair of small tweezers that weigh in at ounces, then a pair of pliers that weight in at lbs…
So imo, don’t waste your money on snap ring pliers that are more difficult to use for our purposes when your wife’s tweezers will work fine. Just make sure to wipe off any flux that might get on them before wife starts pulling eyebrows with them…
jmo
