Knipex 32 31 135 Relay Adjusting Pliers: A Specialist Tool for Delicate Electronics Work

Introduction

Some pliers exist to grip hard and pull hard. Others exist to do the opposite. The Knipex 32 31 135 sits firmly in the second camp: a relay adjusting plier with silky smooth jaws, designed to bend, straighten, and reshape delicate soft metal parts without marring them.

If you have ever snapped a battery tab, scuffed a contact with aggressive needle-nose pliers, or stuffed tin foil into a radio to fake a good connection, this tool was made with you in mind.

What the Knipex 32 31 135 Actually Is

The model number tells you the basics: the pliers are 135 mm (5 1/4 inches) long, with a long-nose flat tip set at a 40-degree bend. Knipex also offers this design in a straight-tip version, but the bent tip is the variant that tends to earn its keep, because it changes your angle of attack inside tight enclosures.

The defining trait is the jaw surface. Unlike most needle-nose pliers, which have aggressive serrated teeth, these jaws are completely smooth. That is the whole point: anything you grip or bend leaves the jaws exactly as it went in.

What They Are NOT For

One thing worth stating up front: despite the name, these are not fuse pullers. Because the jaws are smooth, fuses simply slide right out. You would have to crush a fuse to hold it, and you would be far better served by the cheap plastic fuse tool that came with your kit.

Relay adjusting pliers are about precision bending, not gripping power. Knowing that distinction up front saves you the disappointment of buying them for the wrong job.

Where These Pliers Shine

The natural use case is soft metal inside electronics. Contacts and battery tabs are often made of thin aluminum or copper, and they bend down or out of alignment easily. Attack them with serrated needle-nose pliers and you will typically scuff, score, or put a secondary kink into the metal, and with material that frail, tabs can simply snap off.

The smooth jaws let you slide in, grab the tab, and make a gentle, precise adjustment. You can straighten a bent contact from a different angle, re-align a battery tab so it actually makes contact, or even fabricate a new bend from scratch.

That last use is more common than you might think. Instead of jamming tin foil into a battery compartment to compensate for a worn contact, a slight bend with these pliers restores the connection properly.

Everyday Uses You Might Not Expect

You do not need to be a jeweler or an electronics technician to justify owning these. Sometimes you simply need to bend something with a good, clean radius, and a smooth flat tip is the right tool for that.

They are also part of a broader family of smooth-tipped pliers that Knipex makes alongside its more aggressive gripping designs. Similar relay adjusting pliers exist from a small number of other makers, with slightly different tip variations, but Knipex offers several models in this category, and the 32 31 135 is the bent-tip entry.

Ergonomics and Approach

Working with these pliers changes how you approach a repair. Rather than gripping them like a standard pair of pliers, the bent tip encourages a lower, more controlled hold, working your way in slowly while watching the contact point. It is closer to surgical technique than brute force: get your sight line, ease the tip in, and manipulate the metal gently.

That mindset shift is part of the appeal. The tool extends what your hand can do in spaces and at angles where ordinary pliers simply cannot reach without causing damage.

Buying Advice

Be honest with yourself about whether you need this. If you have made it this far using picks, pry bars, and generic pliers for bent contacts, a relay adjusting plier is not a necessity, it is a refinement. It earns its drawer space the same way most specialty Knipex tools do: by doing what nothing else in the drawer can, and then revealing more uses the longer you own it.

If you regularly work on electronics, radios, or anything with fragile soft-metal tabs and contacts, the bent-tip version is the more versatile choice, since the 40-degree angle helps you reach bends that sit inside or behind other components.

Conclusion

The Knipex 32 31 135 is a narrow tool with a clear identity: smooth jaws, a 40-degree bent long nose, and one job done exceptionally well. It will not pull fuses and it will not replace your needle-nose pliers. But for gently straightening and reshaping delicate soft metal contacts, it does work that other pliers would ruin. If that job shows up in your workbench life even occasionally, this is a tool worth knowing exists.