Turn Your KAM Snap Pliers into a Press

Leila, the author of GrowYourOwnClothes.com, mounted her pliers to some scrap wood so that it would function more like a table-top KAM press.  She has tendonitis and the pliers were painful on her hands. This was her ingenuous solution.

"I have problems with tendonitis, and it turns out that using these pliers is really painful for me, even for just a few snaps. Since it doesn’t make sense for me to buy an expensive snap press for home use, I adapted the pliers to be used like a press. I cut up some scrap pieces of wood, then wedged in and strapped the pliers down onto a base. It’s not pretty, but it works really well. I just have to press down on the handle, which is a lot less effort than squeezing pliers."

This is also a nice alternative if you can't afford or don't want to invest in a table-top press.