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Friday, April 01, 2016
WRENCHit - Turning Smart by mininch
Kickstarter: WRENCHit is a portable and multi-functional spanner, but the one that's totally different from every other project you’d ever seen before. Inherit the joyful experience of using Tool Pens, WRENCHit employs similar “Pop-A-Point” design that lets you select and interchange the wrenches with different sizes and shapes while cycling through. With a tough yet pocket-friendly wrench channel (sleeve), it allows you to slide the wrenches in and out very smoothly, and the sleeve will also offer a sturdy arm for applying torque to turn objects.
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7 comments:
This wrench looks like it would be useful… but not int eh situations they showed in the video. it is pretty neat that you can get all those options of wrench sizes in one small tool, but I honestly can only think of very few times when a wrench would be the thing to solve my problem- usually a screwdriver would be more useful. However, with their $108,300 raised of only $10,000 and 18 days left, it looks like enough people think it is a good idea that we will see it in the future. I wonder how well the sliding action works, they kept showing it, but all I can think of is how annoying it would be if the one I wanted was two from the top and I had to cycle through almost all of them. If this tool ends up being relatively cheap, I could see myself buying it just so I wouldn't have to dig through my tool bag to find the right size socket, and for the really small nut sizes that you sometimes see.
As with all multi tools this looks like it is really good at what it is designed to do, be a wrench you carry around with you everywhere you go. It is not designed to replace wrenches in a shop, it is not marketed or designed for that field. Its goal is to be an Every-Day-Carry item, and as we discussed in ScenoFab, and EDC is not necessarily the tools you would use in a shop. My thought is why are there different attachments instead of an adjustable wrench? Well, there is no design for a flat/pocket-able adjustable wrench (according to a quick google search). I do not know how you could make it work, but I believe it can be done, I have some ideas… I can also see it being kind of a pain if you want to use the bit in the middle of the handle because you have to remove and replace all the bits until you get there. In addition I can not think of any time when I have not been in a shop when I have thought “hmm, it’d be really nice to have an adjustable wrench right now.”
I think this is a cool idea but I don’t see much use for it in my life. The majority of the times I need a wrench its for something related to lighting or carpentry and this doesn’t seem to have the attachments for use in those situations. Now to be fair that’s not what they seem to be marketing it for but even just looking at the uses they’re advertising I’m hesitant about the usefulness of this in my life. The thing it seemed to be the best for was repairing bicycles and if I spent a lot of time riding bikes I’d probably look into this more. But as things stand now, it feels more like a pretty thing that wouldn’t get much use due to a lack of applicable heads and the way you switch the heads which, to me, seems like a poorly designed system. Personally I would like to be able to adjust the size of my wrench with one hand and not have to worry about dropping little pieces.
This seems like a cool idea for a tool that you keep in your house and use a few times a year when you need a thin box wrench, or something you keep in your glove box in case of small emergencies, but I definitely would predict that I would break that tool a soon as I tried to use it for something that I usually use a wrench for. Not only that, but I’d likely lose the different heads for the sizes that I’d need the most, and that would really suck. I don’t mean to bash this tool, because clearly it is not marketed toward us or toward what we do, but nearly nothing is, and when you see a multitool that comes out that you really wouldn’t want to have to use even if you didn’t have any other tool to do the job, than you know you probably shouldn’t buy it.
I have honestly never read so far into a kickstarter campaign and I am so glad this is the one that ended up on the greenpage. There is so much quality and hard work put into the design of this multipurpose tool, and the price is so accommodating. I don’t see this tool being used in our typical theatrical setting just yet, but I imagine it taking the same course that Leatherman took in our everyday work, not quite the tool you need at times, but still useful to be able to whip out in an instant. From looking at the target examples (bikes, basic home repair, etc.) it’s clear to see that this WRENCHit is made for domestic and sport use and not a fast-paced professional setting. I can only imagine the frustration and humour surrounding a situation where you need the head size that is located in the center of the holder and needs to be slid down three steps.
I think this wrench is quite innovative and the fact that it comes in a small form factor and has multiple sizes makes it great for a number of applications. The downside to this tool is that you have to cycle through all the different sizes before getting to the size that you want. It may be great for cyclists and for people to keep in their kitchens or garages, but I can’t see using it in a professional setting. I feel like I would waste too much time trying to switch between wrench sizes. Also, the wrench only comes with box wrenches and not open wrenches, which could limit its applications. Right now, the basic wrench only comes with metric sizes, which wouldn’t be useful in most of the applications we encounter in theater. Although it might be good for fixing tools. It reminds me of those multi colored pencils I had growing up.
I really like the the way that this wrench is designed, that it is small enough to fit into an average pocket without being annoying, possibly even small enough that If I had one, I may even consider making it a part of my EDC. However, I would certainly not own one If I didn't get it as a gift or for some other reason, because the price is totally ridiculous. I understand that it is a developing product, but the 109$ price tag with a planned 134$ retail is something that I could not justify, for what is effectively a small wrench set, even with all it's innovation and small form factor. I also agree with what a couple people have said here, having to cycle through your wrenches to get at the one you want is annoying, so hopefully the cycling action is relatively painless, which I frankly can't see how that would be able to happen without making the wrenches too loose to stay in their casing.
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