LTT Screwdriver

[crostiger]

On 10/8/2022 at 6:13 PM, vetali said:

My drivers have arrived. Not sure why I got mine so soon, someone I know has got a lower order number and it still hasn't shipped for him.

 

Anyway. Initial impressions. The packaging looks really good, though both drivers were dislodged from their spot in the packaging and one had the bit package dislodged. No damage or anything, and sure beats the impossible to open non biodegradable plastic packaging that tools normally come in.

 

Holding it unloaded its a pretty light driver. The plastic feels great in form and finish. Loaded it gains a good amount of heft but doesn't get back heavy. Ratchet selector feels good, very satisfying to switch through the directions. I do kinda wish it had an indicator in the handle to show which direction it is in at a glance. Knurling on the shaft is very aggressive. To the point where I wonder if it will catch and roll my nitrile gloves when using it. Shaft itself is pretty grippy with its finish (I got both in silver finishes). Bit magnet is strong but I can still easily remove a bit crab claw method one handed which was a big worry of mine. The shaft has quite a bit of fore and aft play, much more than I expected. Surprised it wasn't covered in any review. It was noticeable right away. Could be annoying when removing a bit, and letting the magnet pull in your new bit, then going to use the driver and having the shaft push in a bit. Will have to use it to decide if its annoying.

 

Drivers are very consistent between each other. Same backlash, same ratchet feel. Bit capsule and carousel feels the same. I'd pin the overall feel and quality right there with my snap on drivers, with the snap ons having a slight advantage with the rubberized grip and spot for a wrench on the shaft. With that considered, I don't see myself grabbing my snap ons over the LTT driver due the convenience of the interchangeable bits and bit holder preventing extra trips to the tool box which costs time and money.

Just wondering where yours the black shaft or silver and if they were silver mabey the person you know ordered the black shaft version.

[MrHaydenJr]

10 hours ago, Spotty said:

That's a screw (not included) being held on top of a bit in the shaft of the screwdriver.

 

Why did you screen record going to the website, clicking on the screwdriver, scrolling through the page, and then circling the image? You can take a screenshot by holding the power and volume down button, or you could just copy the image by hold pressing on the image and selecting copy image.

Because if someone wanted to find said photo i wanted to provide some more info on were to find it, is their a reason i shouldnt screen record vs snapshot....? Did i leak sensative information or something? 

[vetali]

9 hours ago, crostiger said:

Just wondering where yours the black shaft or silver and if they were silver mabey the person you know ordered the black shaft version.

Both are silver shaft, black drivers.

[Just that Mario]

On 3/30/2022 at 12:48 AM, GuiltySpark_ said:

If you've handled Snap-On tools its usually immedietely clear you're handling a superior product.

lol. Too European to be hit with the US Snap-On simping. From what I've seen Snap-On isn't anything special. It's rebranded high price tag cheaper tool.

[Just that Mario]

On 3/30/2022 at 4:51 AM, poochyena said:

https://shop.snapon.com/product/Standard-Handle/8-3-4"-Ratcheting-Standard-Screwdriver-(Orange)/SSDMR4BO

The snap on tool is made in USA, while LTT's is made in China. Unless @LinusTech can assure me that the the chinese workers at the chinese factory enjoy an equivilant working standards as Canada or the US (equivilant pay, workers rights, safety etc.), then I see absolutely no reason to why i'd pick LTT's screwdriver over snap on's. And to add to this, there is this screwdriver that is said to be identical to snap on's for half the price https://smile.amazon.com/Williams-WRS-1-Magnetic-Ratcheting-Screwdriver/dp/B002NI1LZK?

There is even an ltt mention in the Q&A

There is no guarantee the actual origin is USA. It could be produced in China or Taiwan and rebranded and packaged in USA.

[Just that Mario]

On 3/31/2022 at 4:19 AM, dizmo said:

Makita honestly isn't what it used to be, and it's more...consumer than prosumer, which is more in line with what LTT making. During my years in construction you'd very rarely see a Makita tool unless it was a rookie just starting out, or someone who had to run to the store and they were out of Dewalt, Hilti, Milwaukee, etc.

This is just false information/completely biased thought of an individual.. US is HARD leaned towards DeWalt and Milkyway, meanwhile Europe and Asia is more into Makita. They also have Bosch and Festool. Personally I think Makita is overall best of these, with exception of tablesaw (DeWalt is better) and well, Festool is completely out of the price range of the rest.

Though I am not even sure this matters, since what I can see from your other comments, you're too patriotic about the "made in USA" label.

[dizmo]

11 minutes ago, Just that Mario said:

This is just false information/completely biased thought of an individual.. US is HARD leaned towards DeWalt and Milkyway, meanwhile Europe and Asia is more into Makita. They also have Bosch and Festool. Personally I think Makita is overall best of these, with exception of tablesaw (DeWalt is better) and well, Festool is completely out of the price range of the rest.

Though I am not even sure this matters, since what I can see from your other comments, you're too patriotic about the "made in USA" label.

Perhaps, but a lot of the Makita stuff here simply doesn't stack up. You can, of course, find the more professional tools, but they're much harder to find.

I sold them for years. I know.

 

It's also nothing about being patriotic (I'm not even American), and everything about replacement part availability. Wasted time is lost money.

[Just that Mario]

3 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Perhaps, but a lot of the Makita stuff here simply doesn't stack up

Where is here? From own experience and reviews from multiple other individuals, Makita has pretty much always come on top for tools. I own Makita and DeWalt tool(s), I've used Milkyway tools and Makita is better and does certain design things better. DeWalt table saw is good though, Makita's is way too big and heavy. DeWalt does have issue that the cable sheathing is from some garbage plastic-y material and cable becomes inflexible in colder weather.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, Just that Mario said:

lol. Too European to be hit with the US Snap-On simping. From what I've seen Snap-On isn't anything special. It's rebranded high price tag cheaper tool.

Snap-on had an interesting sales model: totally unlimited warranty.  If you found a 100 year old snap-on wrench wrapped in a pretzel under a junked car, you could bring it in and get a perfectly new one.  No questions asked.  Furthermore they would drive a truck full of tools to your place of business.  The truck shows up, you trade in any broken tools for new ones and that was it. You’re up and running again in hours.  Forever.  These two things together made snap-on tools tremendously valuable.  They were the forever tools. People used to Will them to their children.   They were also quite expensive.   The problem was, that as the company aged they actually stated to get some of those hundred year old tools.  Sure, the person’s great grandfather paid a bunch of money I-don’t-know-when, but the company hadn’t seen any money in a really long time, and this was like the 120th replacement.  to make it worse because they were sort of serially invulnerable, people would use them for things that would break literally any tool.  There were people handing in folded and half melted tools every day.  So they modified their warranty.   I’m not sure exactly how they did it but they introduced a reasonability factor.  So mechanics still use snap-on and snap-on still makes extremely rugged tools and drives to auto-shops because a pro can literally just wear out a cheap tool in a week, and it’s better if they wind up getting a new one every six months.  The thing is, half of the beauty of that is the  tool truck and instant replacement together  IF you are an auto mechanic in North America snapon tools are a totally reasonable thing. Why use anything else?  If you’re NOT an auto mechanic but a computer repair guy, and in a non-serviced country and a tool truck doesn’t regularly show up at your place of business and you have to do it mail order, an LTT screwdriver is every bit as good as a snapon tool lifetime wise, and it’s literally designed for exactly what you are doing with it.

 

Some auto mechanics probably use them too, because they don’t get a truck so they have to mail their tools too. And cars have a lot of electronics these days

Edited October 12, 2022 by Bombastinator

[vetali]

6 hours ago, Just that Mario said:

lol. Too European to be hit with the US Snap-On simping. From what I've seen Snap-On isn't anything special. It's rebranded high price tag cheaper tool.

Depends what you get. To me you can't beat their ratchets. I have multiple brands and always grab my snap ons. Combo wrenches, same thing. They feel great in the hands and the flank drive teeth are great. Sockets, meh. I use Taiwan made sockets every day. I don't grab my snap on sockets unless I am dealing with a rounded bolt as a last effort attempt to save it before hammering on a socket. Their screwdrivers are great. I like their shape combined with the rubberized grip. Plus they feature the "flank drive" grooves on phillips head drivers.

 

I haven't been able to use the LTT driver much at work this week other than a few door panels and some small interior things. Been kinda slow this weeks for screw related stuff. So far its up there with my favorite hand tools in my box. Need to give it more work before an actual review.

[Ravendarat]

9 minutes ago, vetali said:

Depends what you get. To me you can't beat their ratchets. I have multiple brands and always grab my snap ons. Combo wrenches, same thing. They feel great in the hands and the flank drive teeth are great. Sockets, meh. I use Taiwan made sockets every day. I don't grab my snap on sockets unless I am dealing with a rounded bolt as a last effort attempt to save it before hammering on a socket. Their screwdrivers are great. I like their shape combined with the rubberized grip. Plus they feature the "flank drive" grooves on phillips head drivers.

 

I haven't been able to use the LTT driver much at work this week other than a few door panels and some small interior things. Been kinda slow this weeks for screw related stuff. So far its up there with my favorite hand tools in my box. Need to give it more work before an actual review.

Sounds like you are doing similar work to me, I cant wait till I get my screwdriver to put it up against my Snap-On ones. I watched the reviews on the LTT one but I definitely wanna do my own side by side in my daily job

[vetali]

32 minutes ago, Ravendarat said:

Sounds like you are doing similar work to me, I cant wait till I get my screwdriver to put it up against my Snap-On ones. I watched the reviews on the LTT one but I definitely wanna do my own side by side in my daily job

I am an ASE certified master tech + Honda master tech. Although I haven't been to the training center since COVID, so thats all expiring. Not that the issues on cars are expiring.

 

Its very good. The ratcheting mechanism is as advertised. Very low resistance. I can ratchet interior screws within my first wrist turn, which are essentially self tapping screws that go into a piece of flared metal. They are super low resistance until tight. Its so overkill for a "PC screwdriver". Using it on PCs is like using a hand grenade to kill a gnat honestly.

[Bombastinator]

36 minutes ago, vetali said:

I am an ASE certified master tech + Honda master tech. Although I haven't been to the training center since COVID, so thats all expiring. Not that the issues on cars are expiring.

 

Its very good. The ratcheting mechanism is as advertised. Very low resistance. I can ratchet interior screws within my first wrist turn, which are essentially self tapping screws that go into a piece of flared metal. They are super low resistance until tight. Its so overkill for a "PC screwdriver". Using it on PCs is like using a hand grenade to kill a gnat honestly.

The impression I got was it was designed by people that built computers specifically to build computers with.  They made exactly the screwdriver they wanted for that specific job.  So that would be lots and lots of #6 and #8 machine screws mostly that are occasionally real hard to get at.  Hemostats are a lot like that.  They had some at the local big box hardware store except they were called “locking fastener”s. Hemostats are surgical clamps that are used for all kinds of things but were designed to hold shut blood vessels.  The result is if you have a small hard to reach hose you need to clamp shut a hemostat is da kine.  Lots of professions need to clamp hoses occasionally.  A lot of tools are like that.  Convergent evolution.

[Just that Mario]

7 hours ago, vetali said:

Depends what you get. To me you can't beat their ratchets

Until the germans enter the room with Hazet.

[vetali]

3 hours ago, Just that Mario said:

Until the germans enter the room with Hazet.

Okay, I'll buy one and compare it. Only 30 teeth however. Not feeling too optimistic. Looks like a quality tool though.

[GameRetro]

3 hours ago, vetali said:

Okay, I'll buy one and compare it. Only 30 teeth however. Not feeling too optimistic. Looks like a quality tool though.

 

Do get the Xiaomi one (for pc building work specifically, probably not a strong/durable tool that one) if you can. Just made a post here about this specific comparison since I am so very curious on how it would stack up against a big boy. Really tempted by the LTT screwdriver but I wanna give it time.

 

----------

 

In other notes I really like the new store page. The LTT screwdriver reviews are a s***show though - plenty of reviews in all the star ratings (mostly in 5 star ratings) with no info whatsoever and without actually having the screwdriver.

[vetali]

6 hours ago, GameRetro said:

 

Do get the Xiaomi one (for pc building work specifically, probably not a strong/durable tool that one) if you can. Just made a post here about this specific comparison since I am so very curious on how it would stack up against a big boy. Really tempted by the LTT screwdriver but I wanna give it time.

 

----------

 

In other notes I really like the new store page. The LTT screwdriver reviews are a s***show though - plenty of reviews in all the star ratings (mostly in 5 star ratings) with no info whatsoever and without actually having the screwdriver.

I don't see a use case for the Xiaomi one personally, and it doesn't really compete with the LTT one. I have been wanting to try tool brands from Europe because I hear really good things about them a lot. So I decided to try the Hazet first. Thats a 3/8 flex head ratchet though, not a screwdriver.

 

New store front was much needed. Review section has always been youtube comment-esque.

[GameRetro]

14 minutes ago, vetali said:

I don't see a use case for the Xiaomi one personally, and it doesn't really compete with the LTT one. I have been wanting to try tool brands from Europe because I hear really good things about them a lot. So I decided to try the Hazet first. Thats a 3/8 flex head ratchet though, not a screwdriver.

 

New store front was much needed. Review section has always been youtube comment-esque.

 

If tools is your forte and you want good quality European tools to try out, I'll also suggest UNIOR TOOLS and STAHLWILLE.

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, vetali said:

I don't see a use case for the Xiaomi one personally, and it doesn't really compete with the LTT one. I have been wanting to try tool brands from Europe because I hear really good things about them a lot. So I decided to try the Hazet first. Thats a 3/8 flex head ratchet though, not a screwdriver.

 

New store front was much needed. Review section has always been youtube comment-esque.

Depends on the specific tool.  Sometimes they’re amazing sometimes they’re really not.  They’re good for labor saving gadgetry for rather specific tasks, and there is occasionally some company that has been around for 400 years and is the only one still making a decent X.  Not because they make money on them necessarily but because they’ve been doing it for 375 years and it’s on the 5th generation owner’s coat of arms or something.   certain kinds of axes, anvils, or carpenters tools for example.  They have different manufacturing expectations and code compliances and sometimes that results in some really interesting stuff.  Also, sometimes some really terrible stuff. (Briefly wonders what Linus would do if someone gave him a decent yankee screwdriver.  Two feet long a quarter inch wide and automatic with no batteries) nobody makes a decent one of those anymore.  Drywall screws and electric drills killed em.  They don’t have the torque.  Would be hilarious if the good ones came from Canada.  There are occasionally strange and brilliant things like that.  The fractal vise comes to mind.  Don’t know how that one would apply to computers though.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Bombastinator

[volatus146]

Love seeing comments from people who dont use/need high end tooling comparing it to the 9pc set for $7.99 at their local hardware store

 

yes mate, your 90c screwdriver works just fine.

[Bombastinator]

10 minutes ago, volatus146 said:

Love seeing comments from people who dont use/need high end tooling comparing it to the 9pc set for $7.99 at their local hardware store

 

yes mate, your 90c screwdriver works just fine.

This is true.  Unless you have to use it on 10,000 screws. In a month.  Then subtle differences become important.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Just that Mario]

On 10/13/2022 at 8:15 PM, GameRetro said:

 

Do get the Xiaomi one (for pc building work specifically, probably not a strong/durable tool that one) if you can. Just made a post here about this specific comparison since I am so very curious on how it would stack up against a big boy. Really tempted by the LTT screwdriver but I wanna give it time.

 

----------

 

In other notes I really like the new store page. The LTT screwdriver reviews are a s***show though - plenty of reviews in all the star ratings (mostly in 5 star ratings) with no info whatsoever and without actually having the screwdriver.

Bro, what?

[Just that Mario]

On 10/13/2022 at 4:57 PM, vetali said:

Okay, I'll buy one and compare it. Only 30 teeth however. Not feeling too optimistic. Looks like a quality tool though.

There's a 90 tooth variant. Hazet has been pretty much declared as BIS ratchets by the internet. Stahlwille has allegedly BIS wrenches. I don't personally own either in these tools, but I am looking for getting Hazet ratchets eventually. Eyeing the 1/2" high teeth count with extendable shaft. I have a few Hazet wrenches, screwdrivers and they're really nice. Hazet screwdriver set is really cheap as well, think around 15 euros...

As for the LTT screwdriver, 70 USD + shipping + VAT + import tax seems way too much to me for a ratcheting screw driver. Got a Makita one for like 10 euros from local store and I haven't found a single scenario where I have used it, lol. I won't argue that the LTT screwdriver is pretty cool and I am sure it is really good, but the price doesn't seem to make it worth it for me. If I ever needed one, I'd opt for some EU available brand. Think WERA one Project Farm tested is like 1/3 price of LTT one in EU.

Personally when it comes to hand tools I have a lot of old USSR era tools and also I have got some cheaper brand tools and tool sets and they have worked perfectly for years including abuse from a cheater bar. Whilst some tools are really nice from high end brands, I always prefer price to performance ratio. Though as I said earlier, I am slowly getting into high end tool brands like Hazet.

[sl1200mk2]

Received my black/orange screwdriver yesterday.  I'm seriously impressed!  It doesn't feel cheap in any way, the handle shape is fantastic and the overall fit and finish is outstanding.  My use case will be largely having it live in my IT 'go bag' for daily work purposes along with whatever household duties come up.  After feeling the mechanism, build quality and overall tolerances, for my uses I have no doubt it's going to last for many years unless I lose it or do something stupid with it.  My only criticism thus far is that I wish when in center 'locked' position it ideally completely locked up or had less play, but it's really that bad and for me not a deal breaker.  Maybe a v2 would improve that.

While not for everyone, I'm definitely glad I got it and can see myself likely ordering a second one to leave in the garage at some point in the future. 

[dizmo]

On 10/12/2022 at 1:25 PM, Just that Mario said:

Where is here? From own experience and reviews from multiple other individuals, Makita has pretty much always come on top for tools. I own Makita and DeWalt tool(s), I've used Milkyway tools and Makita is better and does certain design things better. DeWalt table saw is good though, Makita's is way too big and heavy. DeWalt does have issue that the cable sheathing is from some garbage plastic-y material and cable becomes inflexible in colder weather.

Canada.