LTT Screwdriver

[Ravendarat]

As someone who has a couple screwdrivers in the $100-150 range that I am not happy with and who works with them in my job daily I plan on ordering a pair of these on launch as they address a couple issues I have with my current snap on ones, direction of the ratchet swith and the storage of bits, both are fixed on the LTT driver, and I dont need to hold it to know its fixed, I can see it. Expensive tools arent for everyone, if you use a screw driver a couple times a year and leave it in a junk drawer in your kitchen this isnt for you, but as a professional having good tools that work exactly the way you want them to is a big deal and this one looks to be a tool that will do just that, but of course time will tell.

[Krebs20]

On 3/30/2022 at 2:53 PM, LinusTech said:

 

No, it will not develop any kind of stickiness. It's a hard plastic called Triax, but the EDM finish on the moulds gives it kind of a soft-touch feel and satin appearance.

I asked in a different post but this post seems to have all the attention . I would like to know how the "Triax" would handle Skydrol? I don't need any trade secrets. Just trying to see if the screwdriver would melt away. For a known material reference. I would rate the Hard snap on screwdrivers as Good Resistance and the soft handled screwdrivers as Poor.

Doing some searching it appears Triax comes in 3 flavors.  1120, 1185, and 1315.
All of of them are ABS mixed with Nylon.  Some with a different mix or glass fibers added. Most of the data sheets for Triax is behind a paywall. But in general ABS is poor and Nylon is Excellent for chemical compatibility. 
Is phosphate ester a known chemical it would be compatible with the Triax mix?

Skydrol Material Compatibility.pdf

[Imbadatnames]

8 hours ago, Krebs20 said:

I asked in a different post but this post seems to have all the attention . I would like to know how the "Triax" would handle Skydrol? I don't need any trade secrets. Just trying to see if the screwdriver would melt away. For a known material reference. I would rate the Hard snap on screwdrivers as Good Resistance and the soft handled screwdrivers as Poor.

Doing some searching it appears Triax comes in 3 flavors.  1120, 1185, and 1315.
All of of them are ABS mixed with Nylon.  Some with a different mix or glass fibers added. Most of the data sheets for Triax is behind a paywall. But in general ABS is poor and Nylon is Excellent for chemical compatibility. 
Is phosphate ester a known chemical it would be compatible with the Triax mix?

Skydrol Material Compatibility.pdf 779.56 kB · 0 downloads

From what I’ve seen it’s a lot weaker than Nylon and is more comparable to ABS in terms of strength. It’s not a material I’d use for anything that needed to be durable or last. 

[LinusTech]

From Kyle in engineering:

 

I plan on buying some chemicals and throwing some screwdrivers in.  The exact polymer mix of Traix is a trade secret from the supplier of the virgin material.

 

All we can do is test  it

[Imbadatnames]

11 hours ago, James Evens said:

@Imbadatnames What is the benefit?

Nylon isn't cost prohibitive so there has to be some.

Nylon without additives doesn’t result in a rigid part, you can have nylon based polymers that are stronger or weaker than nylon. Triax from the looks of the data sheets I’ve seen is weaker than nylon but more rigid. It’s comparable to ABS but with better chemical resistance, ABS not being exactly the strongest material in the world, ASA being basically better than ABS in every way is still a prototyping material for most companies. 

[Imbadatnames]

4 hours ago, LinusTech said:

From Kyle in engineering:

 

I plan on buying some chemicals and throwing some screwdrivers in.  The exact polymer mix of Traix is a trade secret from the supplier of the virgin material.

 

All we can do is test  it

Should test it with UV too 

[Bitter]

@LinusTechTsk tsk, just copying Steve from GN. First his tools and now his new lab, jeeze man just get married to him already.

 

Just kidding, looks like a nice tool that a lot of thought and care was put into, can't wait to see the finished product. I agree that a bit extension would be a nice add on, I've bee using stupid long screw drivers for assembling PC's for a while now and they're a lot nicer to use, you don't have to have your whole fist inside the case and can just twirl all the board screws down lightly then once they're all in and everything is lined up go and snug them down.

A truly neat LTT branded tool would be a direction sensing electric screw driver, those are very cool to use. Maybe make it your own with some extra low torque settings on tighten or a pause before it tightens at the bottom of travel or some other neat programming or maybe even make it user programmable for the true tinkerer.

[SavageShow]

On 3/30/2022 at 7:52 PM, LinusTech said:

I understand this perspective, but hopefully you can understand why we might be hesitant to fundamentally change our approach to warranty claims for one product.

 

Bottom line is that we're very confident in the screwdriver - both utility and quality - and very confident in our track record and our ability to take care of problems. Now we only need 100,000 people to agree

I do hope there will be some kind of warranty. Just providing input, I think it's important at this price point. I think I'll be buying one once available to support a creative team I've been watching for years but as a tool purchase, I feel less good about it without some kind of warranty. 
 

A lifetime warranty would be awesome since most tools I own have a lifetime warranty HOWEVER I do respect and believe I have a basic understanding of the position the LTT team is in. Accepting a new workload volume of warranty claims is a big risk. Regardless, I hope the team is proud of their work and the product turns out better than they expected!

[Krebs20]

18 hours ago, LinusTech said:

From Kyle in engineering:

 

I plan on buying some chemicals and throwing some screwdrivers in.  The exact polymer mix of Traix is a trade secret from the supplier of the virgin material.

 

All we can do is test  it

That sounds great. A heads up from a mechanic's point of view. If I was going to test to see if skydrol was going to react with the screwdriver. I would start with putting a small amount on the outside and then wiping it off right with a shop rag and alcohol. I would look to see if there was any color transfer to the rag. If that was clean I would do it again but without the alcohol and rub it a bit harder.  (We are all adults here.) The test I would like best is if when using the screwdriver. Will it turn my hand black with plastic when exposed to chemicals. My worry is the bit holding part of the screwdriver wont be able to hold up to the chemicals. If the plastic swells or softens up too much. It may ruin it. Most people in my field will flush their tools in alcohol and recoat in oil (LPS) after the job is done. 

 

Wishlist for chemicals. 
Skydrol
Mobile Jet II
Jet A (diesel fuel is close enough)
Gasoline
Conventional Motor Oil

Synthetic Motor Oil
Kroil
LPS 1, 2, and 3.

 

No screwdriver on the market today will handle all of these. Its just not how plastics work and its not a deal breaker. 
Also, Having used ABS with my 3d printer. I have no issues using the material for a screwdriver. I made a 1 inch handle for mini bits for some tuff jobs and it holds up ok. 

[Bitter]

4 minutes ago, Krebs20 said:

That sounds great. A heads up from a mechanic's point of view. If I was going to test to see if skydrol was going to react with the screwdriver. I would start with putting a small amount on the outside and then wiping it off right with a shop rag and alcohol. I would look to see if there was any color transfer to the rag. If that was clean I would do it again but without the alcohol and rub it a bit harder.  (We are all adults here.) The test I would like best is if when using the screwdriver. Will it turn my hand black with plastic when exposed to chemicals. My worry is the bit holding part of the screwdriver wont be able to hold up to the chemicals. If the plastic swells or softens up too much. It may ruin it. Most people in my field will flush their tools in alcohol and recoat in oil (LPS) after the job is done. 

 

Wishlist for chemicals. 
Skydrol
Mobile Jet II
Jet A (diesel fuel is close enough)
Gasoline
Conventional Motor Oil

Synthetic Motor Oil
Kroil
LPS 1, 2, and 3.

 

No screwdriver on the market today will handle all of these. Its just not how plastics work and its not a deal breaker. 
Also, Having used ABS with my 3d printer. I have no issues using the material for a screwdriver. I made a 1 inch handle for mini bits for some tuff jobs and it holds up ok. 

Lets add some more common household chemicals to that list. Isopropyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, acetone, bleach, ammonia, and something like Simple Green or Purple Muscle all purpose cleaner.

[vetali]

5 hours ago, Bitter said:

acetone, bleach, ammonia

Hopefully not at the same time lol.

 

Brake clean on some plastics will cause it to near melt and stick to the rag. My snap on screwdriver set doesn't, neither does my mac set. Craftsman sets usually do, at least the older ones that I still have for my beater drivers.

 

I still plan on buying 2 screwdrivers when they drop. One for home, because I really need a good magnetic driver for PC building... and one for work where I will really stress test it. I just broke my midsize snap on removing a glovebox on an Odyssey. We don't have a snap on vendor anymore to get it warrantied and I am not replacing it till this driver drops. If I am really feeling like it maybe I will go pro some interior work with it... or if I am mean I can try to remove skid plates off a new CR-V / Civic that are torqued down to the force of a thousand suns.

 

[Imbadatnames]

8 hours ago, Krebs20 said:

That sounds great. A heads up from a mechanic's point of view. If I was going to test to see if skydrol was going to react with the screwdriver. I would start with putting a small amount on the outside and then wiping it off right with a shop rag and alcohol. I would look to see if there was any color transfer to the rag. If that was clean I would do it again but without the alcohol and rub it a bit harder.  (We are all adults here.) The test I would like best is if when using the screwdriver. Will it turn my hand black with plastic when exposed to chemicals. My worry is the bit holding part of the screwdriver wont be able to hold up to the chemicals. If the plastic swells or softens up too much. It may ruin it. Most people in my field will flush their tools in alcohol and recoat in oil (LPS) after the job is done. 

 

Wishlist for chemicals. 
Skydrol
Mobile Jet II
Jet A (diesel fuel is close enough)
Gasoline
Conventional Motor Oil

Synthetic Motor Oil
Kroil
LPS 1, 2, and 3.

 

No screwdriver on the market today will handle all of these. Its just not how plastics work and its not a deal breaker. 
Also, Having used ABS with my 3d printer. I have no issues using the material for a screwdriver. I made a 1 inch handle for mini bits for some tuff jobs and it holds up ok. 

If it’s nylon based it should only be severely bothered by Halogenated hydrocarbons, alcohols, phenol and strong acids along with UV. ABS however will have issues with most things aside from weak acids, alcohols, any base or basic hydrocarbons like octane and hexene for example.  And again obviously UV 

[Bitter]

8 hours ago, vetali said:

Hopefully not at the same time lol.

 

Brake clean on some plastics will cause it to near melt and stick to the rag. My snap on screwdriver set doesn't, neither does my mac set. Craftsman sets usually do, at least the older ones that I still have for my beater drivers.

 

I still plan on buying 2 screwdrivers when they drop. One for home, because I really need a good magnetic driver for PC building... and one for work where I will really stress test it. I just broke my midsize snap on removing a glovebox on an Odyssey. We don't have a snap on vendor anymore to get it warrantied and I am not replacing it till this driver drops. If I am really feeling like it maybe I will go pro some interior work with it... or if I am mean I can try to remove skid plates off a new CR-V / Civic that are torqued down to the force of a thousand suns.

 

Hey our snapon guy vanished too, for over a year and last week corporate called to tell us he's officially out.

[vetali]

3 hours ago, Bitter said:

Hey our snapon guy vanished too, for over a year and last week corporate called to tell us he's officially out.

Yeah its really common now days. If I was giving advice to someone starting out I'd tell them to only get flank drive wrenches, a few ratchets, and their tech wrench torque wrenches. Those are about the only things that are worth the extra money over competitors and aren't rebrands. Never sign up for their financing either. Biggest scam out there.

As far as warranty, its not a deciding factor into my purchase for tools anymore. Most the time with tool companies its a hassle to get "lifetime" shit warrantied. They skirt around it with items commonly broken like smaller than 1/4" drill bits, only the ratchet mechanism in ratchets, and bits for rotor screws off the top of my head. Back in my early years I remember going into Sears in uniform to get a puller that broke warrantied. The guy at the counter declined me because I was a professional and it wasn't their "pro" line of tools.

[Ravendarat]

16 minutes ago, vetali said:

 

 

Their financing is definitely rough but this particular redit post is just simply not true at all. A 20k finance account at 19%has a repay rate of like 80 bucks a week, if they were getting charge 19% of the total loan per month than their interest charged would be $3800. Their financing is bad enough that there is no reason to just flat out lie about it to make it seem even worse lol

[Bitter]

1 hour ago, vetali said:

Yeah its really common now days. If I was giving advice to someone starting out I'd tell them to only get flank drive wrenches, a few ratchets, and their tech wrench torque wrenches. Those are about the only things that are worth the extra money over competitors and aren't rebrands. Never sign up for their financing either. Biggest scam out there.

As far as warranty, its not a deciding factor into my purchase for tools anymore. Most the time with tool companies its a hassle to get "lifetime" shit warrantied. They skirt around it with items commonly broken like smaller than 1/4" drill bits, only the ratchet mechanism in ratchets, and bits for rotor screws off the top of my head. Back in my early years I remember going into Sears in uniform to get a puller that broke warrantied. The guy at the counter declined me because I was a professional and it wasn't their "pro" line of tools.

Pro tip, get the #3 Philips bits in 1/4 inch drive for impact drivers that deck and framers use. They last, no joke, 5x longer than the tool truck bits do. Just use a 1/4 inch impact 3/8 drive (or 1/2 drive) hex socket and a little tape as a bit holder.

[Stahlmann]

If you're as confident in your product as it seems it shouldn't be a problem to provide at least some warranty. It doesn't have to be lifetime, but imo if there is no warranty that means the engineers are not confident in their product. Idk how it is with tools but depending on the type of product a warranty could also be legally required to sell it to some countries.

 

For example there is a MINIMUM legal warranty period of 2 years for a new car in germany.

[Bitter]

Gamers Nexus stepped up to a 7yr warranty on their tools, Linus will have to do 8 year now.

[Velcade]

7 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Gamers Nexus stepped up to a 7yr warranty

The retroactive warranty was a classy move. 

[Bitter]

2 minutes ago, Velcade said:

The retroactive warranty was a classy move. 

Steve is a classy fellow.

[animeotaku]

On 3/29/2022 at 10:44 PM, Imbadatnames said:

So it’s just a normal a normal screwdriver. Again I can get a Makita driver along with 80 bits, spammers up to 20mm and a full socket set for about $10 also made in the US, UK or Japan. The LTT driver is SUCH a ripoff it’s unreal 

Yeah, no, in the uk, good screwdrivers, with durable bits, is way more than $10 (~£8). A stanley set is ~£25 (~$34) (VAT @ 20%) at both B&Q (diy.com) and Screwfix. Stanley has a million-fold scale compared to LTT. Scale means less $£ per unit, meaning cheaper production costs, due to cheaper pu tooling cost and prototyping cost (since costs are spread across more units). Stanley Black And Decker (the full name of stanley btw) has unit sales in the millions, LTT will only be expecting sales, no more than a few hundred thousand over multiple years.

 

Yes, other brands are cheaper, but an LTT is more tooled towards supporting them, and providing a quality tool in the first place.

[Imbadatnames]

7 hours ago, animeotaku said:

Yeah, no, in the uk, good screwdrivers, with durable bits, is way more than $10 (~£8). A stanley set is ~£25 (~$34) (VAT @ 20%) at both B&Q (diy.com) and Screwfix. Stanley has a million-fold scale compared to LTT. Scale means less $£ per unit, meaning cheaper production costs, due to cheaper pu tooling cost and prototyping cost (since costs are spread across more units). Stanley Black And Decker (the full name of stanley btw) has unit sales in the millions, LTT will only be expecting sales, no more than a few hundred thousand over multiple years.

 

Yes, other brands are cheaper, but an LTT is more tooled towards supporting them, and providing a quality tool in the first place.

£15 on Amazon, a Milwaukee 10 in 1 in under £20, Bosch £15 including a socket set, you can even get a wera set for under 60. Generally products from Stanley, Milwaukee, Makita etc are solid and will last well over 10 years. You’d have to go through 4 sets for the LTT screwdriver to hold any value 

[Imbadatnames]

1 hour ago, James Evens said:

This will be the interesting part nobody knows without trying it out:  If they nail it it's fine. Otherwise merch.

 

There is cheap, what you should get and premium (oversimplified):

cheap: I want the cheapest tool but otherwise stay away from this category

what you should get: good enough quality with a very high value proposition

premium: less "value" for money but it has that one thing which makes it worth it to you (e.g. knurled shaft: for others this is a killer feature, for me nonsense/can be ignored).

Issue for me is the “what you should get” are the £20-30 kits. The cheap ones are all under a tenner. Even then the LTT one is more expensive than the likes of craftsman (also owned by Stanley and has a lifetime warranty) and wera which have a lifetime warranty both of whom are stocked locally in most of the western world and are easy to swap unlike the LTT one 

[Guest]

It's a screw driver......Dime a dozen. 

 

Specialty screw driver.... also dime a dozen.

 

SnapOn pricing is higher because it's SnapOn. The nice part, being an automotive or diesel technician is that there's delivery and warranty on truck. The tech just hands the tool over and that high pricing includes this perk for those in that profession. Which makes you money.

 

But for a hobby, perhaps the specialty screw driver IS the way to go. It's going to last a long time with proper use of course. 70$ is steep.... But it's LinusTechTips. This is a for profit organization, no different than that of SnapOn tools. 

 

If quality and warranty is there for the price, and it has potential to make you money building PCs, then this screw driver is very recommendable. 

[vetali]

This seems to be the thread with the highest post count, so I'll just post here. It appears LTT is going from a black coating to a silver coating on the metal shaft of the screwdriver. It makes no difference to me, but I will say that whatever matte black coating Milwaukee uses on their 1/4 inch impact bits holds up extremely well. I'll grab a picture next week of one of my extensions used for nearly 5 years without substantial wear or scratching.