Why our screwdriver took 3 YEARS

[Birblover12]

I'm not a screwdriver enthusiast, so just curious, what makes this one so special that warrants the price tag? I know Linus puts a LOT of effort into making sure every little bit is made such that they're up to standard and good quality and such, but realistically would this screwdriver be better than, for example, the Klien Tools 15 in 1 screwdriver which has the exact same features (and more bits) and is a fraction of the cost?

 

I'm guessing whatever the reason ends up being, I'm not the target demographic. Though I do wonder who is? Like do you really get that much more with it over a bog-standard $20 one you can get the same day on Amazon? Said other drivers have features the LTT one doesn't (LEDs for working in dark environments, more variety of bits, etc.), so surely there's something I'm missing here.

 

Regardless, it's cool to see Linus making more practical things to add to the store then just apparel or mousepads!

[JCHelios]

Quote

Using patents from Megapro Tools Inc.: 5,265,504 & 7,258,046

I'll give you 7,258,046 ("Screwdriver bit cartridge retainer"), which expires in 2025. But 5,265,504 ("Cartridge type screwdriver") expired in 2012! You aren't "using a patent" if it's public domain. You'll make people think that they can't build their own cartridge-type screwdriver.

 

...Which, as we know from the video, is actually super quick and easy.

 

('Grats on finishing the project, y'all.)

[WihGlah]

FYI - injection moulding does not involve molten plastic.

[FlappyBoobs]

18 minutes ago, Birblover12 said:

I'm not a screwdriver enthusiast, so just curious, what makes this one so special that warrants the price tag?

It's the quality of the components that make it so much more expensive. Everything will feel nicer about it when you use it, however, unless you use your screwdriver alot you really won't care too much about how it feels as long as it does the job. Is the LTT screwdriver worth it over the Stanley one? Well that's up to you, plenty of people are very happy driving a Toyota corolla and can't see why a BMW is more expensive, its just a car right? 

 

Personally I am excited to try one out, but my tool collection already has 7 ratchet drivers and I definitely have a problem, but I can totally stop and time I want.

[Ein0r]

26 minutes ago, FlappyBoobs said:

It's actually not, the problem is that it's at the VERY high end. It's priced inline with Snap On and probably competes on quality, but the snap on has that sweet sweet warranty.

That it isn't a cool screwdriver or that it isn't a tall order? Either way, that doesn't change that it is too fucking expensive for me once everything is added up. Maybe without the 20€ shipping fee I'd potentially consider it for having a cool "all in one" tool for all of my needs until I die and until I can bequeath it to somebody worthy. Until then I'll have to go with an inferior brand, with inferior quality, not as much flexibility or convenience, but also for less than half the price of this tool. 

 

If you like it and have no trouble affording it, and if you get all the uses out of it that you need, by all means go for it. The above is my own problem  and I'm only expressing my personal disappointment. I also got burnt by import tax once.

[RingaDingDingDong]

1 hour ago, papajo said:

If it had LEDs and exchangeable shafts I might have considered it  

Also a current/short indicator would be nice as well to have. 

They say don't feed the troll... but boy are you annoying. 

It's a screwdriver. If it's too dark in your basement, then install some lights. If you want to extend it, then use a proper extension which are available for 5€. If you need a long shaft for certain appliances and their cases, then buy a specialized long shaft screwdriver. And for the love of god, don't put your screwdriver in a socket if you don't know the first thing about electronics anyway. Unipolar circuit testers should not be used anyway anymore. They are not reliable. 

 

It does not sound like you know the first thing you are talking about. There is a reason professionals work with tools which are worth hundreds of dollars, yes even the simple ones can be expensive. (Wera for example, but thats only the entrance into professional gear) 

Blinky or gimmicky stuff is nowhere to be found. 

 

 

Whether they achieved what they tried to do and if it's worth the money, others will have to decide. Unfortunately shipping to europe is prohibitively expensive. 

But your arguments are out of this world. 

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, papajo said:

There are many here is just a quick google result of a $15 screw driver with 12 bits... 



Yea not fancy ninja tray but same deal (also has an extention shaft lol so it can be both short and long as I said previously, but no leds) for $15 

For the occasional light use, a $15 tool will probably be fine. I bought a $10 ratchet screwdriver and bit set from Fry’s over a decade ago. For pc building, it was sufficient, though the housing for the ratchet sheared as soon as significant torque was put on it. Still, the thing limps along for light use. I would like to replace it with something better, though I probably don’t need a $100 (after shipping) driver. 

 

If the driver was something I was using frequently on the daily however, spending upwards of $100 on a driver that won’t give me trouble is a no brainer. A broken tool in the middle of a project royally sucks, so good tools are worthy investments, particularly if you use them often. Will have to be battle proven though. 

[WihGlah]

2 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

For the occasional light use, a $15 tool will probably be fine. I bought a $10 ratchet screwdriver and bit set from Fry’s over a decade ago. For pc building, it was sufficient, though the housing for the ratchet sheared as soon as significant torque was put on it. Still, the thing limps along for light use. I would like to replace it with something better, though I probably don’t need a $100 (after shipping) driver. 

 

If the driver was something I was using frequently on the daily however, spending upwards of $100 on a driver that won’t give me trouble is a no brainer. A broken tool in the middle of a project royally sucks, so good tools are worthy investments, particularly if you use them often. Will have to be battle proven though. 

Don't worry - they only sold 46 so far..
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Sorry - 46,000.

[Zodiark1593]

18 minutes ago, WihGlah said:

Don't worry - they only sold 46 so far..
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Sorry - 46,000.

Definitely well into wave 4. That’s good that it appears to be selling well. 
 

Semi-off-topic:

 

What I do use pretty often, and spent a fair bit of money on are flashlights. I’ve one that was built-to-order with a set of very high CRI Nichia LEDs in a 2700K color temperature, that I use for reading and close range tasks. Super easy on the eyes; and at higher outputs, a damn close match to incandescent (ever so slightly more pink than the real thing). 
 

And I carry a Zebralight for outside the house.  At 2000 lumens, I could duct tape this thing to the hood/bonnet of my car if my headlights all failed. The boost driver is extremely efficient as well. 
 

Additionally, I gifted Manker E03Hs (with high CRI SST-20) to my dad, and the Stage Manager I work with, they both use them regularly. They’re out of stock currently for the high CRI Neutral White though, only having the Cool White in. 
 

Wonder what an LTT flashlight would look like?

[CT854]

A screwdriver that takes 3 years to make probably tastes terrible -- the orange juice is definitely bad by now.

 

ba dum tss

[papajo]

1 hour ago, FlappyBoobs said:

It's actually not, the problem is that it's at the VERY high end. It's priced inline with Snap On and probably competes on quality, but the snap on has that sweet sweet warranty.

Its still cheaper ($76 bucks at their online store and can be found cheaper elsewhere ) but as you said it has a lifetime warranty which is obviously priced in. 

 

[papajo]

Doublepost the submit bugged out sorry 

EDIT: well I use this double post mistake to squeeze in a reply I would have made to save the lost space a little bit

 

  

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

For the occasional light use, a $15 tool will probably be fine. I bought a $10 ratchet screwdriver and bit set from Fry’s over a decade ago. For pc building, it was sufficient, though the housing for the ratchet sheared as soon as significant torque was put on it. Still, the thing limps along for light use. I would like to replace it with something better, though I probably don’t need a $100 (after shipping) driver. 

 

If the driver was something I was using frequently on the daily however, spending upwards of $100 on a driver that won’t give me trouble is a no brainer. A broken tool in the middle of a project royally sucks, so good tools are worthy investments, particularly if you use them often. Will have to be battle proven though. 

Everyone can do whatever he/she wants with his/her money. 

I posted this picture as I said just in a haste (googled for 5 sec) as a proof that other screw drivers with 12 bits exist in general I wasnt recommending this one as a reliable tool per se  

or to showcase that this tool is of equal material quality or whatnot (having that said I wouldnt necessarily think it's garbage there are a lot of cheap but quality tools out there this might be one of them I just dont know because I personally never used this particular one) 


When you buy the ltt screw driver you probably do it because you like to support/donate money  anyway to ltt and getting a nice looking and feeling screw driver seems like a good bonus which is not bad again you can do whatever you want with your money and if it makes you happy good for you. 

You essentially want a ltt collectible thingy. 

But you don't pay $100 (+ tax) to get this screw driver with the justification of it being a quality tool. 

Simply because there are quality tools that cost less (e.g that "Snap on" one mentioned above but there are lots of other e.g https://www.amazon.ca/Multi-bit-Ratcheting-Screwdriver-Phillips-Multi-Bit/dp/B09Y86QMK4/ref=sr_1_5?crid=YMM5HIME84K3&keywords=multibit+ratcheting+screwdriver&qid=1661982013&s=industrial&sprefix=multibit+%2Cindustrial%2C199&sr=1-5) 


The only reason I would have given this ltt screw driver a chance (other than just wanting an ltt collectible and support the channel by giving extra cash out of my pocket with no other reason than that, which again is fine if that is what you want to do with your cash and if that makes you happy) is if it offered some extra utility and/or was specialized towards IT maintenance by combining useful real utilitarian features that other "general use" screw drivers miss 

Having the perfect color or super nice clicky sound doesnt fit my creteria for a real utilitarian feature.
 

[sub68]

11 minutes ago, papajo said:

Its still cheaper ($76 bucks at their online store and can be found cheaper elsewhere ) but as you said it has a lifetime warranty which is obviously priced in. 

 

TBF its not like snap ons if its broken they replace it.

 

But I see it that LTT probably can't repair these as it would be dumped to mega pro.

Oh this makes sense.

Spoiler

 

[AnonymousGuy]

I want to see someone actually use the ratcheting function for fine machine screws in PC building.  I only see ratcheting maybe being useful for large coarse screws like screwing into drywall or wood or something....but then I just get out my 4V battery screwdriver.

 

And I realize that warranty is probably the same language everyone uses...but it sounds like it basically excludes covering everything you would ever want to warranty a screwdriver for.  What scenario of failure are they planning on covering if it doesn't cover the bits or the "breakdown of materials".  I'd argue that if the handle is falling apart that's a defect in the materials....

 

"hey we'll warranty the screwdriver if it spontaneously explodes in the packaging"....i guess?

[Zodiark1593]

7 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

I want to see someone actually use the ratcheting function for fine machine screws in PC building.  I only see ratcheting maybe being useful for large coarse screws like screwing into drywall or wood or something....but then I just get out my 4V battery screwdriver.

 

And I realize that warranty is probably the same language everyone uses...but it sounds like it basically excludes covering everything you would ever want to warranty a screwdriver for.  What scenario of failure are they planning on covering if it doesn't cover the bits or the "breakdown of materials".  I'd argue that if the handle is falling apart that's a defect in the materials....

 

"hey we'll warranty the screwdriver if it spontaneously explodes in the packaging"....i guess?

The zinc housing for the ratchet seems like a potential failure point if it has to bear a load. Zinc is easy to cast, especially for more intricate shapes, but is a soft material. 
 

Ratcheting can be useful in tight areas, and applications requiring some torque. If a thread has a lot of friction (not especially common, but I’ve some across some with metal), for example, a ratcheting driver makes things a hell of a lot easier. 

[Blademaster91]

6 minutes ago, sub68 said:

TBF its not like snap ons if its broken they replace it.

 

But I see it that LTT probably can't repair these as it would be dumped to mega pro.

Oh this makes sense.

The warranty for this sounds like if the bits or ratcheting mechanism breaks it could be denied as "wear and tear" or "misuse". And I'd rather spend that kind of money on Snapon,  but I can see why people would want the LTT screwdriver, although i've never needed a ratcheting driver to build a PC.

58 minutes ago, WihGlah said:

Don't worry - they only sold 46 so far..
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Sorry - 46,000.

LTT has more viewers with money to throw at an $80+ screwdriver than I thought.

[AnonymousGuy]

2 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

LTT has more viewers with money to throw at an $80+ screwdriver than I thought.

If Twitch donations has taught me anything: loads of stupid kids who will spend a significant amount of their bank account to get very little in return.  Friggin' hype culture...

[papajo]

1 minute ago, AnonymousGuy said:

If Twitch donations has taught me anything: loads of stupid kids who will spend a significant amount of their bank account to get very little in return.  Friggin' hype culture...

I think linus is the father of that trend I mean this entire channel blew up back when he and paul made that kickstarter (or whatever platform they used cant remember maybe it was self hosted ) asking for donation because the channel wasnt doing so good (back in the OG kitchen days ) and got like 1 million dollars in donations within a month or so lol 

That's exactly how ltt exploded and they started to do all that extravagant sh1t 

[sub68]

Just now, Blademaster91 said:

The warranty for this sounds like if the bits or ratcheting mechanism breaks it could be denied as "wear and tear" or "misuse".

no its the entire tool

https://megaprotools.com/pages/warranty-returns

2 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

And I'd rather spend that kind of money on Snapon,

Yes I agree, but I am thinking on getting the LTT one as its pretty good

3 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

but I can see why people would want the LTT screwdriver, although i've never needed a ratcheting driver to build a PC.

I would use racheting if I am always building PC's.

I think some people that want LTT merch do but also some people that are in IT space probably buy it too.

[papajo]

7 minutes ago, sub68 said:

I think some people that want LTT merch do but also some people that are in IT space probably buy it too.

Give me 1 practical reason I wouldnt buy e.g (one out of many examples) this: https://www.amazon.ca/Multi-bit-Ratcheting-Screwdriver-Phillips-Multi-Bit/dp/B09Y86QMK4/ref=sr_1_5?crid=YMM5HIME84K3&keywords=multibit+ratcheting+screwdriver&qid=1661982013&s=industrial&sprefix=multibit+%2Cindustrial%2C199&sr=1-5

and opt instead for the ltt screw driver.

Again a practical reason so  reasons like  "I want to support the channel"  or "I want a ltt collectible" or "color is nice" do not count. 

The only way I would have paid a premium for an llt screw driver is if I saw attention for utilitarian features especially for IT e.g exchangeable shafts (which btw the klein screw driver has) LEDs to see that little screw deep inside the case/rack a current/short indicator etc. then yes I would consider buying a $100 screw driver from a company that never made tools before. 

 

[Blademaster91]

4 minutes ago, sub68 said:

no its the entire tool

https://megaprotools.com/pages/warranty-returns

Yes I agree, but I am thinking on getting the LTT one as its pretty good

I would use racheting if I am always building PC's.

I think some people that want LTT merch do but also some people that are in IT space probably buy it too.

Ok, so looking at the warranty one of the first things they say is it doesn't cover the bits, I should've read it more carefully. I'm not sure how that compares to other tools, but I'd at least like to see LTT sell replacement bits.

I think the screwdriver seems good, however I'd want to see how it stacks up to other brand name tools for the price. I could see people in IT buying this, but besides professional tech use I would wonder if the warranty would cover screwing in screws into wood or using it on a car since this screwdriver is being sold as a tech product.

[tkitch]

8 minutes ago, papajo said:

Give me 1 practical reason I wouldnt buy e.g (one out of many examples) this: https://www.amazon.ca/Multi-bit-Ratcheting-Screwdriver-Phillips-Multi-Bit/dp/B09Y86QMK4/ref=sr_1_5?crid=YMM5HIME84K3&keywords=multibit+ratcheting+screwdriver&qid=1661982013&s=industrial&sprefix=multibit+%2Cindustrial%2C199&sr=1-5

and opt instead for the ltt screw driver.

Again a practical reason so  reasons like  "I want to support the channel"  or "I want a ltt collectible" or "color is nice" do not count. 

The only way I would have paid a premium for an llt screw driver is if I saw attention for utilitarian features especially for IT e.g exchangeable shafts (which btw the klein screw driver has) LEDs to see that little screw deep inside the case/rack a current/short indicator etc. then yes I would consider buying a $100 screw driver from a company that never made tools before. 

Half of the bits there are useless to me on a PC.  No smaller Torx, or other bits that are on the LTT driver stock.

I'll almost never use a bladed, or hex drive, or square drive on a PC.  So I'd basically make up the difference in price buying the bits I want.

 

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

Ok, so looking at the warranty one of the first things they say is it doesn't cover the bits, I should've read it more carefully. I'm not sure how that compares to other tools, but I'd at least like to see LTT sell replacement bits.

I think the screwdriver seems good, however I'd want to see how it stacks up to other brand name tools for the price. I could see people in IT buying this, but besides professional tech use I would wonder if the warranty would cover screwing in screws into wood or using it on a car since this screwdriver is being sold as a tech product.

Linus has said they're going to have a number of bit sets available soon for 7$ a 12 pack (I think was what he said.)  

 

Bit sets being, not just the same as stock.  A collection of security torx, or weird OEM Drivers (such as Nintendo Tri Wing bullshit) and other things like that.  

[Blademaster91]

15 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

If Twitch donations has taught me anything: loads of stupid kids who will spend a significant amount of their bank account to get very little in return.  Friggin' hype culture...

I agree and I guess it shouldn't be that surprising, also considering how many $250 backpacks they sold. I guess it's a problem of parasocial relationships with streamers and content creators, people that shouldn't be spending $80 on a screwdriver do it because they think they're forming a relationship with their favorite channel. The thing that bothers me about LTT doing it is they say they don't like it, but they put up peoples names on the WAN show when they buy merch or give a twitch donation.

[papajo]

14 minutes ago, tkitch said:

Half of the bits there are useless to me on a PC.  No smaller Torx, or other bits that are on the LTT driver stock.

I'll almost never use a bladed, or hex drive, or square drive on a PC.  So I'd basically make up the difference in price buying the bits I want.

The other half is basically what you will use 100% of your time tinkering a PC though... 

Also with +20$ you can buy a 31 bit set from the same company so even if you do that it would be still cheaper and again I dont promote klein tools per se as I said it is just one of the many good brands for screwdrivers the link was only for use as a reference/proof of concept. 

[tkitch]

10 minutes ago, papajo said:

The other half is basically what you will use 100% of your time tinkering a PC though... 

Also with +20$ you can buy a 31 bit set from the same company so even if you do that it would be still cheaper and again I dont promote klein tools per se as I said it is just one of the many good brands for screwdrivers the link was only for use as a reference/proof of concept. 

yup, and Klein makes good tools.

 

Is it better than LTTs?  IDK.  Do you know?