Kirks long term Fit-ness test

[AimlessWanderer]

You lost a screw ... and that's the tool's fault?  Lose or destroyed?

[kirk13]

In fairness to the Fit, the 58mil combo tool would have been the only Vic driver to fit,and LM would only have had the super thin eve glass driver...it was a simple yet hard test

[kirk13]

You lost a screw ... and that's the tool's fault?  Lose or destroyed?

In this case yes

The driver failed to bite in the screw head,the whole combo slipped,and sayonara screw! Normally I can find the damn things,but it takes me to hear it land....

[AimlessWanderer]

You lost a screw ... and that's the tool's fault?  Lose or destroyed?

In this case yes

The driver failed to bite in the screw head,the whole combo slipped,and sayonara screw! Normally I can find the damn things,but it takes me to hear it land....

Ah, gotcha 

[3rdpig]

Poor Gerber, whoever designs their philips drivers doesn't usually do a good job

Worst part of every Gerber tool I've ever owned. Even worse than the knife, and that's saying something. And since the Phillips is one of my most used tools most Gerber tools won't work for me. The Fit and Balance have been better though, but not up to Leatherman or Vic.

[kirk13]

November 5/6/7

The weekend saw two very fustrating HFT comps,and the sad realisation that my BSA Ultra is pissing air from somewhere,so I wasn't over happy heading back to work on Fubarsday the 5th. I walked into a five cage delivery,of which I had space for two cages of stock The Fit got stuck in,and although the knife behaved itself well,a new irritating quirk has appeared,in that if the blade is open and locked,and you don't have your hand wrapped right around the chassis,the bit driver drops to a quarter open!

In itself its not that big a deal,but I'd be worried now that if it were the bit driver open,it might be the blade dropping open

Having said that,the torch once again performed well in a semi lit stockroom. I've had little call to use the drivers over the last three days,so nothing to report there.

Wednesday calmed down somewhat,and aside from chasing product codes thru our till system,Thursday was positively tranquil! The big news of Thursday was that the scissors finally seen some use! I had lent them to our Aussie girl to do a fair amount of gift wrapping. The interesting twist was that AG is disabled,only having lost her left arm. AG not only commented that the Fit was 'cute',but that the scissors were as good as a full sized pair. More interestingly,she was able to fold up the scissors one handed without any difficulty!

I made a decision last night that the today and tomorrow will be the last days of the long term test,as by now I think I've given it a fair test,and it's seen all the challenges it's likely too. More over,I feel I can present valid conclusions from my experiences,so stay tuned for the last days of the Fit!

[Gareth]

[CanadianLMfan]

 

[kirk13]

Go back,read the early posts in the thread...I can't really take pix at work.

[CanadianLMfan]

Go back,read the early posts in the thread...I can't really take pix at work.

 
Take them anyways!

[Gareth]

Go back,read the early posts in the thread...I can't really take pix at work.

 
Take them anyways!

Enough with the  mate, it comes across as rude.

[kirk13]

Go back,read the early posts in the thread...I can't really take pix at work.

 
Take them anyways!

Seriously,it could cost me my job to do so

[CanadianLMfan]

Go back,read the early posts in the thread...I can't really take pix at work.

 
Take them anyways!

Enough with the  mate, it comes across as rude.

Fine, I'll use

[Gareth]

Go back,read the early posts in the thread...I can't really take pix at work.

 
Take them anyways!

Enough with the  mate, it comes across as rude.

Fine, I'll use

don't.

[kirk13]

Anyway...back to our scheduled programming...

November 8

Today was one of those odd days work wise,in that I spent most of the day in head office,in meetings with suppliers. As much as I don't like being around the desk jockeys,its good to have my regular buyer back from maternity leave,and to get things moving regarding new stock.

So where does the Fit fit in? Well,this afternoon the Fit was brought out in the company boardroom( it's really not terribly grand) to unscrew a sample of a potential new range( it was a Aston DB9,the new one ). I have to admit I enjoyed multitooling in the seat of power,so to speak.

The down side was that something I'd been worried about happened...I had the large bit driver out,undoing the retaining screws on the Astons base,and yes,out dropped the blade Not surprised,but not pleased.

Tomorrow is the last ride of the Fit,and I can't say I'm not looking forward to the return of the million dollar Wenger,and the KST 

[Gareth]

Well I have to say I'm disappointed.  I'd love to have read that the Fit had been perfect in all ways and that you were planning on carrying it for the rest of time.  Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case.

[AimlessWanderer]

Agreed, and the stowed tools falling open when another tool is locked out to use is something I have encountered before, on my BG Strata. Never noticed if on my Fit before though  I'll need to check that tomorrow ... if I remember ...

[kirk13]

I have to admit to being a bit disappointed quality wise,but I think even this light workout has pushed the Fit out of its comfort zone. When I do the final round up,I'll come back to this in more depth.

If it wasn't for the JerseyDevil,and 50ft-trad I'd be having serious doubts about the Balance as well!

Funny enough,I think a few people will be surprised at my final findings!

[AimlessWanderer]

I have to admit to being a bit disappointed quality wise,but I think even this light workout has pushed the Fit out of its comfort zone. When I do the final round up,I'll come back to this in more depth.

If it wasn't for the JerseyDevil,and 50ft-trad I'd be having serious doubts about the Balance as well!

Funny enough,I think a few people will be surprised at my final findings!

I'll be interested to hear more on that topic, as well as the Fit conclusions ...

 

[enki_ck]

My initial worries were about the scissors only, didn't think you would have problems with any other tools on it. I don't think I read anything about the scissors not doing their job (might have missed it though) but almost every other part of the Fit except the flashlight had it's problems during this testing period.

Looking forward to hear your summary of it all though.

[kirk13]

I have to admit to being a bit disappointed quality wise,but I think even this light workout has pushed the Fit out of its comfort zone. When I do the final round up,I'll come back to this in more depth.

If it wasn't for the JerseyDevil,and 50ft-trad I'd be having serious doubts about the Balance as well!

Funny enough,I think a few people will be surprised at my final findings!

I'll be interested to hear more on that topic, as well as the Fit conclusions ...

 

Well I seen the amount of stick yours has taken,and Tom is a frequent user...neither of you have given any negative feedback on the Balance

[AimlessWanderer]

Sorry John, I meant interested on why the serious doubts

[kirk13]

Sorry John, I meant interested on why the serious doubts

My bad Al!

The Fit and the Balance are kinda a pair,both sort of non handy man MTs. They,on the surface,share similar construction and so forth.

[AimlessWanderer]

Yeah, the Balance is very "urban" and not what I'd classify as a work tool. As an off duty tool it's one of my favourites though 

[CanadianLMfan]

Go back,read the early posts in the thread...I can't really take pix at work.

 
Take them anyways!

Enough with the  mate, it comes across as rude.

Fine, I'll use

don't.

Fine, 

[Cupboard]

You don't need pictures on a thread like this when you've got a good description and imagination. I think John's done a fantastic job really

You never did elaborate on why a Cybertool wasn't suitable though? It has nice long drivers, decent blade and scissors... doesn't have a good torch but you can carry an AAA light of Fauxton easily enough.

[kirk13]

You don't need pictures on a thread like this when you've got a good description and imagination. I think John's done a fantastic job really

You never did elaborate on why a Cybertool wasn't suitable though? It has nice long drivers, decent blade and scissors... doesn't have a good torch but you can carry an AAA light of Fauxton easily enough.

Thanks for the nice words Tom!

Sorry,yes,the Cybertool....

A Cyber-Yeoman would be almost perfect  Right,yes...the problem with the CT was the same one that tends to knacker most bit drivers for everyday( omg I'm going to regret this ) screwing...very often the screws I'm dealing with are in deep narrow recesses,so either the bit is too short to contact the screw head,or bit driver is too wide to enter the recess. Even the diminutive CT tripped up on this . On a not unrelated note,I'm considering copying your Wave mod

[Syph007]

You don't need pictures on a thread like this when you've got a good description and imagination. I think John's done a fantastic job really

You never did elaborate on why a Cybertool wasn't suitable though? It has nice long drivers, decent blade and scissors... doesn't have a good torch but you can carry an AAA light of Fauxton easily enough.

Thanks for the nice words Tom!

Sorry,yes,the Cybertool....

A Cyber-Yeoman would be almost perfect  Right,yes...the problem with the CT was the same one that tends to knacker most bit drivers for everyday( omg I'm going to regret this ) screwing...very often the screws I'm dealing with are in deep narrow recesses,so either the bit is too short to contact the screw head,or bit driver is too wide to enter the recess. Even the diminutive CT tripped up on this . On a not unrelated note,I'm considering copying your Wave mod

Thats why my favorite driver has been that long skinny phillips on the workchamp.  All the kids toys seem to have recessed screws that none of the normal phillips can reach. I wish that driver was an option on the 91mm SAKs.

[kirk13]

I got a Workchamp in the Dash4it bonanza,and I'm tempted to run it for a couple of weeks to see how it compares.

And yeah,it'd be sweet on a 91

[Cupboard]

You don't need pictures on a thread like this when you've got a good description and imagination. I think John's done a fantastic job really

You never did elaborate on why a Cybertool wasn't suitable though? It has nice long drivers, decent blade and scissors... doesn't have a good torch but you can carry an AAA light of Fauxton easily enough.

Thanks for the nice words Tom!

Sorry,yes,the Cybertool....

A Cyber-Yeoman would be almost perfect  Right,yes...the problem with the CT was the same one that tends to knacker most bit drivers for everyday( omg I'm going to regret this ) screwing...very often the screws I'm dealing with are in deep narrow recesses,so either the bit is too short to contact the screw head,or bit driver is too wide to enter the recess. Even the diminutive CT tripped up on this . On a not unrelated note,I'm considering copying your Wave mod

Ah! I rarely come across screws that the CT would struggle with but often come across ones where the LM bit extender doesn't fit, hence my Wave.

Feel free to copy it, it's a very easy mod and completely reversible too. All you need is a washer of approximately the right size and the MUT bit. I think I'm using an M6 stainless washer, if you'd like one drop me a PM.