Power Access Owners BEWARE

[AimlessWanderer]

What a bizarre anomaly. Thanks for the insights on that.

I hope you can find and eliminate the route cause 

[kaput]

Stupid comment alert. But, are y'all sure this isn't a feature but a defect?

[Zephon]

  That's what they say in software development -- if you can't find a way to clean out a bug, you can always document it as a feature 
  It's actually a hidden feature to make you use your Gerber, Leatherman, Spirit MT's to see whose metal file can shave off more material and can get into smaller areas 

Will let you guys know what I find out when after I get home from work later. 

I'm not sure what the encircled part does on the PowerPlay, but on the PowerAccess, those are the tool locks.  Unless someone tells me otherwise, my opinion is that the PowerAccess' problem is due to that part going beyond the level of the handles.  By design, it's flushed to the handle -- make any part of it a fraction of a millimeter off or, a pivot point that's not 100% on target, would cause the pivot locks on either handle to hit each other raising either 1 lock or both by a fraction of a millimeter.  If the lock hinges of the tools were below the handle line like the encircled part in the picture, then this tool would lock with a *click* properly and tools won't bend back.  At least that's my opinion.




ps. yes, it's a midnight minichamp.

[dks]

Again, blame the brand, not the factory - The reason you are getting bad SOG products is because SOG is happy selling you these products, not because the evil Chinese are cheating the poor, honest US company. Is SOG run by incompetent morons?
You can get crappy quality in all countries, if you want to.

Has there been a recall? If not then SOG is selling you the product they ordered, based on the requirements they placed on the manufacturer. Remember the Powerduo?

Why do people assume that only US companies can produce good products? Is Sal Glesser getting many complaints about the Byrd and Chinese Spyderco lines?  Do you think he inspects each knife? Are Bear and Son products superior to all other products made out of the US?

[Zephon]

Hey, guess what? I think that picture of the Power Play helped solve the problem. Yeah, it's a tolerance issue, all right. Bad design? Bad execution? Bad part selection? Hard to say. What's important right now is I think I now have a fully working tool.

My take away from all this:
- Rebar has a very aggressive 3-sided metal file. Just has an odd shape.
- Spirit has a darn good 3-sided metal file that can get inside nooks and crannies because of the size and shape.
- Gerber MP600 and MP800 metal files are no match for the 2 above.
- MP600 (and MP400) are still king of OHO pliers.
- why doesn't LM put washers between the Rebar tools to prevent clumping?
- I was using a Rebar, MP600, MP800, then Power Access til my armpits were sweaty, then I switch to a Spirit. That is when you'll know the meaning of ergonomics in a tool.

[WoodsDuck]

Again, blame the brand, not the factory - The reason you are getting bad SOG products is because SOG is happy selling you these products, not because the evil Chinese are cheating the poor, honest US company. Is SOG run by incompetent morons?
You can get crappy quality in all countries, if you want to.

Has there been a recall? If not then SOG is selling you the product they ordered, based on the requirements they placed on the manufacturer. Remember the Powerduo?

Why do people assume that only US companies can produce good products? Is Sal Glesser getting many complaints about the Byrd and Chinese Spyderco lines?  Do you think he inspects each knife? Are Bear and Son products superior to all other products made out of the US?

You're absolutely right here. The more time and money a company invests in quality control, the fewer lemons will make it to the customers. This includes outsourced production.
Just off the top of my head, I have owned/used good quality tools/knives/firearms from China, Taiwan, Canada, Malaysia, South Africa, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Germany, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Vietnam, Russia, and probably some I'm forgetting.

USA made products aren't guaranteed to be good, and products made in other countries (including China) aren't guaranteed to be bad. But I think most posters here know all that, honestly.

[dks]

I think in the West, here included, we have not yet realised that there are good Chinese products and bad Chinese products - The term "Chinese" is used here to describe lower quality products, usually by salesmen trying to convince you that their product is better - in many cases their product is actually made in china too, but has a western brand name on it - I got a very German freezer a few years ago, with the salesman telling me how good a company it was and so on because it was German, only for me to point out that the actual compressor, the heart of the whole freezer was made in China.

The freezer has not missed a beat in 2/3 years and it is operating in temperatures reaching 45 Celsius.

There is a lot of rubbish coming from China too, but we are the ones buying it, knowingly, so they keep making it. When I pay 2 Euros in total to have a light sent to me from China, I am not expecting miracles...

There are also political issues, as there were with Japan after the 2nd World War.

[Zephon]

How about the other guys who have the same defect? Did you guys send it for replacement? How was the replacement piece?

What I honestly can't figure out here is why the problem is isolated to the knife and flat head side of the tool. The file side was healthy enough to give a *click* when deploying a tool.

[Zephon]

*sigh* the awl just folded back on me when I was applying downward force when trying to make a hole at the handle end of a plastic knife.

I guess it's just a half baked solution I came up with.

[the_dude]

i had the large flathead driver fold on my when applying light-moderate force the other night.

does SOG read this forum?

[rdub934]

The medium driver/cap-lifter folds back on my example It is the only implement on the tool to do it, but it is a critical one - it renders the cap-lifter useless since to operate successfully, it needs to be locked securely. When I have the time, I will send it back to SOG for repair/replacement. SOG is really close to having an amazing tool with the PowerAccess, but needs to iron these kinks out.

[sLaughterMed]

Just wanted to report that my PowerAccess is still working as intended, although I still haven't gotten around to fixing the clip. I guess I got a good example.

[Padre]

I was so much waiting for this tool, but I am going to skip it now as people are having problems with their locks.. Sad day for SOG. PowerPlay and Reactor were such an dissappointment to me that now I am really careful with this brand.

I wonder if the good 'ol SOG will return someday...

[the_dude]

nothing new here, but for the sake of posterity, i feel it should be mentioned.  i had the awl/reamer fold on me under light pressure while i was reaming out a small hole in some sheetrock.  that means the drivers on both sides of my poweraccess do not lock. 

[Grathr]

The blade in mine just had the same failure. I was cutting some thick cardboard, when suddenly the blade gave away backbards like in Def’s pics.

[AimlessWanderer]

This seems to be a significant and widespread issue.

SOG really ought to be responding to this

[the_dude]

i contacted the warranty dept via email this morning, and mentioned similar issues appearing to be widespread.  the customer service rep responded a few hours later, asked me to send mine in for repairs, and said that they had not received much if any similar negative feedback. so i sent him a link to this thread.  hopefully they will address the issue. 

[kaput]

Sounds like the need a revision 2 on this design. Looks like people really like it (I had my eye on it too). But it seems like it's a design/functionality oversight. Bummer. Definitley has that cool factor 

[the_dude]

i didn't send mine in for warranty until just this week, but notice one more crappy thing about it before sending it off: the pocket clip comes loose and falls off nearly every day.  it you tighten it enough to prevent this from happening, the pliers won't open.  i really hate to resort to using locktite. 

we'll see what they do about all of the flaws.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I haven't had that problem myself.  My Power Access has a fair few miles on it now and the pocket clip is still rock solid.

I hope they get it sorted out for you ASAP!

Def

[WoodsDuck]

I haven't had that problem myself.  My Power Access has a fair few miles on it now and the pocket clip is still rock solid.

I hope they get it sorted out for you ASAP!

Def

I haven't even had the lock slippage issue on mine. It does seem super common though. I must be one of the lucky few.

[gerleatherberman]

Got my poweraccess in today. Upon checking it out, I immediately noticed the problem Grant had, but with the phillips driver. The lock tab didn't sit inside the tool's back groove very well and the phillips just went backwards. I took a needle file to the top of the groove notch and remedied the issue without any disassembly. But, it should have never left the factory like that. I'll post a photo in a bit with the quick fix.

[gerleatherberman]

First photo shows the tab bypassing the tang notch. Needle file took a miniscule amount of metal from the edge to open the notch a tad. Now it sits perfectly. I will do this to all of the tools on this poweraccess. Hope this saves some people return shipping on their poweraccess.
This is not an issue with the locking system in my opinion, but a QC issue.
SOG SOG SOG. 

[Zephon]

I’m gonna zombie up this thread since I also zombied up this tool up from 2017.

I had extra time yesterday afternoon and took apart the PowerAccess to test a theory I had.

The red circle in the picture shows how I slightly bent the ‘lock spring’ counter to the unlocking direction. I made sure not to bend it too much so the metal won’t break.

The red rectangle is where I shaved off some metal using a ST300’s metal file. The lock is not practically flush with the frame. Not sure if it matters.

My problem is now with the large/r flathead. It still folds on itself but not as easily as before. I moved it to the far end across the knife and didn’t place a washer between it and the frame.

Hopefully this makes the tool a bit more……useable and won’t cause picture #3 to happen.