Budget Leatherman mods

[Sam Lim]

There doesn't seems to be much love on the budget models.. Just sharing some mod ideas. The outside opening tools on the wingman is nothing new, but I had made a few improvements to it to eliminate the side to side wiggle of the handles. The idea of outside opening tools were picked off YouTube sometime ago. What it doesn't tells u is that everytime you close the pliers, it will push the tools out as the pliers rest are removed. This, is eliminated as well.

2nd is the Rev. I dun see any mods on this. I prefer the cross over cutter on Rev as compared to the wingman. So, the pliers were somewhat transplanted to the body of a wingman. Handle splay is reduced as well. Original on the Rev was extremely wide. Making it very difficult to use. Found myself carrying this more often on medium duty as compared to the much heavier wave.

Will try to post some details.. After I get the pics stuffs sorted out...

[zoidberg]

 

[Poncho65]

Nice Sam

[Sam Lim]

Erm.. The opening post was done almost half a year ago.. I actually forgot about this... How did you even find this Zoidberg..

Long overdue update. 

Outside opening tools on Sidekick/Wingman.

I believe many of you would have seen this video. Its not me in there.. Not sure how many tried to do this.. There are some caveats that were not mentioned in the video.


The internal tools act as a pliers rest/stop. They help to slide the pliers into the closed position. When the tools are moved outside, the pliers will push thru the tools when you try to close it.

Not sure if you can see from the picture.

Not going into detail on how to do the mod, its explained in the video. This is what I have done to counter this. I made a pliers stop to guide the pliers to close properly. If you have taken apart or did this mod, you will understand the picture.



Another problem is the side to side wiggle for the handles in the closed position. You see the 2 little pieces there, it goes a little into the opposite handles when the handles are closed. Effectively stops any side to side play. It looks pokey..but its not prominent enough to feel it in the palm. 


For all the trouble, I DO NOT recommend doing this at all. Its cool but not worth the time really.



Wingman with Rev Pliers.




This is one of my favorite tool. Its really lightweight. OHO blade and scissors. Its not spring loaded but have excellent cross over wire cutter. Acid dunked the scales before. Looks really nice in the picture. Not so much in real life but close enough. 

Its a simple mod. you just need to break the spring tab on the Wingman handles, throw in the Rev pliers. Period.

If you want, you can file down a little at the back of the handle to reduce the handle splay. Do it little by little though. I did it only on one side as I quite like the how the tool will curve forward.



* These are rather affordable tools. I am not breaking them intentionally. These are just fun projects to do personally. 

[Wspeed]

That's looking good Sam Lim 

[Sam Lim]

That's looking good Sam Lim 

  these are rather easy modifications to make things work better. 

Again, I have many spare things lying around. These are just fun things to do if you have spare time. 

[Shane O'Neal]

Did not care for the bottle opener belt clip on my Skeletool KBX. Just seemed like it was too much of a compromise. Not a good bottle opener nor a good belt clip.

Turns out the belt clip from the Crater fits perfectly. Same length, but won't catch on the bottle opener.

I can still open bottles with the blade spine...

[ReamerPunch]

The outside tools on the Sideckick/Wingman is a neat idea, and I do not consider it a small mod. It is excellent. It changes what the tool is.
It also shows how easily LM could have made them even better by default. Great mods. 

[Sam Lim]

The outside tools on the Sideckick/Wingman is a neat idea, and I do not consider it a small mod. It is excellent. It changes what the tool is.
It also shows how easily LM could have made them even better by default. Great mods. 

 

All credits of the ouside opening tools goes to the originator of the video. I only corrected some issues related to the original mod that was not mentioned in the video

[Marcellus]

Really like the Sidekick with all tools accessible without having to open up the pliers.

The mod looks like a surgical procedure however.

That procedure, l personally, would not attempt myself. Others might.

Yeah,  Leatherman would have nailed this handy, no frills, tool if it came from the factory with all external tools.

It's one of my favorite Leatherman multitools, yeah I said  it, and I own the precious Wave  and a number other crowd favorites.