New Outu plierknife variant - commercial electric wire strippers at Home Depot

[ChopperCharles]

Check this out: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-7-in-1-Electrician-s-Multi-Tool-with-Pouch-CE130802/205755862

This is a variant of the Outu switchblade plier knife with wire strippers instead of the regular small pliers. The Outu is one of my absolute favorite cheep and cheerful tools. I’ve EDCed it happily for 6 months at a time. I’ve collected other plier knife tools like the newpow and CRKT Bivy, and those sit on a shelf while my Outu is in regular rotation.

Mostly I use it around the house. I THOUGHT it was the perfect tool for working on home electrical stuff. LED scale, oho blade, a really good, long locking Phillips driver, and an oho bottle opener.  I grab this my Outu whenever I have to change an outlet or switch, it’s just super convenient.

This new tool has wire strippers... the one thing missing from the Outu for the work I’ve put it to. This is pretty damn cool!

However, this new tool is missing the OHO blade. It has a sheepsfoot blade with a nail nick instead. It’s also missing the LED and pocket clip. But it does appear to be close enough that the Outu scales might screw right on, and since everything is screwed together swapping the blade over would be a possibility too. Or just adding a thumb stud to the existing blade.

At any rate, I’m going to swing by HD and see if they have any in the store. I’m kinda stoked!

Charles.

[cody6268]

It's been available for a few years--this thread is dated 2015.

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,63759.msg1200711.html#msg1200711

If I'm in Bristol (we have Lowe's everywhere, but the nearest Home Depots are an hour and a half away in either direction). Or add it to my next Home Depot order. $10 isn't bad.

[gerleatherberman]

Thanks for the info, Cody! 

Ordered one last night. 

[ChopperCharles]

2015, wow I didn't realize that. I have one of the original Outu knives with the aluminum scales, and one with the plastic scales and LED. I actually wore the pliers out on the plastic-scaled version, I used it so much. In truth, I used it for an application it was woefully too small for taking apart a crate that my harbor freight motorcycle lift came in. I used it as a handle to grab the nylon bands around the crate, so that they wouldn't cut into my hand, as I dragged it off the back of the pickup. I then used the pliers to cut the bands and grab and pull on things that were much too heavy for these little pliers to cope with. And... it took all the abuse and didn't fail me during use at all. Nothing bent, but after all that super heavy use I noticed the pliers had a lot of side-to-side play in them. This was before I had myself a Gerber MP600... in fact, it was the reason I decided to get a bigger multitool.

I do plan to take that knife apart and see if I can use my arbor press on the plier pivot to tighten it up again. It looks serviceable in that way.

I'm back to using the aluminum scaled one, and the pliers are still nice and tight. I don't use it as much as I used to because I EDC either an MP600 or a Center Drive now (both modified with pocket clips). But i still do like to carry it, especially when I'm on a motorcycle loaded up with a full toolkit, and don't need to carry a big multitool on my person, as there's one stashed under the seat.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

I just got mine in today. First impression.... they're not as good as the Outu knife. They're a similar design, but not the same. BUT, they're not bad.

For my copy, the switchblade pliers didn't fully extend and operate correctly until I lubricated the tool. The sheepsfoot blade wobbles badly - There are metal washers on either side of the blade, but it needs one more to take up all of the side-to-side play. The bottle opener is shaped differently and the pivot is further back in the tool. The scales are similar, but shaped differently, with the small mounting screw in a different location. The Outu's plier release moves down to disengage the lock, while the commercial electric's moves up. Moving down on the Outu makes one-handed plier retraction possible. It's extremely awkward on the Commercial Electric to do it one handed because the switch moves up. The latch mecanism is much stronger on the wire stripping tool than on either version of the Outu I have.  The phillips screwdriver has a thicker shank in the electrician's tool. Because of the larger tang size, longer length, and more rearward placement of the pivot for the opener, the larger Outu blade will not swap into the electrician's tool. The blade will hit the opener when it's closed. It appears the sheepsfoot blade would easily swap into the Outu though. (Why would you want to though?) The scale rib pattern is very similar to the original aluminum-scaled Outu. They're obviously similar tools designed and made by similar companies. The pliers are thicker in the commercial electric. The plastic spacer in the commercial electric shows a line down the center from the mold. The Outu's plastic spacer is nicely shaped and finished without looking obviously plastic. (this is the part under the pliers and in front of the screwdriver. It's just a cosmetic cover, not structural).

So, that's compared to the original Outu. As a tool? Well the wire cutters perform flawlessly, as do the strippers. It made short work of 16ga wire, both cutting and stripping. Stranded wires are stripped cleanly - no strands of wire ripped out - and very easily. It takes little effort to strip wires because the wire notches have all been very nicely sharpened. The plier tips meet precisely enough to pull out an arm hair, and there is no play in the plier jaws. The pouch is a nice touch, and made of better materials than most, but it's shallow and there's little velcro on the flap, which makes me worried that the top wouldn't stay down and the tool may fall out.

That said, because of the aluminum scales and the ease of removing the screws (unlike the Outu, nothing appears to be locktited), I plan to drill and tap the scales for a pocket clip just like the Outu.  (and shim the blade so it doesn't wobble)

Overall I think this is a good tool. With just a little bit better quality control, LED scales, and a pocket clip, it would be a great tool. I plan to use this for electrical work around my home, garage, and motorcycles. It only goes down to 18ga wire though, so it's not useful for really small wires, like those in a USB cable.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

I added a washer to my sheepsfoot blade and that made it much nicer. It can still be deflected to the side when it's closed in the tool, but it now takes force to do so, whereas before it'd flop around. When opened with the liner lock engaged, there is no longer any play.  This is a highly usable tool.

Charles.

[gerleatherberman]

Thanks for all of the info, Charles!

I had been thinking of getting one to use, so those fixes could come in handy.