Hello everyone!
A few months ago I found some videos on Youtube showing very small toolkits. I loved the idea of having such a kit, but a lot of them were more into survival or had tools that i would never ever use. Also there were often tools as doubles which was a lot of wasted space. I found a few threads here, but most of them were nearly ten years old. So I think in the year 2023 there are some new ideas for micro toolkits.
So I am starting this thread with my own thoughts and ideas and hope to collect a lot of them.
I wanted a toolkit to do some really basic stuff in an engineering standpoint, but as small as possible so I can just grab an carry it with me in case I suspect to need tools. So I started building my own one in addition to the tools I already have as EDC in my pocket. You may see here some items that are not that common in such kits - at least till now.
To understand the items I put into it, you first have to know what I always carry on a daily base. It is the multitool I presented
here a while ago and a ratcheting bit screwdriver. The multitool contains a lot of functionality including the wrench. The bit screwdriver has this bits:
- Two sizes of flat
- PZ1 (can screw a lot of Philips as well without problems)
- T20 (can also screw T25 when not too much torque needed)
- Socket adaptor with 10mm socket
So there is no need for a wrench, a knife and a big bit screwdriver. Also carrying a smartphone so there is no need for a dedicated flashlight. Those are items present in most of the kits I saw and they are just redundant for me wasting space. I already carry those in my pockets as EDC.
But now, the kit. It is a simple and cheap camera bag from Hama which I bought at about 2€. A lot of videos I watched have very pricy tools included. My tools are more cheap and cheerful. In case I loose the bag, I don't want to loose that much money. The size is about double a regular computer mouse. The weight is about 480g (17oz). It can fit onto my belt, into a jacket or even into the side pockets of my work pants (not worse than a big wrench).
The bag is completely stuffed with tools. Everything rests tight in its place, as long you just remove one item you need.
Now have a look at the items.
The top half is in the front pocket of the bag. From left to right:
- Zip ties
- Hot glue with electrical tape
- Wago 221 connectors
- Wire 1,5mm² solid
- Solder
Those things are mostly for just fixing something electrical that is broken. Destroyed the cable of your device? Use the Wagos and tape to quickly put it together and continue work. Also you can use the solder and the lighter to put wires back together or make stranded wires suitable for screw terminals.
This is not the right way of doing it. But in case you have nothing else there, you can do it and fix it afterwards right, but continue your work. The hot glue also works in combination with the lighter.
Bottom half from left to right:
- 1 Meter tape measure with integrated level
- UNI-T UT120B pocket multimeter
- Bit kit including hex bits up to 6mm
- Lighter
- 1/4" bit extender with 1/4" adaptor for sockets and an 8mm socket
- 1/4" socket extension with 13mm socket
- Bit ratchet with 8mm wrench on the other side
- 8mm allen wrench
- Bit screwdriver for 4mm precision bits
The bits in the bit holder I put upside down to save some space. The sockets and the extensions are combined that way I wrote so there is nothing flying around in the bag. There is no complete socket set. In Germany you need for smaller nuts and bolts at 95% of the time only three sockets: 8mm, 10mm and 13mm. 10mm is missing because it is already in my EDC screwdriver and I wanted no doubles. As long something is not from US, Japan or just uses very specific bolts and nuts, you are fine with this setup. In case I need a missing size, I can try the adjustable wrench.
The ratchet is from Lux Tools, but also sold for example under the brand Bosch Promoline and other brands. The 8mm on the other side is very handy. Not only you have an 8mm boxed wrench for tight spaces. You can use an 8mm allen wrench as a cheater bar. The allen wrench also adds up the biggest size to the bits. Here is the comlete ratchet setup.
Things I am thinking about adding in the future:
- Side cutters (Pliers and scissors on the multitool work most of the time, but sometimes you need them)
- Mini Prybar
- USB drive
Sadly the toolbag is full already, so addings those tools is problematic. To do it, I need to go one size bigger. Only the USB can be added without problems and I will do it in near future. It will be at least 32GB containing
Easy2Boot with some useful Live Linux Distributions and some other handy files and also could be used to share files.
How do your micro toolkits look like? Thinking about going one size bigger and adding a few more tools, so collecting a few more ideas would be nice.
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