mklotz
Well-Known Member
I carry a Leatherman Wave all the time. I can't count the number of times it's pulled my acorns (and those of a few other people) out of the fire.
It's a great product - highly recommended - but has one annoying feature. The reversible screwdriver bit is a flat proprietary design. One can buy other bits from Leatherman but they're pricey. If they had made the receiver on the tool the standard quarter inch hex, as is done on the Smith&Wesson version of this tool, one could use any of the plethora of commonly available bits. The other problem is that the bit, when installed in the receiver, is short - very close to the bulk of the tool - so that working on any screw that is recessed or close to some obstruction is difficult, if not impossible.
Being the cheap SOB I am, I bought a cheap magnetic bit extender ($1 at HF) like the one on the left and ground the tang down to fit in the Wave receiver. It's shown in the middle on the first picture. It turns out that the across-points dimension of the hex is already the correct size. All one needs to do is grind the flats. Now I can use any of my huge collection of screwdriver bits as well as 1/4" sockets with the aid of a hex-to-square adaptor.
It's a great product - highly recommended - but has one annoying feature. The reversible screwdriver bit is a flat proprietary design. One can buy other bits from Leatherman but they're pricey. If they had made the receiver on the tool the standard quarter inch hex, as is done on the Smith&Wesson version of this tool, one could use any of the plethora of commonly available bits. The other problem is that the bit, when installed in the receiver, is short - very close to the bulk of the tool - so that working on any screw that is recessed or close to some obstruction is difficult, if not impossible.
Being the cheap SOB I am, I bought a cheap magnetic bit extender ($1 at HF) like the one on the left and ground the tang down to fit in the Wave receiver. It's shown in the middle on the first picture. It turns out that the across-points dimension of the hex is already the correct size. All one needs to do is grind the flats. Now I can use any of my huge collection of screwdriver bits as well as 1/4" sockets with the aid of a hex-to-square adaptor.