I am a sucker for multi-tools, and Menards had these on sale for $15.00, and there was a $5.00 mail-in rebate, making the price $9.99, so I bought their multi-tool this morning.
It looked neat, and it had a bit driver, and I just thought it was cool.
It wasn't until I opened the knife that I realized there was a problem. The knife is just kind of bolted on the side of the handle and the blade opens right next to the plier jaws. I actually tried cutting some stuff and you can't really cut with it. You can slice away at things but if you try to cut through something, the pliers hit the right side of whatever you're trying to cut and you come to a stop. I don't know why I couldn't see that it would happen just by looking at the tool, but it wasn't until I tried to cut something that I realized it. You can get around it by just using the tip of the blade, angling it downward and making small passes, but I think its just a bad design. I also think there are some multi-tools that in a pinch you could use them as a weapon, but not the Irwin Multi-Pliers.
I still could have lived with that, there are a lot of cutting jobs the blade could do, anything that was no more than an inch in diameter - for example. But when I extended the blade I found a real problem. The blade is about the cheapest folding setup I've run across. The blade was just loosey-goosey. It had about 3/16" of play in it, I mean I could wiggle it at the tip and it would travel back and forth about 3/16" of an inch. I didn't expect it to lock up rock-solid but this thing had way too much play to it. It uses a liner lock and when I actually looked at the liner lock, it was a really thin piece of metal and I couldn't see anything that prevented over-travel. The spring just stopped where it stopped because thats how far it went when fully let out.
I was super-disappointed.
I took it back to Menards after just buying it.
I was pretty hyped about getting what I thought was going to be decent pliers, a bit driver and a serviceable blade for $9.99 but wasn't to be
.
It looked neat, and it had a bit driver, and I just thought it was cool.
It wasn't until I opened the knife that I realized there was a problem. The knife is just kind of bolted on the side of the handle and the blade opens right next to the plier jaws. I actually tried cutting some stuff and you can't really cut with it. You can slice away at things but if you try to cut through something, the pliers hit the right side of whatever you're trying to cut and you come to a stop. I don't know why I couldn't see that it would happen just by looking at the tool, but it wasn't until I tried to cut something that I realized it. You can get around it by just using the tip of the blade, angling it downward and making small passes, but I think its just a bad design. I also think there are some multi-tools that in a pinch you could use them as a weapon, but not the Irwin Multi-Pliers.
I still could have lived with that, there are a lot of cutting jobs the blade could do, anything that was no more than an inch in diameter - for example. But when I extended the blade I found a real problem. The blade is about the cheapest folding setup I've run across. The blade was just loosey-goosey. It had about 3/16" of play in it, I mean I could wiggle it at the tip and it would travel back and forth about 3/16" of an inch. I didn't expect it to lock up rock-solid but this thing had way too much play to it. It uses a liner lock and when I actually looked at the liner lock, it was a really thin piece of metal and I couldn't see anything that prevented over-travel. The spring just stopped where it stopped because thats how far it went when fully let out.
I was super-disappointed.
I took it back to Menards after just buying it.
I was pretty hyped about getting what I thought was going to be decent pliers, a bit driver and a serviceable blade for $9.99 but wasn't to be
.