A discussion of everything 1/4dr

[Uncle Buck]

That seems very high cost to me. It's worth at most $20 to me. That guy is building a retirement nest egg in my opinion.

Pretty much my thoughts as well. 40 seems way high. I'd have to really want for even 20.

Agreed, I don't recall paying more than about $5 or so if memory serves. If I had an extra I would gift it to him. I had two of them, now my son has one of them.

[Hickory n Steel]

You are correct that finding one in the wild is quite unlikely. In decades of rooting through flea markets, junk shops, pawn shops, garage sales, etc. I think I have only ever seen one of them.

And that's why I was willing to pay the $40.

[Uncle Buck]

You are correct that finding one in the wild is quite unlikely. In decades of rooting through flea markets, junk shops, pawn shops, garage sales, etc. I think I have only ever seen one of them.

And that's why I was willing to pay the $40.

I cannot deny making the same decision for the same reason more than once myself.  I can say that while costly, I doubt you will ever find a driver that is its equal. I count it my highest quality driver over all others, regardless the brand.

[Hickory n Steel]

You are correct that finding one in the wild is quite unlikely. In decades of rooting through flea markets, junk shops, pawn shops, garage sales, etc. I think I have only ever seen one of them.

And that's why I was willing to pay the $40.

I cannot deny making the same decision for the same reason more than once myself.  I can say that while costly, I doubt you will ever find a driver that is its equal. I count it my highest quality driver over all others, regardless the brand.

I certainly can't think of anything cooler.
With that being said however it just dawned on me that I don't really know how these things work.

I know the grip can spin or be fixed in place , but how does that work?
I see a detent ball and I see a roll pin I believe but that's about all I really know.

[j.a.f.e.]

The knurled handle slides up and down. Down it engages the detent ball and locks the handle. Up it disengages the detent and spins freely. The roll pin retains the handle from sliding further and holds everything together.

The top one is disengaged and the handle free spinning, the bottom locked like a normal spinner.

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[Hickory n Steel]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Uncle Buck]

You are correct that finding one in the wild is quite unlikely. In decades of rooting through flea markets, junk shops, pawn shops, garage sales, etc. I think I have only ever seen one of them.

And that's why I was willing to pay the $40.

I cannot deny making the same decision for the same reason more than once myself.  I can say that while costly, I doubt you will ever find a driver that is its equal. I count it my highest quality driver over all others, regardless the brand.

I certainly can't think of anything cooler.
With that being said however it just dawned on me that I don't really know how these things work.

I know the grip can spin or be fixed in place , but how does that work?
I see a detent ball and I see a roll pin I believe but that's about all I really know.

You are correct that finding one in the wild is quite unlikely. In decades of rooting through flea markets, junk shops, pawn shops, garage sales, etc. I think I have only ever seen one of them.

And that's why I was willing to pay the $40.

I cannot deny making the same decision for the same reason more than once myself.  I can say that while costly, I doubt you will ever find a driver that is its equal. I count it my highest quality driver over all others, regardless the brand.

I certainly can't think of anything cooler.
With that being said however it just dawned on me that I don't really know how these things work.

 I know the grip can spin or be fixed in place , but how does that work?
I see a detent ball and I see a roll pin I believe but that's about all I really know.

You pull back on the knurled part of the handle and it will spin freely from the rest of the handle. On the knurled end of the driver there is a female  drive for use with a ratchet or extension.  The knurled part may slade forward instead of back on the center, I don't recall. To lock the knurled part simply slide it back into its original position on the center and it locks tightly.

[bmwrd0]

I swung by an estate sale on my way back from the dog park, and picked this up

It was a set made by Wright for Klein, but I still need to find a couple sockets (7/16 and 9/16) and the ratchet.

I seems that someone stuck the cardboard from the box it came in on the top, but the original decal is still in place.

[goodfellow]

Nice find -- those little goodies are getting much harder to find these days.

[Hickory n Steel]

Is that a 3/8 set ?
Nice find either way.

[bmwrd0]

Ha! it is a 3/8 set, not sure why I put it here. Senior moment, I guess.

[Hickory n Steel]

Ha! it is a 3/8 set, not sure why I put it here. Senior moment, I guess.

I was just wondering because I don't remember ever seeing a 1/4 tootsie roll handle from WRIGHT before.

[Hickory n Steel]

After 3 or 4 years or so that Harbor frights version of the HI-FIVE flex head bit ratchet kit has been on the market and never in stock near me I finally got one today, and am disappointed that Harbor freight had some changes made to their version.



This is a VIM RBF400K, aside from being much longer they are made how the FACOM USAG & Toptul...etc have been for the 15 years or so that they've been around.

They used an flattened corner on the extension and filled corner on the ratchet itself for the line up to pass through feature.

This is the current ICON.

They switched to a tooth and groove arrangement.

I dislike this because the bits don't seat in as far which creates a couple issues.
It makes for a taller profile, and you can't push on the back of the bits to aid in removal.

Here are the 1/4 adapters from each


The VIM ( it's the best but lesser seen version of adapter ) is on the right.



It's lower profile plus it protrudes just enough out the back ( intentionally and more so than the bits) to be able to push on it for easy removal.
You can use this one in the current Icon and it is still a lower profile adapter, but is hard to remove like every bit in the Icon .
The retention on the Icon is better (to be fair my VIM has less than it used to ) which is good, but bits are hard to remove and wouldn't be if I could push on the back to get them started.
I wanted to just swap the guts between the two, but other changes were made and they won't fit.