WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:07.440 this is it it's finally here the LTT screwdriver 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:10.080 and truth is we didn't have to make it there are loads of perfectly good 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:15.920 screwdrivers but this one this one is the best everything from the 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:20.000 convenient bit storage to the perfectly tuned sound and feel of the ratchet 00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:25.039 mechanism to the fact that it is naturally perfectly balanced as all 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:28.160 things should be is second to none and the handle is designed to be super 00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:31.920 comfortable whether your hands resemble catcher's mitts or you buy your gloves 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:35.840 from the children's section but getting it to this point was an adventure and 00:00:34.239 --> 00:00:41.040 even with my experience in product management a shockingly expensive 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:46.719 adventure i mean how can it take three years and hundreds of thousands of 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:48.160 dollars to make something so seemingly 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:52.000 basic i'm going to tell you 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:57.920 but first i gotta start paying for this thing with this segway to our sponsor 00:00:56.480 --> 00:01:02.239 of course it's called a sponsor spot why wouldn't it have a sponsor spot 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:06.159 simple mdm simple mdm offers ridiculously simple apple device 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:09.119 management for it enrolling your company's apple devices and keeping them 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:14.080 up to date doesn't have to be frustrating get 50 off your first three 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:16.640 months at simplemdm.com Linus 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:30.000 rather than reinventing the wheel the smart engineer finds the best existing 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:34.320 wheel and then refines it so right out of the gate megapro was an obvious 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:38.640 partner first of all their ratchet mechanism is fantastic and has been 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:44.079 proven reliable in the field for over 25 years second they own the patent on what 00:01:41.759 --> 00:01:48.000 i believe is literally the best bit loader available for a ratcheting 00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:51.759 screwdriver third and this wasn't a requirement but it was a huge bonus 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:57.600 their office is a 20-minute drive from ours making collaboration much easier 00:01:54.640 --> 00:02:02.320 now the especially smart thing to do what megapro implored us to do would 00:02:00.240 --> 00:02:07.520 have been to simply rebrand one of their existing drivers a little bit of LTT 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:12.080 logo there some LTT color here maybe some computer specific bits and we would 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:16.720 have been good to go unfortunately i'm a perfectionist control freak who hates 00:02:14.239 --> 00:02:21.599 making money so instead we embarked on our three year journey that would have 00:02:18.480 --> 00:02:24.000 us redesign nearly every single aspect 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:28.000 of megapro's existing product does this look anything alike to you 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:31.040 i mean they're both screwdrivers other than that the answer is 00:02:30.239 --> 00:02:35.280 no for one thing megapro's ratchet works in 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:41.200 the opposite direction that you are screwing in and not being able to alter this would 00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:45.200 have been a complete show stopper for me upon hearing that it should be pretty 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:50.720 simple to go ratchet right screw in right we green lit the project 00:02:48.239 --> 00:02:54.959 more on that later though next we had to redesign the handle to be clear theirs 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:59.040 is great for automotive applications where you really want a giver up near 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:04.720 the top of the driver but it didn't provide the finer control that i expect 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:06.159 in a more general use driver also it's 00:03:04.720 --> 00:03:10.000 a little more than i can handle if you catch my drift 00:03:08.239 --> 00:03:13.920 at this point i was recruited design handled feels both when you have your 00:03:11.760 --> 00:03:17.760 hand up at the top or when you have it choked up kind of like this i settled on 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.920 a three lobe design for the way it just kind of naturally follows the shape of 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.239 your hand and from there i got to do my favorite thing rapid prototyping my 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:29.599 philosophy is that there's no point in trying to make something perfect the 00:03:27.519 --> 00:03:34.319 first time because you're just gonna get it wrong anyway so for my first attempt 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:37.519 i basically just made up dimensions and solidworks and threw it at the printer 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:41.760 this is truly terrible but that was kind of 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:45.760 the point one of the main reasons it's terrible is it's literally impossible to 00:03:44.239 --> 00:03:49.200 mass manufacture we already knew at this stage that the 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:54.000 final parts were going to be injection molded basically shooting a bunch of hot 00:03:51.519 --> 00:03:59.120 plastic into a metal cavity so there are a couple of important considerations 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:02.799 first no areas can be too thin at below about 80 thousandths of an inch our 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:08.239 molten plastic won't flow through the mold and even if it did our finished 00:04:05.040 --> 00:04:10.799 part might be easy to break also 00:04:08.239 --> 00:04:14.480 no areas can be too thick since the plastic can sag while cooling and look 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:18.479 pretty strange more importantly though the two halves 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:23.199 of the mold have to be able to come apart so in this first version of the 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:26.560 handle these scalloped areas here would have resulted in the mold completely 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:29.440 destroying apart seconds after it had been made 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:36.560 not not ideal anyway five versions later i landed on the 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:39.199 first handle that i liked aka the long 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:43.919 boy unfortunately this was one of our first major roadblocks Linus said it was 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:49.600 too big and i had already made this handle as small as i possibly could 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:53.759 without changing the megapro internals to make it smaller we'd have to get 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:58.240 pretty creative and spend a bunch of money one option was to decrease the 00:04:55.840 --> 00:05:02.400 length of the zinc housing that connects the shaft to the handle but we're afraid 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:05.840 that would decrease how much torque you can transmit through the handle another 00:05:04.320 --> 00:05:10.080 option was to decrease the number of bits to six 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:14.960 but we felt 12 was a necessity for tech work what we were willing to give up 00:05:12.479 --> 00:05:20.800 though was the length of the bits by reducing them from 25 millimeters to 20 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:25.039 making a couple alterations to the zinc housing we were able to make our handle 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:29.600 nearly an inch shorter than mega pro's and create a handle that is awesome to 00:05:27.039 --> 00:05:33.759 use no matter your hand size two versions later we arrived at version 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:37.199 seven which is the handle design you can buy now 00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:39.840 i did create versions eight through twenty 00:05:41.520 --> 00:05:46.720 but all of them are worse than number seven so uh 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:51.840 seven it is there was a small problem with our handle design though 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:56.000 how do you access the bit loader megapro has too little indents on the 00:05:54.240 --> 00:06:00.560 sides of the handle but with our trilobular design that looks and feels 00:05:59.280 --> 00:06:06.000 pretty gross to make the whole driver feel more cohesive then we hired whitebox designs 00:06:03.919 --> 00:06:09.840 in vancouver to help us out they came up with a bunch of different ideas some 00:06:07.840 --> 00:06:13.919 resembling things like our water bottle and some a bit more abstract around this 00:06:12.080 --> 00:06:18.240 time it was becoming pretty clear that alex needed some help since balancing 00:06:16.080 --> 00:06:22.960 doing an engineer's full-time job with writing an LTT video a week was becoming 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:28.720 unsustainable so we went engineer fishing and hooked ourselves a kyle 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:33.840 his first task was to perfect our end cap we liked white boxes little ribbed 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:37.520 ends but getting it correct was difficult since too large of a rib can 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:41.759 make using the screwdriver uncomfortable in your palm but having them too small 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:46.479 makes getting at the bits difficult after 3d printing a bunch that could be 00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:51.840 interchanged quickly using magnets we found that this one was the best 00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:56.319 all of this work led to the 3d printed prototype in my hand 00:06:53.840 --> 00:07:00.960 looks strikingly similar to the finished product doesn't it so 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:05.840 given that this was high fives all around done in august of 2020 with the 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:09.840 launch scheduled for five months later how on earth did it take another two 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:13.199 years internally we call this kickstarter 00:07:12.080 --> 00:07:17.680 syndrome up until that point every obstacle had 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:23.199 been overcome relatively quickly and we even had our manufacturing partner 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:24.000 locked in we felt basically invincible 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:29.039 and we were tempted to launch a pre-order campaign 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:32.880 but if we had done that we would have a heck of a lot of angry customers right 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:37.840 now because we either would have shipped a bad product or they would have waited 00:07:35.440 --> 00:07:41.520 two years after submitting payment as it turns out going from pretty much ready 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:47.840 to mass production ready is a lot of work 00:07:45.440 --> 00:07:51.039 to be clear some of it was still pretty straightforward we worked with 00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:54.639 innovative tool and dye in delta to create our plastic molds and the process 00:07:52.960 --> 00:07:59.120 for that was well i wouldn't say painless because we 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:02.960 did have to hand them over 200 000 us dollars but that was basically it we 00:08:01.280 --> 00:08:07.520 gave them the money they gave us the molds and i gotta say until now i didn't 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:12.319 know much about plastic mold making other than that it's super expensive but 00:08:09.840 --> 00:08:16.240 after seeing how it's done the price tag makes a bit more sense to me 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:20.240 we went with hardened steel molds instead of aluminum ones because they 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:23.599 last way longer and our intention is that we are going to make hundreds of 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:26.879 thousands maybe even millions of screwdrivers before those molds finally 00:08:25.599 --> 00:08:31.280 kick the can the problem with hardened steel molds 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:35.200 though is that they're made of hardened steel they are extremely difficult to 00:08:33.839 --> 00:08:41.000 machine to accomplish this then innovative tool 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:41.000 and die used edm 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:47.040 no not that kind electrical discharge 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:51.200 machining we're not going to have time to fully explain edm here this fantastic 00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:56.080 video by applied science should handle that for us nicely but the tldr is that 00:08:53.839 --> 00:09:01.600 they're using a carbon electrode in the shape of our screwdriver and then a 00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:05.200 bunch of electricity to slowly zap away the steel 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:09.440 this process has to be incredibly precise because ultimately it will 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:13.600 determine not only the shape but even the texture 00:09:10.959 --> 00:09:17.360 of the surface of the finished product we chose a satin finish for our handle 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:23.160 that looks great out of the box and wears out very evenly which is 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:23.160 technically called ch3nr 00:09:24.160 --> 00:09:30.880 if you're a mold turbo nerd while the plastic molds were getting made we also 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:34.640 had to finalize the shaft you might have noticed that our original designs had 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:38.720 the knurling go all the way up to the base of the shaft but we added this 00:09:36.880 --> 00:09:42.560 little ridge here and the reason for that was that we'd have as much material 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:46.320 as possible to hold the shaft onto the ratchet 00:09:43.760 --> 00:09:51.600 we tried a lot of different materials for shafts these ones are aluminum which 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:54.959 were just too soft and felt kind of cheap 00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:58.640 these ones are stainless steel these ones are high carbon steel and then we 00:09:57.040 --> 00:10:02.240 also tried like different knurlings this one's straight which was kind of awful 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:07.120 for slipping between your fingers and what we ultimately settled on was 303 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:11.440 stainless steel for a good mix of durability and machine ability i just 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:15.519 want to mention here that we made sure to go fairly aggressive with the 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:19.440 knurling and most pc screws can be almost entirely tightened using the 00:10:17.680 --> 00:10:22.880 shaft so you would use it kind of like this 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:27.600 one unfortunate thing that we learned during the testing of our prototype screwdrivers though was that the black 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:32.959 coating on the shaft was simply not durable enough it wasn't 00:10:30.640 --> 00:10:36.800 for lack of trying the 40 micrometer black chrome plating treatment was the 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:41.920 closest we got but even that got stripped pretty quickly especially by 00:10:38.959 --> 00:10:46.240 sharp things like heatsink fins so sadly aside from some early orders where we 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:49.120 are allowing people to buy the black one knowing that it's going to wear off 00:10:47.839 --> 00:10:52.880 we're going to be primarily selling the screwdriver with a silver shaft so that 00:10:50.959 --> 00:10:56.800 it doesn't look terrible in a year as a consolation though the silver shaft 00:10:54.880 --> 00:11:00.480 is passivated by dipping it in a nitric bath to give it a nice protective oxide 00:10:58.560 --> 00:11:05.519 coating because despite its name stainless steel isn't actually totally 00:11:03.040 --> 00:11:09.360 stainless so this design choice was not about saving a buck it was about making 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:14.079 the most durable possible product also in the shaft is the strongest 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:18.160 magnet that we could get our hands on the minimum pull force that this is 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:22.240 rated for is 5 newtons but from our testing they've been anywhere between 7 00:11:20.079 --> 00:11:27.040 to 11 newtons and this was to address one of my personal pet peeves where your 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:30.800 bit gets kind of stuck on the screw and then gets left behind when you pull out 00:11:28.959 --> 00:11:35.360 and i can confidently say that that will be an extremely rare occurrence with our 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:39.120 driver i've had it happen a grand total of about five times in the last couple 00:11:37.760 --> 00:11:43.440 of years while we're on the topic of materials let's give you a rundown on what the 00:11:41.680 --> 00:11:48.320 entire screwdriver is made out of the main plastics so the handle the end cap 00:11:46.560 --> 00:11:53.519 and the selector ring are all made out of a material called triax 1120. it's a 00:11:50.959 --> 00:11:57.839 nylon rich abs blend that we don't know the exact composition of it's a trade 00:11:55.680 --> 00:12:02.480 secret but what we do know is that it's as strong as freaking heck and offers a 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:08.959 great balance of chemical and abrasion resistance the internal plastics are also mostly 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:10.959 tri-x 1120 but the bit clips and the 00:12:08.959 --> 00:12:14.240 little ninja star that's in between them as we like to call it are made out of 00:12:12.560 --> 00:12:17.519 delrin for its excellent wear characteristics the last thing you want 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:21.200 is for these little holders to just start snapping off on you that would be 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:24.480 terrible now if you look really closely you can actually see a small color 00:12:22.959 --> 00:12:28.000 mismatch between the triax and the delrin but we did our best with it and 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:32.079 i'm pretty sure that if i didn't just point it out no one would have ever 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:35.839 noticed but i did point it out because i would hate for you guys to think that 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:39.839 it's literally perfect speaking of flaws 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:42.959 i'm going to point out another one in the molds 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:46.480 i mean first of all we're incredibly impressed with the quality of the molds 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:50.480 from innovative tool and dye every injection molded part is going to have 00:12:48.560 --> 00:12:55.760 parting lines where the two dies of the mold meet and they are 00:12:53.200 --> 00:13:00.079 virtually undetectable on our handle like props guys kyle's been working as a 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:03.600 production engineer for 10 years and he's never seen molds this good before 00:13:02.800 --> 00:13:08.639 but while on most of the molds we were able to hide the gate which is where the 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:13.040 plastic gets injected and there's a little sprue that needs to be broken off 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:16.880 like on the handle it's right here where it's going to be hidden by the selector 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:21.760 ring there was one we couldn't hide and that was on the selector ring itself on 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:24.959 the first batch we got it was super obvious like 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:28.480 look at this thing so we worked with the mold makers to 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:34.000 change the gate location and make it as small as possible leaving us with this 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:39.040 little tiny blemish again this is a very small flaw but i am pointing it out to 00:13:36.079 --> 00:13:43.600 demonstrate how obsessive we were over the tiny details of this product they 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:48.399 really do matter and some of them matter a lot like the revisions that we made to 00:13:45.839 --> 00:13:52.639 the ninja star originally between the two rows of bits there was supposed to 00:13:50.160 --> 00:13:56.880 be a round plastic washer and this was to help hold the bits in place so they 00:13:54.800 --> 00:14:00.800 couldn't accidentally slide into another position 00:13:58.160 --> 00:14:05.279 unfortunately it limited compatibility to the 20 millimeter long bits that we 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:09.279 sell or to less common 16 millimeter bits from other vendors like this one by 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:13.120 this point we were completely committed to our shorty bits though not only do 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:17.680 they enable the excellent ergonomics of our handle but it turns out that the 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:21.519 shorter length enhances our already incredibly strong magnets so you don't 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:26.079 have to worry about dropping even very large ferrous screws 00:14:23.839 --> 00:14:31.360 but then we also didn't want to lock people into a single vendor for 00:14:27.920 --> 00:14:33.839 replacement bits even if it's us that 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:37.279 sucks i mean our bits are great they're black oxide coated s2 tool steel and 00:14:35.839 --> 00:14:41.839 we're going to have a wide variety of different sets available right at launch 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:45.680 and furthermore we rationalized if you really wanted to buy your own bits you 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:50.880 could just angle grind five millimeters off a standard one but what we really 00:14:47.839 --> 00:14:52.480 wanted was to find some way that we 00:14:50.880 --> 00:14:57.600 could ensure that longer bits could still be accommodated and so the ninja 00:14:54.880 --> 00:15:02.639 star was born you just take a pic turn it so that it lines up with in 00:15:00.079 --> 00:15:06.880 between the bit holders and yeah it'll knock down the number of bits 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:10.480 that you can carry down to six but this ensures that you will always be able to 00:15:09.199 --> 00:15:15.600 find something to store in your screwdriver handle even if you lose all 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:19.519 of these and i die and we go out of business 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:24.480 anyway we had all of this figured out and all of the plastic molds done by the 00:15:22.079 --> 00:15:28.320 summer of 2021 hoping for a december launch 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:32.639 that's when things got really stupid the zinc ratchet molds were going to be 00:15:30.560 --> 00:15:36.800 made in taiwan by the same factory that megapro has been using for 20 years 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:41.040 then suddenly they started becoming less responsive 00:15:39.199 --> 00:15:45.839 by this point we had individually approved every component of the ratchet 00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:50.399 mechanism from the factory and all we needed was a final assembled sample 00:15:48.160 --> 00:15:54.320 before hitting go on production then 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:59.120 this mess arrived it's okay Linus i got it from here 00:15:56.079 --> 00:16:01.120 this is hot garbage imagine waiting for 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:03.920 your final pre-production samples and then receiving a bucket of 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:10.639 disappointment to summarize the shop flops around like a wet noodle 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:13.600 uh the ratchet sounds like 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:18.079 three years short of a bad gearbox and the knurling is basically smooth 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:22.079 it's like we told them what to do 00:16:19.680 --> 00:16:24.320 and they just didn't do it and then sent us this 00:16:23.040 --> 00:16:29.279 and it wasn't it everything about this sample 00:16:26.880 --> 00:16:34.000 was terrible you can even just tell by the knurling on the shaft like this 00:16:31.839 --> 00:16:38.720 how could these both even be from the same factory well we can't get too much 00:16:37.040 --> 00:16:43.040 into that because there are some legal things that we're still figuring out but 00:16:40.560 --> 00:16:47.839 basically the factory that we were using was bought out by a large tool maker and 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:51.839 they were now prioritizing naturally their own tools 00:16:49.680 --> 00:16:55.360 so long story short we got fed up with their terrible communication and delays 00:16:53.680 --> 00:17:00.560 not to mention their terrible quality and we changed to a different factory in 00:16:57.199 --> 00:17:02.399 china potentially losing our 130 000 us 00:17:00.560 --> 00:17:06.640 dollar deposit in the process once we started getting in samples from 00:17:03.920 --> 00:17:10.640 the chinese factory we had more problems the ratchet which previously had been 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:14.880 the one thing that hadn't gone wrong started to jam to show you why we're 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:18.880 gonna have to take a closer look at how our ratchet mechanism works 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:23.120 press fit into the rear of the shaft is the ratchet wheel there are then two 00:17:21.120 --> 00:17:26.079 pawls that engage with it so you can see them right here if both of them are 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:29.760 engaged the shaft is locked but if you move one 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:33.840 of them up a little bit you can spin the shaft in one direction 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:38.160 to move the pawls out of the way there are two pieces of delrin that interact 00:17:36.080 --> 00:17:43.840 with the selector ring and it turns out that this guy right here 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:47.919 was made five thousandth of an inch out of spec 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:53.120 five thousandth of an inch that's like the width of two hairs 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:57.840 but because it's a lever that error was multiplied across the mechanisms leading 00:17:55.520 --> 00:18:03.039 to our jamming issues the bad news is that it took us over six 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:08.080 months of barking up various trees to figure out that this was the problem 00:18:05.919 --> 00:18:12.000 the good news is that in that time we tweaked nearly every part of the 00:18:09.919 --> 00:18:16.160 mechanism to tighten up tolerances increase reliability and to dramatically 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:22.160 improve the feel of the ratchet over megapro's already a tier design it not 00:18:19.120 --> 00:18:25.120 only sounds amazing but we went out and 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:29.360 bought all of the screwdrivers that the haters have been telling us are 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:34.559 certainly better than their novice first attempt and by comparison ours has 00:18:32.120 --> 00:18:39.200 extremely low back force making it really easy to get a screw started and 00:18:37.120 --> 00:18:42.400 an excellent hand feel it also happens to be strong enough for 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:46.480 heavy automotive work with a minimum spec of 25 newton meters for torque 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:49.520 although we've actually tested them up to 30 newton meters and they still work 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:54.080 perfectly fine should be noted if you get to that point though whatever screw that you're 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:57.679 reefing on is probably a hollowed out circle while we were fixing the ratchet 00:18:56.080 --> 00:19:02.080 mechanism another thing we played around with was the tolerance of this delrin 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:05.919 ring that holds the shaft in place we settled on a five thou gap between the 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:10.240 sleeve and the shaft finding that it was the best compromise between a solid 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:14.559 shaft feel while still allowing good ratchet movement there's a prototype 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:18.960 here that has a tighter collar ah i guess here we go oh 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:22.320 the feel of this is not good but 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:26.720 that's in the past today is now now is today you know what 00:19:25.120 --> 00:19:30.000 whatever it doesn't matter let's go build a final one 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:35.039 and what better place to do it than here at ph molds in maple ridge british 00:19:32.320 --> 00:19:40.320 columbia where our finished driver handles are currently being produced in 00:19:37.679 --> 00:19:44.559 the machine right behind us let's take a closer look 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:49.600 oh this bad boy is heavy yep it all starts here in this non-descript paper 00:19:47.120 --> 00:19:54.960 barrel full of our plastic material called triax mixed up with these black 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:58.799 pieces that are a die a pigment that are going to help us achieve the black color 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:03.280 that we want for our screwdriver handle you're going to vacuum these up into 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:08.160 this industrial dryer apparatus right here and once they've got all the 00:20:05.679 --> 00:20:11.840 moisture sucked out of them they get crapped out into this bucket 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:18.559 that we then take i'm gonna actually leave the bucket there i don't know if it's just gonna dump a load into it but 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:23.200 it comes out of that bucket which then gets dumped into this hopper the plastic 00:20:21.520 --> 00:20:27.919 pellets are gravity fed into the molding machine at which point things get 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:33.679 a little spicier you can actually see the piston right here that is driving 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:36.080 molten plastic into the mold but 00:20:33.679 --> 00:20:40.320 how does it get molten the pellets go into what we call the 00:20:38.159 --> 00:20:44.159 auger which is a hollowed out cylindrical tube that has an archimedes 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:51.039 screw in the middle that's actually tapered outward as you go along that way 00:20:47.919 --> 00:20:52.960 what that does is it not only melts the 00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:55.440 plastic into a molten state needed to actually inject it into the water 00:20:54.080 --> 00:21:00.080 there's a heating element there's a heat element for sure that brings it up to 00:20:57.280 --> 00:21:04.400 plus 250 something celsius and it's tapered that helps both with mixing and 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:08.480 creating enough pressure for the piston to actually come and grab it as wild as 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:14.320 this feels right now i have never actually seen in person 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:15.520 the mold that we you pay for that you 00:21:14.320 --> 00:21:20.640 paid for yeah yeah i did that hunk of metal right 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:24.000 there is the whole mold assembly oh wow okay it's the whole assembly that you 00:21:22.320 --> 00:21:28.400 actually pay for which is why mold costs can be actually really expensive unless 00:21:26.159 --> 00:21:32.240 you have like a master die which is the outer bit and you just play for the you 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:36.320 just pay for the plates which is the cavity and the call you actually have to 00:21:34.320 --> 00:21:41.520 pay for the entire assembly so they load the entire assembly with a massive 10 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:45.919 ton overhead crane so they load it in and and then they connect up all the 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:52.080 hoses and basically all it does is shoots opens ejects closes shoots open 00:21:49.840 --> 00:21:57.360 and it's on automatic right now okay so we can see it go you can literally like 00:21:54.320 --> 00:21:59.840 watch this thing whoa there's a part 00:21:57.360 --> 00:22:05.280 oh it's hot yeah it's hot get gloves also somebody's screwdrivers might have 00:22:02.080 --> 00:22:07.280 Linus fingerprints in it 00:22:05.280 --> 00:22:12.880 there goes another one what's actually cool about this mold it has a core that 00:22:10.159 --> 00:22:17.120 goes inside here a cavity that goes over there and then two slides 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:21.600 that go around the sides to form the whole part so what a mold is is it's 00:22:19.840 --> 00:22:26.240 basically a negative of what you're trying to create right so inside when 00:22:23.919 --> 00:22:32.400 the mold closes there's exactly this space here right to to actually shoot 00:22:29.280 --> 00:22:33.840 exactly exactly right so this is called 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:37.600 the sprue and that's called the runner so these are unfortunately well they're 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:41.360 not they're not lost because what we do is we cut these off and we re-grind them 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:45.520 right to add to that pellet stuff that we just got earlier on but you can only 00:22:43.120 --> 00:22:49.919 have so much percentage of regrind you have to have some virgin material going 00:22:48.320 --> 00:22:56.799 in so what are we going to get away with like 10 20 it depends on the part but for most of 00:22:53.919 --> 00:23:02.000 the out the out of components is 25 right so what we want to aim for is that 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:06.159 the screw and the runners are under 25 of the total shot so that way we have 00:23:03.520 --> 00:23:11.440 basically no waste exactly we don't always get it but we try right 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.799 this mould is unfortunately not something that we call auto injection so 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:18.400 it does eject but it doesn't automatically cut the gate that has to 00:23:16.320 --> 00:23:21.760 be manually trimmed most of our other molds 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:25.520 cut the gate away as they eject which is a very satisfying process if you 00:23:24.080 --> 00:23:30.640 actually get to see it unfortunately we don't have that mould loaded right now so you're gonna have to 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:34.880 take my word for it but this is not so bad it's a single cut 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:40.640 it's that actual part is hidden so you'll never see it but you know watching this 00:23:39.120 --> 00:23:44.320 video you get to get a sneak peek of the handle as it comes out of the machine 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:47.760 it's going to be about 40 seconds that's a probably about a 40 second cycle time 00:23:46.159 --> 00:23:52.400 right you actually have to wait for the plastic to cool before you eject it you 00:23:50.159 --> 00:23:56.080 can't just yolo shoot you have to wait for it to solidify a bit and then you 00:23:54.080 --> 00:24:00.159 can push it out but once it covers the coolant pipes come in right yes that's 00:23:58.159 --> 00:24:04.080 exactly you want the mold to be hot but not too hot that's where the coolant 00:24:01.600 --> 00:24:07.440 comes in it goes 00:24:05.840 --> 00:24:11.120 yi that's sick 00:24:09.360 --> 00:24:15.120 brandon you're gonna have to bear with me for a second here this is a bit more 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:18.880 of a time sensitive operation than i initially anticipated 00:24:17.120 --> 00:24:24.080 the first thing we got to do is we got to take the hot handles that's 00:24:21.840 --> 00:24:28.559 critical because we're using a press fit to ensure that our ratchet mechanism 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:33.520 stays in place in the handle which means that we're taking advantage of the 00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:38.240 cooling of the handle to ensure that this stays in place 00:24:35.679 --> 00:24:43.440 all right we put our accent ring on then this is keyed so it only goes in one way 00:24:41.120 --> 00:24:46.640 we put our ratchet assembly in place 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:52.000 we put these stoppers in the end of the shaft and boom 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:56.640 it automatically press fits the ratchet into the handle and then the other side 00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:01.760 that i was already working on pops out these two go in here 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:07.120 and these guys get bit holders which are also going to be press fit one side 00:25:05.679 --> 00:25:11.120 move it over here these are finished drivers 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:15.200 which get put into these reusable styrofoam 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:18.000 flats that will be forwarded to us for packaging 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:24.320 now one of the things we're looking for in qc is what they're calling gas marks 00:25:21.360 --> 00:25:28.640 or also while we're at it any just random scratches on the finished part 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:33.440 you guys want a perfect pristine screwdriver that i haven't dropped right 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:39.600 yeah you do if we allow the parts to sit in the tray behind me for too long they 00:25:36.080 --> 00:25:42.400 cool enough that we cannot use them 00:25:39.600 --> 00:25:46.559 so quick qc looks good that explains why these guys weren't 00:25:44.080 --> 00:25:51.600 moving out of the way for the camera or nothing they got screwdrivers to make 00:25:49.520 --> 00:25:54.559 that also explains why we need gloves because the parts that we're handling in 00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:57.360 this process are by their very nature 00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:03.440 hot i'm still one part behind i'm not catching up it's almost like this is an 00:26:01.120 --> 00:26:07.679 optimized process careful don't scratch it buddy here i'm not scratching them 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:14.240 kyle geez man relax kyle people are gonna get ah use the freaking guy oh my 00:26:11.760 --> 00:26:18.799 word what are you doing come on man i'm falling behind i am 00:26:17.679 --> 00:26:27.200 sweating so much right now brandon like i am 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:29.840 i am pouring sweat at the moment ow that 00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:33.120 one's too hot okay 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:36.720 i give up help me help 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:40.480 i'm waving the white flag why what's wrong oh you want the operator yeah they 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:45.120 can come back okay we're done as you guys probably figured 00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:49.039 out if we're in mass production we're probably taking orders it's going 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:51.919 to take us a little while to get caught up to the volume of orders we're 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:57.039 expecting so we're gonna have a wave system kind of like we had for backpack 00:26:54.159 --> 00:27:00.400 but our production capacity for these is much higher so guys check out the page 00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:03.919 we're gonna have it linked down below where you can get your place in line 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:08.400 i could not be more excited for you guys 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:13.039 to finally get your hands on this thing it's been like what three years yeah 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:17.279 it's not really customary on our videos but this was not a normal project so 00:27:15.520 --> 00:27:23.200 herman from megapro and actually the whole team there deserve a huge thanks 00:27:20.320 --> 00:27:26.320 here i mean he could have easily said these kids have no idea what they're 00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:30.480 getting into they're not even tool makers and simply stopped returning our 00:27:28.080 --> 00:27:34.720 calls but instead he took a personal interest in this project and made sure 00:27:32.159 --> 00:27:38.720 that it could succeed also massive shout out to all of our own team aside from 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:43.520 the engineers like sarah who designed our awesome not to mention durable 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:46.080 packaging and our partners except for that factory in taiwan that 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:51.039 we're still trying to get our deposit back from those guys can eat one if you know what 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:54.559 i'm talking about we absolutely love the final result 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:58.880 though it was worth it we set out to build the best driver for building computers and in doing so ended up 00:27:57.520 --> 00:28:03.720 building something that's amazing for just about any task so don't wait go 00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:08.399 check it out lttstore.com and go check out our 00:28:06.080 --> 00:28:12.399 sponsor squarespace if you're building your brand online in 2022 you should 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:16.480 absolutely have a website and if you need a tool 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LTT to get 10 off your first purchase if 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:59.360 you guys enjoyed this video why don't i throw to uh the Labs video where we ran 00:28:58.159 --> 00:29:05.679 through some of what the engineers are doing over there isn't that wild three years ago we had zero engineers and now 00:29:03.919 --> 00:29:09.279 we're expanding our engineering team at kind of an alarming rate but we're not 00:29:07.600 --> 00:29:13.080 gonna run out of money because you guys are gonna buy lots of screwdrivers