Charge bit adapter thought.

Y

yam

Joined
Sep 17, 2003
Messages
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The one thing about the Wave and Charge models that's kept me from getting one are the stubby and proprietary driver bits. But I have wondered if anyone has taken something like a 2 1/2" magnetic bit extension, trimmed down the shank, filed it flat to fit the Charge's bit holder? That way you could use any hex bit you wanted and have it extended as well.
 
You know, I've had several leatherman tools, sog tool, and even a spyderench. By far I love the leatherman wave the best. I have and older leatherman wave, I carried for years, and the others I would try, and put away before long. I tried, and surge tool, and didnt like it because it was so much bigger than the other tools. Now I have a NEW leatherman wave tool with the removable bits. I havnt had it long, but like with the surge tool I to wonder about the usfulness of the bits. On one hand, its better than the old because you can change bits, and on the other hand its not good because the only place I know to get the bits replaced is thru leatherman. I wonder if leatherman will answer this call for longer bits in the future?

I have seen a kit that letherman is offering that looks like it accepts bits,and is somehow held by the needle nose on the tool.. maybe could be found on the leatherman site....
 
yam said:
The one thing about the Wave and Charge models that's kept me from getting one are the stubby and proprietary driver bits. But I have wondered if anyone has taken something like a 2 1/2" magnetic bit extension, trimmed down the shank, filed it flat to fit the Charge's bit holder? That way you could use any hex bit you wanted and have it extended as well.
Click to expand...


Awesome idea,
I will work on that this week. :)
 
Ive done that. I use a makita grinder and ground one side and the the other until it was small enough to fit. Looks a little rough though. Works fine. I will probably keep practicing until I get one that looks really nice.


John
 
By changing the bit holder out for the phillips from say a Kick you can use the bit adaptor for the Kick,Fuse,Blast and it will fit the small bits and regular 1/4 inch according to the details of it.
 
My two concerns about using the phillips from the Kick,Fuse,Blast is the extra cost of buying the extra sacrificial multi-tool and then voiding the warranty on an expensive Charge or Wave. Besides not being all that handy and being able to perform the necessary surgery.

That's why I was thinking that modifying a $1.00 hex bit extension would be the easiest, less intrusive. For that matter, you can get longer bits and just grind them to fit the slot and not even use the hex bit extension. Though using the extension gives you the most options.

Either way, I wish Leatherman would just use the phillips from the Kick,Fuse,Blast in the first place. Oh well, then we'd find something else to complain about I suppose. :)
 
yam said:
My two concerns about using the phillips from the Kick,Fuse,Blast is the extra cost of buying the extra sacrificial multi-tool and then voiding the warranty on an expensive Charge or Wave. Besides not being all that handy and being able to perform the necessary surgery.

That's why I was thinking that modifying a $1.00 hex bit extension would be the easiest, less intrusive. For that matter, you can get longer bits and just grind them to fit the slot and not even use the hex bit extension. Though using the extension gives you the most options.

Either way, I wish Leatherman would just use the phillips from the Kick,Fuse,Blast in the first place. Oh well, then we'd find something else to complain about I suppose. :)
Click to expand...

have you tried looking for one of the origonal wave tools? they are still out there, and I carried one for years, and loved it.. I still have it, I just gota new one to try out....
 
yam said:
The one thing about the Wave and Charge models that's kept me from getting one are the stubby and proprietary driver bits. But I have wondered if anyone has taken something like a 2 1/2" magnetic bit extension, trimmed down the shank, filed it flat to fit the Charge's bit holder? That way you could use any hex bit you wanted and have it extended as well.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. For me, the potential problem is not only the reach, it's also the girth. The bits/holder are sinply too wide to fit into many of the recessed holes you'll run into.

Know what I do? I have a large wallet that I found on eBay. In the middle of the inside, there's a pocket for a pen up to 5". In this pocket, you can carry a pocket clip screwdriver. I even have some that are reversible slotted/phillips, and one that has an ink pen on one side and a reversible slotted/phillips driver on the other. A screwdriver like this will handle most of the recessed screws I run into because most of them have small heads. Of course you can carry such a screwdriver elsewhere on your person.
 
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