Mike Leckstein wrote:
>I hate to start another snake oil thread, but I am a sucker for tools. I can't
>pass a tag sale, flee market etc without looking at every tool. Tim Allen is
>right! Real men want tools
Where's that leave our Empress? I'd hate to think a love of tools
makes her any less of a lady. (There's a tasteless joke in there
somewhere, but I'm sure not going to extract it.)
>Anyway there is a new info commercial for a set of Metrix tools. The claim is
>that the sockets and wrenches grab the side of the nut rather than the corners
>and therefore fit American SAE, metric, and Whitworth. Not only this, they fit
>rounded off nuts just as well!
Right, only the name is "Metrinch." A devastatingly clever play
on words. <gag!>
I've watched that particular infomercial several times. As wary
as I am of gimmicky junk, these things look pretty snappy. Like
most infomercials and snake-oil salesmen, it's mostly endorsements.
On the other hand, unlike most infomercials, the product
demonstrations are almost convincing. Almost.
No doubt one socket will fit several nut sizes and even ones with
somewhat rounded-off corners (common sense says it won't work on
anything ground down to a circle), but how well do they work in
practice? Seems there'd be a lot of slop that might be undesirable
when you're using a ratchet. How much of a handle rotation is
taken up just turning the socket until it grabs?
And the tests where the grease monkeys attempted to destroy the
sockets through abuse might have been a little more convincing
if they'd done the same things with a regular six-point socket and
ruined it.
All that aside, if I had the money, I'd probably buy a set.
>Anyone out there buy a set and try them?
I'd like to see an independent review too.
--
Jay Tilton | jtilton@vt.edu | Virginia Tech
http://fbox.vt.edu:10021/J/jtilton/index.html
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