Eklind Is Closing Its IL Plant

[Farmall450]

The blister pack isn't doing their image any favors. If they had an image in the first place.

It's a set of cheap USA hex keys, not an engagement ring.

 

[willf650]

Sad news, I use their stuff daily!

Have that same set and the blue metric counterpart.


I just ordered a straight set of precision drivers to go with the ball end set I have. I specifically like the Eklind precision drivers better than the bondus I have. Have to get them while they are available.

Been messing with some RC cars while I'm recovering from a hip replacement. Everybody is poo pooing Eklind versus Bondhus. All I got to say about that after using both the past few days is Bondhus WTF.

These are the same size drivers. Eklind on the left and Bondhus on the right.

There is something said about not wearing folding hex keys out. On the odd occasion I stripped one out the issue is solved by nipping off the end with a die grinder and you are back in business for another decade. Most of my all metal sets of them are 30+ years old. Don't lose them and they'll literally last a lifetime.

 

[neophyte]

The blister pack isn't doing their image any favors. If they had an image in the first place.

In case you are unfamiliar with Industrial tools, made for actual industrial use, many come in the most underwhelming packaging possible.
Porter Cable, back before the Black & Decker purchase, when Porter Cable where considered the “Industrial” power tool brand for woodwork use, and usually with a higher price than their competitors, typically just came in white or brown cardboard boxes, that Porter Cable, with a bit of colored printing.
It was usually cheap tools for homeowner use that had full color packaging, with photos on the packaging.
The same mundane packaging was also the case for Milwaukee, Black & Decker’s Industrial line, and Fein.
For hand tools, Armstrong just had boxes that said “Armstrong” with a label on the side.
Plenty of decent hand tool brands, whether Estwing, or Vaughan, that are sold around the globe, simply come in bulk packaging, maybe with a plastic sleeve or bag over the tool.
There are weird exceptions. But decent tool manufacturers usually just focus on the tool, and packaging that gets the tool to the user.

 

[dchawk81]

In case you are unfamiliar with Industrial tools, made for actual industrial use, many come in the most underwhelming packaging possible.
Porter Cable, back before the Black & Decker purchase, when Porter Cable where considered the “Industrial” power tool brand for woodwork use, and usually with a higher price than their competitors, typically just came in white or brown cardboard boxes, that Porter Cable, with a bit of colored printing.
It was usually cheap tools for homeowner use that had full color packaging, with photos on the packaging.
The same mundane packaging was also the case for Milwaukee, Black & Decker’s Industrial line, and Fein.
For hand tools, Armstrong just had boxes that said “Armstrong” with a label on the side.
Plenty of decent hand tool brands, whether Estwing, or Vaughan, that are sold around the globe, simply come in bulk packaging, maybe with a plastic sleeve or bag over the tool.
There are weird exceptions. But decent tool manufacturers usually just focus on the tool, and packaging that gets the tool to the user.

That's kind of my point. No packaging would be better.

The blister pack makes it like a cowboy and indians play set at dollar tree.

Most hand tools are just hanging on a peg plain.

 

[neophyte]

That's kind of my point. No packaging would be better.

The blister pack makes it like a cowboy and indians play set at dollar tree.

Most hand tools are just hanging on a peg plain.

Baaic Hardware stores probably wanted some sort of hanging clear packaging, several decades ago.
Eklind designed, or probably paid someone to design and make the packaging, and they have been using the same packaging ever since, because it fits the requirements of the customer, and Eklind doesn’t want or feel the need to spend more money to change things.

 

[dchawk81]

Baaic Hardware stores probably wanted some sort of hanging clear packaging, several decades ago.
Eklind designed, or probably paid someone to design and make the packaging, and they have been using the same packaging ever since, because it fits the requirements of the customer, and Eklind doesn’t want or feel the need to spend more money to change things.

I get it it's just pretty cheesy looking for hand tools.

It's not a huge deal to keep discussing I was just making an off hand comment about it.

 

[four.cycle]

in an email from Nelson Bowers earlier today:

Eklind will end operations come Early to mid August. When inventory is gone it's gone forever.
https://www.ebay.com/str/bowerstool...at=43247751011&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211

But- don't buy Bowers on ebay. Buy it on HIS website and go for the "free tools" deals.

07/10/26 15:52 PDT

 

[RoninB4]

-I'm wondering if the Dynamic Duo (Earl and Doug) will choose to outsource everything but the name or just cash in for investment elsewhere. Likely that only a few will ever know what went wrong, anything else is uninformed speculation. Sayonara Eklind.

 

[Shoreline_]

Bondhus has nice chamfered ends. Eklind always looked like they came fresh off the shear.

 

[KnurledNut]

Bondhus has nice chamfered ends. Eklind always looked like they came fresh off the shear.

I've found the shear cut to be slightly beneficial on shallow BHCS. Chamfered ends are cosmetically appealing and can help with engagement, but also cause a small percentage of contact loss because of the standoff void when bottomed out.
Again minor, but worth noting.

 

[RoninB4]

-Nice chamfered ends may be visual appeal but is form over function. Pick your priority. How "clean" the sheared end are is from die clearance and how sharp the parting station tooling is. It's adjustable.

 

[American Locomotive]

-Nice chamfered ends may be visual appeal but is form over function. Pick your priority. How "clean" the sheared end are is from die clearance and how sharp the parting station tooling is. It's adjustable.

The form, allows the tool to function better by make it easier to engage with the screw. Helpful when you're trying to engage with a screw deep inside the belly of a machine. Especially helpful on flat head hex screws that often have no lead in chamfer.

 

[KnurledNut]

The form, allows the tool to function better by make it easier to engage with the screw. Helpful when you're trying to engage with a screw deep inside the belly of a machine. Especially helpful on flat head hex screws that often have no lead in chamfer.

A good number of FHSHCS have lead in. I would say more do than dont.

 

[Shoreline_]

I've found the shear cut to be slightly beneficial on shallow BHCS. Chamfered ends are cosmetically appealing and can help with engagement, but also cause a small percentage of contact loss because of the standoff void when bottomed out.
Again minor, but worth noting.

I find the non chamfered ends ****.

 

[CHI_Tool&Die]

I find the non chamfered ends ****.

Eh, I’ve not noticed much a difference between the two. Sometimes if the sheared end is a bit crooked it will screw stuff up but overall it’s a wash for me.

What I cannot understand is how Wiha, Wera, and PB Swiss can manufacture straight hex keys but Bondhus and Eklind cannot. Trying to spin a bowed, bent, or distorted hex key ***** so much.

 

[cmandp]

It's not a great feeling to loose a plant making things or the people that know how.

But a business needs to be innovative to succeed. You can't just keep making something that was innovative (ball end hex keys) forever and expect to keep making money 30 years later. Now you could redo marketing over the life of the product or make tweaks to the design or materials. But a ball end hex key is a pretty simple tool. Only so much you can do.

 

[dchawk81]

It's not a great feeling to loose a plant making things or the people that know how.

But a business needs to be innovative to succeed. You can't just keep making something that was innovative (ball end hex keys) forever and expect to keep making money 30 years later. Now you could redo marketing over the life of the product or make tweaks to the design or materials. But a ball end hex key is a pretty simple tool. Only so much you can do.

Be like SO. Add grip teeth and call it a whole new product.

 

[RoninB4]

What I cannot understand is how Wiha, Wera, and PB Swiss can manufacture straight hex keys but Bondhus and Eklind cannot.

-I'm going to suggest this as a possible reason. The hex stock is coiled at the mill that gets fed into the stamping presses. This would create an embedded stress or pre-conditioned curvature to the stock. What is standard procedure for almost any stock coming off a coil (flat or otherwise) is to go through a device that straightens the stock, thereby removing most of the curvature. It's SOP for wire, flat, and bar stock whether it's a stamping press or a 4-slide. Eklind used to use them on every press when I was there and a banana shaped key was an indicator that the die-setter didn't do his job. I believe that this is the source of the problem, it takes some time and knowledge to set a straightener up. Some die-setters may be skipping the process entirely, haven't set the device correctly, or management has decided to eliminate the process they don't understand for faster set-up times. Hard to say. I suppose it's even possible for the stock to have so much internal stress it can't all be removed. The curvature from stress appears after heat treating. It can be unpredictable and unnoticed before heat treating. Example of straightener below

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

Sneak peak into PB Swiss production, video is in English language:

How It's Made – Hex Key L-Wrenches – PB Swiss Tools

Movie from Sciene Channel, published on January 4th, 2017

www.pbswisstools.com

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[RoninB4]

Sneak peak into PB Swiss production, video is in English language:

How It's Made – Hex Key L-Wrenches – PB Swiss Tools

Movie from Sciene Channel, published on January 4th, 2017

www.pbswisstools.com

Kind regards,
Olli

-Well that was an interesting video. They work off straight bar stock and not a coil, have multiple extra operations, several stations where people are needed, and a mix of robotics and humans. It's no wonder they're so expensive by comparison to other brands. Thanks for posting this, I found it entertaining.

 

[YesIHaveAHammer]

At 1:03 with the rod in the lathe making the ball end, it seems they're rotating both the rod and the tool in a synchronised pattern to preserve the hex shape so it doesn't become round like a doorknob.

several stations where people are needed

I was surprised at 0:35 to see the guy sitting there feeding rods into the machine and pressing a pedal to cut it. Likewise the printing of the holders at 4:20 and then filling the holders with the keys. The rest of the process is very automated with no human handling of individual wrenches aside from quality control (crookedness check, sizing check). I guess it's a matter of cost of automation vs. a person.

It's no wonder they're so expensive by comparison to other brands.

Being in one of the most expensive countries in the world can't help either.

 

[RoninB4]

At 1:03 with the rod in the lathe making the ball end, it seems they're rotating both the rod and the tool in a synchronised pattern to preserve the hex shape so it doesn't become round like a doorknob.

-Yes, it appears that they are. This is the process that was developed for ball drivers at Eklind, but a different cutter head and insert was used. The process had been around for some time but nobody had applied it to ball driver hex keys. Bondhus didn't use it, they relied on an opposing broach process. I was rather involved with the project and I've posted about it in other threads.

I was surprised at 0:35 to see the guy sitting there feeding rods into the machine and pressing a pedal to cut it.

-That was how Eklind did it too, Howard Eklind was told by some of his confidants that hex stock couldn't be run off a coil so 10-12 foot lengths were advanced into the press by hand. A few of us proved that you could run hex stock off a coil and that those claiming it couldn't happen didn't know what they were talking about.

Likewise the printing of the holders at 4:20 and then filling the holders with the keys. The rest of the process is very automated with no human handling of individual wrenches aside from quality control (crookedness check, sizing check). I guess it's a matter of cost of automation vs. a person.

-Some of the processes they use have a baked-in level of human vs. automation. They certainly have more steps in the entire process.

Being in one of the most expensive countries in the world can't help either.

-Would agree

 

[American Locomotive]

-That was how Eklind did it too, Howard Eklind was told by some of his confidants that hex stock couldn't be run off a coil so 10-12 foot lengths were advanced into the press by hand. A few of us proved that you could run hex stock off a coil and that those claiming it couldn't happen didn't know what they were talking about.

That's bizarre. I used to work for a company that made essentially all of McMaster-Carr's hex stand-offs (like for electronics or whatever). They had Eubama rotary transfer machines and ran hex coil stock on them. The machines had integrated straightener rollers and hydraulic shears that fed hex chunks into the inner workings of the machine. They'd be doing that since at least the mid 80s.

 

[YesIHaveAHammer]

-That was how Eklind did it too, Howard Eklind was told by some of his confidants that hex stock couldn't be run off a coil so 10-12 foot lengths were advanced into the press by hand. A few of us proved that you could run hex stock off a coil and that those claiming it couldn't happen didn't know what they were talking about.

Rods vs. coils aside, why not automate the feed of rods to hit the length stop and trigger the cut?

-Some of the processes they use have a baked-in level of human vs. automation.

Baked in in what sense? That they used to do it a certain way and it's difficult to change now?

 

[willf650]

in an email from Nelson Bowers earlier today:

Eklind will end operations come Early to mid August. When inventory is gone it's gone forever.
https://www.ebay.com/str/bowerstool...at=43247751011&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211

But- don't buy Bowers on ebay. Buy it on HIS website and go for the "free tools" deals.

07/10/26 15:52 PDT

Well f it. Just ordered almost $200 of Eklind stuff from Bowers. Wanted a complete set of ball end drivers and try their control screwdrivers since I use them more days then not.

I guess I remember the end of days for American tools coming to a close in the late 90s to 2000s. It’s a sad day when a manufacturer made it through the investment groups killing well known brands only to die a decade later.

Even though most of my “eklinds” are rebrands I’ll miss them none the less.

 

[four.cycle]

^ businesses don't always go out of business quickly. some of them die a long, slow, agonizing death. BTDT.

 

[RoninB4]

That's bizarre.

-What's "bizarre" about it?

 

[RoninB4]

Rods vs. coils aside, why not automate the feed of rods to hit the length stop and trigger the cut?

-Automation is the purpose of feeding the press from a coil. You can't just go fully automated with every aspect of manufacturing. Turning a machine on and just letting it go is a recipe for disaster to occur. A lot of manufacturing has been using devices (prox sensors, tonnage monitors, buckle detect, part out screens, IR, vision verification, etc.) to verify things are going as they should but the cost/practicality of those devices comes into play. Eklind basically used a 3 step method for "L" keys once the die has been set.

1) Set the coil
2) Feed the coil
3) Run the press on "continuous" per the SPM you decided.

PB Swiss, for better or worse, has a lot more steps involved for the product they've decided on. Could PB fully automate the entire process? Perhaps but at what cost for ROI? There's more involved than this but I wanted to be brief.

Baked in in what sense? That they used to do it a certain way and it's difficult to change now?

-Every time a person has to touch, transfer, load/unload, or use compressed air on the product is what I'm getting at. There's a few times in that video where you don't see a person but one was there before, during, or after the footage was taken. The extra steps PB has decided to take mean a person has to facilitate that process whether you see one or not. They do make use of robotics but not all steps use one. The Swiss are not haphazard about how they do things and every step was examined, evaluated, and decided beforehand. They have a clear reason for the product they make and how it's made. Your questions are valid and ok to ask. Unless I see the costs and tour the factory I'm not qualified to criticize their methods. Nor is anybody else qualified that's an armchair quarterback.

 

[YesIHaveAHammer]

Your questions are valid and ok to ask. Unless I see the costs and tour the factory I'm not qualified to criticize their methods. Nor is anybody else qualified that's an armchair quarterback.

Thanks for your insights here and many a time previously.

Yes my questions are to understand rather than implied criticism.

 

[RoninB4]

Thanks for your insights here and many a time previously.

-You're welcome to what little I know, I'm glad to help most others as I've been helped

Yes my questions are to understand rather than implied criticism.

-That's why I don't mind answering your questions or others just wanting to know. There's a couple of others only interested in being contrary or are needing the attention they aren't getting elsewhere.

 

[American Locomotive]

-What's "bizarre" about it?

It's bizarre that someone would think you couldn't run a shearing and press operation from coiled hex stock.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

I enjoy to read & learn from your insights & and the resulting conversations @RoninB4 !

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[RoninB4]

I enjoy to read & learn from your insights & and the resulting conversations @RoninB4 !

Kind regards,
Olli

-I don't know a lot but the few things I do know or have experienced mean very little unless I share that knowledge/experience with others to help them as I was once helped.

 

[RoninB4]

It's bizarre that someone would think you couldn't run a shearing and press operation from coiled hex stock.

-Howard Eklind had taken bad advice from his confidants. He may have been a degreed structural engineer (bridges) but he wasn't taught the ability to be creative or to innovate. Education, or the lack of it, doesn't seem to correlate the level of creativity either. I've met:
Trained toolmakers that couldn't install a bearing correctly
A mechanical engineer that asked me why a micrometer was better than a caliper for close tolerance dimensions
An electrical engineer that insisted an 8mm fastener was the equivalent of 1/4 inch
A young mechanical engineer that used the PD and OD of a fastener for .001 location of another component (substituting it for a dowel pin)

-If we venture outside of our knowledge/experience we're forced to extrapolate from what little we do know. Everybody has a knowledge gap, I certainly have mine. There are many members here that may be competent in their field/work but have misconceptions in areas they're not familiar with largely due (IMO) to getting bad advice from confidants and/or the internet. Howard Eklind got bad advice from his confidants and apparently hired at least one more (Earl) incapable of running the company beyond 2026. What you consider "bizarre" is only because of how commonplace it has become.