Dave455
Well-known member
There’s another recent thread asking which of the current crop of rotator ratchets are preferable?
I’ve always had something of a soft spot for Facom tools. Aside from being quite well made, they always excelled at innovative designs, and tools for limited access.
My feeling for Facom waned with the takeover by SBD. Many of the newer tools are not the quality of what has gone before. Over the last couple of years though, I seem to have detected a slight return to the stylish and innovative tools that made their name. Although some are Taiwanese, some are French or Italian, and the recent Taiwanese tools seem to be the very best.
Trying to remove a (broken) seat from a Citroen recently, I realised that despite owning a stack of bit ratchets, none were totally the right tool for the job, and only a Rotator ratchet would really work. Consequently I ordered the bit ratchet shown.
Folks not familiar with these may not realise exactly how they work, or quite how many nice design features there are. There’s a “floating” button that’s pushed to one side when you insert the bit. This protrudes just enough to release the bit without struggling. Nice.
With a bit inserted, the tool works like a normal ratchet, and turns in the direction of the arrow. Twist the handle clockwise and the bit turns clockwise (like other rotator ratchets) but... twist the handle anti clockwise and the bit still rotates clockwise..!
This is, without doubt, the most innovative bit ratchet I have ever used. The quality is nice too. Welcome back Facom!
I’ve always had something of a soft spot for Facom tools. Aside from being quite well made, they always excelled at innovative designs, and tools for limited access.
My feeling for Facom waned with the takeover by SBD. Many of the newer tools are not the quality of what has gone before. Over the last couple of years though, I seem to have detected a slight return to the stylish and innovative tools that made their name. Although some are Taiwanese, some are French or Italian, and the recent Taiwanese tools seem to be the very best.
Trying to remove a (broken) seat from a Citroen recently, I realised that despite owning a stack of bit ratchets, none were totally the right tool for the job, and only a Rotator ratchet would really work. Consequently I ordered the bit ratchet shown.
Folks not familiar with these may not realise exactly how they work, or quite how many nice design features there are. There’s a “floating” button that’s pushed to one side when you insert the bit. This protrudes just enough to release the bit without struggling. Nice.
With a bit inserted, the tool works like a normal ratchet, and turns in the direction of the arrow. Twist the handle clockwise and the bit turns clockwise (like other rotator ratchets) but... twist the handle anti clockwise and the bit still rotates clockwise..!
This is, without doubt, the most innovative bit ratchet I have ever used. The quality is nice too. Welcome back Facom!
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