ifixit tools - Who makes them

[khaosduke]

Who makes iFixit's tools?? I do a lot of electronics work, and after years of breaking things and using **** I figured I need to get a decent set.

What's interesting about iFixit is that it contains some of the harder to find bits.

I just can't find out who makes it or if it's any good. I've thought of getting the ifixit kit for the stranger bits and spundgers etc... And getting some Wiha, Wera, Witte or Felo precision screwdrivers for everything else.

 

[jagwinn]

I enjoy iFixit, but am dissapointed with the logo change.
As for the tools, they are hard to find specialized tools and I have confidence they are of a decent value.
I find good similar tools at Lowe's and HomeDepot.

 

[khaosduke]

I have a small Husky set. Extremely cheap, around $4 on sale. It is very useful but it's built like ****. The bits seem ok because theres so many different types to get the job done but the driver itself is trash. I wish I could get pretty much the same thing but better quality.

 

[Eric Essen]

I work with the tool team at iFixit and lurk here regularly.

We are tool junkies ourselves, I have 20 years past experience as a mechanic, and am an avid tool collector. I work really hard to try and make sure we put out a product I would be happy with for the price. We are very much a form follows function company.

Many specialized tools are manufactured at iFixit's offices by the tool team until we can no longer keep up with demand. I hand bent over a thousand Mac Mini Logic Board tools on a jig I made from scratch. We have a sewing machine in our office and have hand sewn thousands of iOpeners, we laser cut and assemble our iMac opening tool handles in house right now too.

We are currently contracting factories in the USA, China, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Germany. We design and own our own molds for various handles, suction cups, and other tools. We do very little "White Label". Our team from San Luis Obispo visits and and does QC during production with most of our factories (German and US companies do fine with no one looking over their shoulder, other places..) About 1/2 of our tool team is traveling doing QC at any given time. We assemble many of our toolkits at our office, so we get a second chance to QC many tools as they go into the kits.

We also design tool sets that make sense and are constantly updating them as new fasteners come out etc (often several times a year). Our driver set contents are not chosen at random, we run queries on our thousands of repair manuals to see what bits are used the most. We search extensively online to find out what unusual screws actually exist "in the wild" instead of just making them because a spec exists and some other company put it in their set or we need 20 more bits to make it 100 bits. I don't know why any assorted bit set needs 4x PZ2 bits in it.

 

[Greatbear]

I picked up the ifixit "master" set of interchangeable bit drivers with a tool roll of spudgers, tweezers, picks and pry tools. The set is of decent quality, imported (China for the drivers, Pakistan, Taiwan and China for the other pieces in the roll) like so many similar sets. I recommend the set of drivers by itself or with the additions, since it is a good way to get a host of commonplace as well as specialized drivers used in electronic gadgets these days. The driver handle is very nice, with a magnetic bit retention, ball bearing in the swivel tip (nice touch) grippy o-rings that can be replaced for getting good finger torque on the driver, there is an extension and a flex shaft as well.

I recommend the ifixit tools for electronic techs as an easy way to get the latest tools needed for odd fasteners. While not Erem Swiss quality, the drivers and bis are more than adequate for the type of work they'd see.

Eric, thanks for your insight into your work with ifixit. I like the company's approach to "crowdsourcing" input on their products and their strong commitment and advocacy towards repair and DIY in the face of throwaway products and propriety and user-unfriendly device assembly. When a new gadget comes out, one of the first places I go ti is Ifixit to look for the teardown.

 

[Revere Cycles]

Eric, I am one of your satisfied customers! When a buddy of mine needed to borrow my iFix It 26 piece bit driver kit, he was really impressed with the quality. "Where'd you get this?" "Oh, it came free with this part I ordered for my Mac mini" (silence) My buddy is also a die hard PC fanboy and would never acknowledge anything remotely Apple related to being superior. Keep up the good work!

 

[cheechi]

I like all of the items I have purchased from iFixit, tools, replacement parts, etc. For the plastic spudgers/pry tools it's hard to beat. As in, I have tried to find better or cheaper but they aren't as good.

For drivers, I prefer the Wiha set which happens to be the same set that Apple did (maybe still does) supply their in house repair techs. Not that the iFixit one is lacking but just in terms of the bits, I prefer the Wiha. I mean, you could get a similar kit from HD for 8 bucks, or HF, and they do ok in a pinch but if you are using the same T3 bit from there you're going to wear it out a lot faster than the iFixit one, and in my experience the iFixit bit doesn't last as long as the wiha.

As far as the driver handle, I have a lot of different kits and I don't have a specific preference for the handle, whichever one I have at the bench is what I use. I do like that the 4mm bit size is fairly universal and I'm glad iFixit stuck with that.

I have to say though, regardless of anything else the presentation is superb. The website is better than most, and the tool rolls are well organized and look very pro when you open them up. It's almost overkill when you open one of them to get a tool to replace some 10 year old ipod battery.

 

[Eric Essen]

Eric, I am one of your satisfied customers! When a buddy of mine needed to borrow my iFix It 26 piece bit driver kit, he was really impressed with the quality. "Where'd you get this?" "Oh, it came free with this part I ordered for my Mac mini" (silence) My buddy is also a die hard PC fanboy and would never acknowledge anything remotely Apple related to being superior. Keep up the good work!

Today only (Monday December 2nd, 2013), we've got the 26 bit for $5 with free shipping. It's our loss leader for Cyber Monday.
http://www.ifixit.com/cybermonday
Use the coupon code CYBERWEEKEND for free shipping.

The 26 bit is basically our universal "Ikea" tool set to include with all kinds of parts for installing them, but unlike Ikea tools, you'll keep this and continue to repair things with it.

We do try to offer other brands of high end tools anytime we can get demand for them. We have Moody's line and Engineer from Japan. I've also experimented with selling Fluke and other respected brands, they don't pay for their shelf space and mostly collect dust, even when sold basically at cost to be competitive with Amazon etc. The majority of our customers are at home fixing their own stuff, not professionals, so they are price, not quality shopping.

 

[rsanter]

Just ordered one based on some of the positive feedback I have seen here

Bob

 

[triumphguy]

Thanks Eric ordered up a set just now. And I always look at Ifixit tear downs to see if I want to buy a new gadget.

T

 

[Eric Essen]

Thanks guys. The tweezers in that set ****, honestly wish they weren't in them. As mentioned above, we recently changed our logo, and so this is a quick way to move some excess old logo product. The kit however does have almost any common and strange precision bit you'll ever need. That stuff you use everyday for things like tinkering with elevator panels, opening high-voltage enclosures, cable boxes, laptops, etc.

If you bought a 26 bit from this post, email me your order number and I'll send a sample pair of our new tweezers. eric (at) ifixit (dot) com

 

[CWP1616L]

Eric Essen,

Can you tell me if Product code: IF145-008-2 is made by Moody Tools?

I suspect that it is. Thank you sir.

 

[NotEnough]

Ordered a set and sent an email....thanks!

 

[jdmjr671]

Ordered a set plus the Pro Pentalobe screwdriver, thanks!

 

[Eric Essen]

Eric Essen,

Can you tell me if Product code: IF145-008-2 is made by Moody Tools?

I suspect that it is. Thank you sir.

Yes it is. If you zoom in on the product photo, the branding and model number are there. Moody was obtained by Central Tools, but is still providing us with great product and service.

 

[Eric Essen]

Ordered a set plus the Pro Pentalobe screwdriver, thanks!

You didn't send me an email for tweezers, but I found your order. You'll get a 2nd package too.

 

[928'er]

Received my 26 bit set the other day. Nice set and well designed. Haven't had occasion to use it yet, but looks like it covers everything my old "precision" screw driver set is lacking. Now I'm covered for all the really tiny fasteners. More for the desk drawer than the tool box.

Eric also included an upgraded pair of tweezers, a spudger and a magnetic dry erase board. All for $5 - well above and beyond the call of duty.

Thanks Eric.