Originally Posted by
Mike Brady
If you read reviews, there are plenty of harsh ones about Chapman screwdrivers from people who use them for their intended purpose. Personally, I have never liked screwdrivers with interchangeable bits, as they are a compromise from conception.
That Lie-Nielsen does not offer to repair their failed screwdrivers is curious.
Sometimes a compromise is better than carrying a dozen screwdrivers, sometimes it is better to have the exact driver for the purpose. My preference is for an exact fitting screwdriver but my old changeable bit driver sure comes in handy when carrying tools to a remote site.
Searching > chapman screwdriver set reviews < didn't find any 'bad' reviews so changed it to > chapman screwdriver set bad reviews < and found this:
I had never heard of them until about a week ago. Small Ct based company that makes screwdriver sets.
I was looking for a simple around the house interchangeable tip 1/4 based screw driver set, something to keep in the kitchen toolbox. Everything I looked at either seemed gimmicky (self loading tips) or just cheap. Couple German ones looked good, Wera I think was the name.
Anyhow, in just googling for some reviews I came across Chapman Mfg. Seems nobody had written a bad thing about them, based in Ct, small company and they had what looked like a really well though out product.
This is from 2014 so maybe things have changed at the small Connecticut based company. My Chapman set has saved my bacon more than a few times. It has never been used to try and loosen a stuck nut with a socket and a cheater bar.
As far as LN is concerned they are a great company even if my personal experience is not perfect. Screwdrivers are possibly one of the most abused tools. In some shops they are considered consumable items.
There are also people who have no concept about how any tool works. As an example a friend of mine collected items that would create a pleasant tone when tapped with a stick or other object. Thinking he might enjoy a mallet just for such a purpose some scraps of wood were glued into a small mallet. The head was at most 2" in the longest dimension. It was nice for tapping his pot lids and large pieces of metal to make pleasing sounds. He decided to take it camping and was a bit disappointed it didn't work for driving his tent stakes.
Some folks can not understand force required versus size of tool involved to apply said force. That is why some people will look at a screw head that is a half inch wide slotted head screw and pick up a screwdriver with a quarter inch blade and be amazed when it cams out and messes up the screw head. Of course they will complain it should have worked fine.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote