Cool Tools Kit Awards 2020 Winners - Week 1

Hello Community!

During these difficult past few weeks, we hope that all of you are staying as safe and as healthy as you can in the company of your closest loved ones. We here at the e14 Chicago and Leeds offices have been working from home for a couple of weeks now and while it's sad to not be able to see our co-workers in person, we've been having our conversations through video conference and trying to remain somewhat productive despite having an abundance of cute pet moments and an under-abundance of what I'm told are standard paper goods?

But during the last few weeks, it's been seriously fun to read everyone's comments and entries for the Cool Tools Kit Awards! Thank you all so much for sharing these with us and because we've been enjoying them so much (and we hope you have as well!) we've extended entries for a few more weeks. So if you have anything you want to share and still be eligible for some cool prizes, feel free to drop some comments over on Cool Tools Kit Awards 2020.

This is the first Friday in April so we have picked out our first set of winners!

First up is alaa_salam who shared the following with us:

Weighing at 2.3kg, this "toolkit" features the following visible items (starting from upper right, btw items are organized according to what pocket they are placed in):

1) *** pocket: test screwdriver, USB, small notepad, 4 color pen, marker, pencil (mechanical with eraser), highlighter, needles (not shown here, they make excellent test pins, they come with their own covers!... also for picking out things like O rings off of wall medical gas outlets), adafruit SMD Ruler and Mastech MS8910 SMD clamp meter (mine are not shown here because they are being cold sterilized with Ethylene Oxide gas... hazards of working at a hospital - they are featured below though)

2) Left side pocket: phone (used to take pics and upload this post ), ROD multipurpose pocket pliers swiss-knife style (see below why it is called ROD), hex pocket screwdriver, and 3M Termaflex electrical tape

3) Right side pocket: pocket flashlight, pocket meter, and keys which have a portable double-sided screw driver (Philips head and flat head)

Now for the piece du resistance.... ROD: my #RideOrDie (a.k.a. ROD) toolpiece is my pocket multipurpose foldable plier, the swissknife of toolkits!!

If this tool could speak... well, it would need a shrink really xD

It was given to me as a gift at my 20th birthday by my brother-in-law (still my favorite gift of all time). Over the course of 13 years, this tool has never left my side (yep stays by my bedside next to my phone, is in my purse when I go out, I even take it to weddings!), well except when I shower or when it is being sterilized. It has been with me through thick and thin, and has been the ever so loyal and trusty companion. In short, I love the damn thing like a child of mine

Another winner for this week is dougw who wrote about several of his tools but our selection committee was especially fond of his story about the Screwball!

This is called a Screwball and is easily my favorite screwdriver of all time. It holds 4 easily accessed bits and has a great visible direction ratchet or lock. The large diameter ball makes it easy to apply a large torque without any ridges to shred your fingers. It also nicely distributes the load when you have to apply a large axial load. Most other screwdrivers will poke a hole in your palm in similar situations. That feature alone is worth the price of admission. The ergonomics of using this screwdriver are just phenomenal. I can't believe no other manufacturer has figured this out. Unfortunately mine broke (the ratchet) and they are not sold anymore. I would dearly love to see someone start making a similar screwdriver so I could snap one up. Maybe I could do a 3D printed ball on a regular ratchet, but the other features still wouldn't be as good. I actually did print a big round handle to hold a tap chuck and it also works great to spread the load on my palm.

Our judges love a fun story and also love to see photos! Thank you to both of our winners for the week for sharing their awesome Cool Tools with us.

To today's winners, watch out for a message from someone on our team coming into your inbox to ask you about prizes. We have a list of some pretty cool stuff in our giveaway list but due to some potential logistics issues we want to make sure that we're awarding you things you can actually receive at this time. Once our winners have picked out their prizes, we'll be updating this post so the rest of the Community can take a look at their selections!

That's it for this week, everyone! Come back next Friday to see who the next batch of winners are. Again, thanks for always making it a joy to read your comments and posts. Until next week, everyone!