Time to Inspect(y)or Gadget...

In October last year we carried out an in depth component inspection which saw us staring and squinting at 100's of shiny bits of metal, looking for dinks, chips, scratches and scuffs, along with fit, form and function checks to really put these components under some serious scrutiny. 

This stage was super important, as all of the components have been at least rough machined and were not yet close to being assembled. This initial check allows us to spot any issues very early on, when they're MUCH easier to fix! 

Master Of Pockets

A really effective test we carry out on all of our component inspections is to use a pre-production unit as a 'master' assembly and then take sample batches of every single component from the production run. We then test replacing a 'master' component with a 'production' component in the master assembly and make sure it functions correctly and looks the same as a 'master' component. We do this for 30pcs of each component, randomly selected from different batches to ensure we get a really good overview of the quality. This equates to disassembling and reassembling the pocket driver well over 200 times 🫠 However tedious this was for us, it's proven time and time again to be one of the most effective early stage tests we ever do! It also proves you can break down and reassemble a Pocket Driver without anything wearing out (it's also really satisfying to assemble, so we kinda like this job).

We’ll take you through some of the highlights below!

The Main Bodies

Behold the deep black barrels of your Pocket Drivers! These all passed the master test and were one of a few components that were fully completed.

A batch of Pocket Driver main bodies looking mighty shiny

Pin Handles

The Pin Handles came out really nice and they didn't need to go through any post processing, so these guys were all ready to be assembled into Pocket Drivers. We mentioned in Kickstarter update #10 about reducing the thread from M3 to M2 to strengthen the Barrel Pin by not removing as much material and this is how they've turned out 👌

Barrel Pins

These little hardened pins are the workhorse behind Pocket Driver and need to perform for decades under constant differing loads in some very hostile environments. So, we've done everything we can to strengthen these guys and make them as resilient as physically possible. The blackodised coating is something we apply post machining, along with a good coating of oil to help prevent rust (and if you keep up applying oil once the Pocket Driver is yours it'll be in good nick for decades!).

The Handles

These looked amazing and we paid very close attention to scratches on these components as we wanted them to be as perfect as possible for you guys. Below is an example of something we noticed on a few stainless handles and was something we passed due to not being able to polish an inside face.

End Caps

These were also in the final stages of manufacture and just needed their ball plungers popping in to be a finished sub-assembly. Again, we were very happy with these components and the stainless versions were all just as shiny.

Bottle Bit and Bit Blade

Pretty spot on these guys, really nice finish with no real issues at all. Excuse the excessive oil…we like to keep everything nice and lubricated to keep the components protected as they move through all of the different processes. 

That's the quality control highlights! The rest of the components were still in production, so weren't quite ready for an inspection just yet, but we got a good chunk done here!

Maximum Efficiency

At the time we were in the process of securing temporary warehousing due to the sheer volume of boxes full of heavy metal that were due to arrive over the next 3 months. For the original Driver campaign, we literally boxed ourselves in! We learned the hard way from that and definitely didn't want to do that again, as it really ruined being able to set up effective assembly lines in our workshop. This time around we approached fulfilment with much more experience and had already started work on the new assembly lines, along with lots of testing using the pre-production units to ensure we could hit the ground running when everything arrived.