Our Mission
To make products that people love, and have fun doing it. (Simple, right?)
Who Are We?
Makers. Creators. Tinkerers. Engineers.
We do things differently, making tools with the mindset that they must last beyond a single lifetime. We bring old tool patents back life using materials and machining not seen outside of high-performance engineering.
We love to over-engineer the simple stuff and bring large and otherwise unobtainable things into the miniature world, so we can all enjoy them on a new level. Built to last, we want your MetMo to be passed down through generations. This is the quality we strive for.
Metal in Motion
What is MetMo?
MetMo is our philosophy. The peak of engineering excellence in industrial, aesthetic and functional design. Precision engineering of cutting-edge quality, delivered to your hands.
MetMo is not about producing low grade products for mass market re-selling. Instead, we focus on low volume ideas that can be interesting and more fun for us all to share our love for engineering and fascination with mechanical design.
MetMo Team
We're a small team based in Yorkshire, UK. If designers, engineers, and general metal nerds were united by the love of quality, precision, and things that just feel right… AND believed in making objects that intrigue, satisfy and ignite a spark of curiosity around the world of mechanics, they’d look like this.
We've made tools and precision instruments that have engrossed our community and captured audiences, and delivered them no matter what problems the world has thrown at us! Through pandemics, wars, and recessions, we're passionate about continuing to deliver on what we promise.
Over the years we have created fidget fun, redesigned antique hand tools, and mastered the CNC machine.
Led by the designers of all things MetMo, James and Sean, and of course we've had our trusty Peg at the forefront of our Kickstarter journey over the years, these guys are behind it all.
The Community
It's been a huge joy of ours creating new things, bringing them to life and then sharing them with the world and our MetMo Community. We couldn't have got to where we are today without the amazing support shown by all MetMo's supporters, and we hope we can continue to grow together.
From our CubeClub forum and our social media pages, we truly appreciate every comment, conversation, and confab we get to have with each and every person interested in MetMo.
MetMo Timeline
Cube
The founding MetMo product, the Cube, was born.
Paving the way for the future of MetMo, the concept for this pneumatic wonder graced the world of Kickstarter.
Made using wire EDM, a piece of engineering so painstakingly slow to produce, you can see why it's a process reserved for the most specialist tasks. What can be achieved is impressive, but there was no way of ever owning something that these machines produced (unless you're lucky enough to own a nuclear submarine...).
Don't Quit Your Day Job... Unless?
With the launch of the Cube, our founders were able to take the leap into a metally world of motion full time. With a whole lot of engineering experience behind them, the Cube allowed the guys to take over James' living room and turn it into a makeshift workshop-come-packing station-come-office to make all our Cube shaped dreams come true.
If only they knew then what they were beginning...
Helico
Following our dive into Kickstarter and the mastery of the Cube came Helico, the world’s first helical gear fidget toy. Inspired by the satisfaction of interlocking gears, desktop fidgets had us hooked.
And for good reason! Tactile, discrete, and oh so enjoyable, the second MetMo brought engineering happiness to the palm of your hand.
Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Office
Our brains were working faster than a model steam engine, and with so much innovation on the way we knew it was about time to give James his living room back.
With a growing team and growing product lines, we welcomed our first real office.
Sure, we had to carry hunks of metal up three flights of stairs, but our new home in the big city made us feel very swish. And we were getting our steps in.
Grip
With our engineering heads on, we knew we could go bigger than desktop fidgeting. How could we inject this MetMo satisfaction into the world of tools?
Looking to the past for inspiration, we stumbled across a patent from the 1920s for an adjustable wrench that eventually came to inspire the MetMo Grip. The first in what was to become a whole foray into hand tools, the Grip allowed us to experience first hand the precision of CNC machining.
This was also a really collaborative time with our community on Kickstarter, and we had so much amazing feedback from our backers throughout this campaign that helped influence our choices.
Pen
Combining form with function in the Grip was inspiring, and led to a whole host of metally ideas in our workshop. The one that stuck was the MetMo Pen, utilising dual threading found in diamond screws to create the ultimate fidget pen.
A solid writing implement, aerospace grade metals, and our own take on a satisfying mechanical principal; this is a pen made for engineers, tinkerers, or anyone who wants to take a moment to focus, relieve stress or just play around.
Driver
Realising the wealth of information our forefathers could provide, we dove into patent research and became absolute history buffs. You wouldn't believe how much inspiration could be gained from looking into inventions of old, and after our gripping experiences we knew we could get our future-proofing hats on.
Enter Conrad Baumann's Ratchet Screwdriver patent, which inspired our first million pound Kickstarter campaign!
The response to the MetMo Driver overwhelmed us, and we were blown away by the interest and passion from our backers on this one.
CubeClub
We quickly learned that one of the best parts of the campaigns was getting to chat with likeminded engineers, creatives, and folk who just had great thoughts and feedback. We hated the end of a campaign, because it meant these were put on hold before our next launch.
So how could we keep the conversation going? Easy! We made our own forum.
Now we could chat all the time and keep those conversations flowing, and it gave us a whole new space to explore new ideas.
Pack Up! We're Moving
We were outgrowing our little office, and while it was full of fond memories it was also chock full of Grips and Pens and Helicos. We needed more space.
Our new office had a whole warehouse and production space; no more jerry-rigged workshops for us! With so much room to spread out, we had big things coming.
And it was really nice to leave all those stairs behind.
Pocket Driver
The Driver was a roaring success, but easily the biggest request came from the every day carry crowd; it's a great tool, but it's a whopper. What about something a little more portable?
Say no more! Off to the drawing board we went, and shrunk down the magnificence of the Driver (without shrinking any of the satisfaction of course).
The Pocket Driver quickly became a MetMo favourite, and let us go back to our palm-sized roots with palm tree-sized successes. Like its larger predecessor, it also hit £1,000,000 on Kickstarter. Whew.
Danger Knife
The innovation never stops, and we started tinkering with pneumatics and knives. In hindsight, this was pretty risky.
This led to the creation of the MetMo that never was, the Danger Knife. It was really cool, but it was also really dangerous (hence the name). Turns out firing blades around at speed is pretty irresponsible.
The wise leaders of MetMo deemed Danger Knife "A Lawsuit in the Making" and we moved it aside to focus on less stabby projects. It really was the best move for everyone, even if we still get the occasional message asking for us to release this blade launcher (before you ask, the answer is still no).
Multi Drive
We couldn't get craft knives off the brain though. We knew we could do something incredible, it just had to be less projectile. And we've never shied away from a challenge before.
We came up with what would eventually be an engineer's multi tool; we burned down the basis of craft tools and combed industry specialties into one nifty handle. Borne from the ashes, the MetMo Multi Drive.
Piston
Danger Knife inspo didn't stop there! We realised that when we took the blade off the knife, the resulting precision reamed case and precision ground rod with an air tight fit wasn't dangerous at all, and it was a whole lot of fun.
We crushed this down to make a precision palm sized pneumatic fidget (it's just nice when things fit in one hand). No Kickstarters involved this time, just a straight to store launch that absolutely blew us away. We sold out our pre-order months in advance, and our team ramped up production in ways we didn't know were possible.
And then we went and did it again in stainless steel!
Fractal Vise
We told you we love old stuff. We'd seen some incredible restorations of antique fractal vises in the past, but we previously didn't have the means to get fractally.
Maybe it's because we were thinking so much about desktop working after the Multi Drive, or maybe it's because we wanted to make this engineering spectacle accessible to more people, but when we went MetMo with the Fractal Vise we decided to shrink it down for a less specialised workspace.
The result was a fractal vise that was based on the original beast, but modernised and miniaturised for better use among makers, creators, engineers, and people who really love fractals. We know you're out there.
Blog Posts
And if that wasn't enough, take a MetMo deep dive on our blog:
