Tag Archives: screwdriver

Arrowspace’s $119 screwdriver identifies screws and lights up the matching bit

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For five years, Arrowmax has been teaching screwdrivers to read people. The SES Pro in 2021 watched your wrist, so a twist left or right told the motor which way to spin. The SES Max added app control, and the M1 Pro stretched output to 10 kgf·cm with a manual fallback for stubborn screws. Its little screen could report torque and battery level all day. Your screwdriver got smarter and you got lazier, in the best possible way. The obvious next question was why the tool still had no idea what screw it was holding.

The Arrowspace S1, built by the same team under a new brand name, answers that with a camera on the tail end of the screwdriver. Image recognition names the screw’s drive type and exact size, while a small probe holds the lens at a fixed distance so tiny heads stay sharp. The smart case then lights the slot of the matching bit, and Auto mode picks a safe torque for that fastener. It keeps the 10 kgf·cm ceiling of the M1 Pro, which is plenty for everything from earbuds to e-bike parts. Early pricing starts at $119, and the kit includes the case, 52 S2 steel bits, and a power tip extension.

Designers: LAU YIN / XU YU

Click Here to Buy Now: $129 $215 (40% off). Hurry, only 40/400 left! Raised over $119,000.

The Screwdriver That Squints So You Don’t Have To

The camera sits at the rear of the S1, right behind a small contact probe, and the two work as a team. You rest the probe on the screw head, which locks the lens at one fixed distance, so every shot lands sharp. A screw this small turns to mush if the camera drifts even 1mm. Arrowmax fixed that blur problem with a metal pin instead of more code, which is a very hardware-person way to win an argument. I love it, because it means recognition survives a messy bench and shaky hands instead of working only in a demo video.

Once the shot is sharp, the driver sends it to the companion app on your phone, which works out the drive type and exact size. Everything runs locally with no internet involved, so your screw photos stay on your phone. Arrowmax trained the model, a YOLO object detector, on its own collection of tens of thousands of real screw photos, currently covering 12 common head profiles. The app shows the actual camera image next to the verdict, so you can see what the S1 sees and judge the call yourself. Only the reading step needs the phone, since motor control, torque, and the displays all work on their own.

A Case That Points at the Right Bit

The smart case turns the app’s verdict into something you can see across the bench. A 2-inch TFT screen with Arrowspace’s purple interface shows the recognized screw type and size, while an LED glows under the slot holding the matching bit. Reach, grab, done. Compare that with the usual ritual of squinting at tiny codes on dozens of near-identical shafts, and the old way starts to look like a part-time job. It is the same idea as a warehouse pick-to-light shelf, shrunk down to a tray of S2 steel bits.

The 52 bits are S2 steel hardened to HRC60, which keeps the tips from rounding off after repeated use, and extended bits reach screws buried in deep holes. A magnetic holder keeps bits seated while you work. The case itself is a CNC-machined frame in aerospace-grade aluminum with EVA protection inside, a build the M1 Pro’s CNC aluminum box would recognize. That solid metal feel suits a bench that sees daily use. One box ends up holding the driver, the bits, and the answer to which bit you need.

Gentle With Earbuds, Firm With E-Bikes

Electric torque runs from 1 to 10 kgf·cm, roughly 0.1 to 1 N·m, and Arrowspace’s own chart maps that range to real jobs. The low end suits earbuds, smart bands, and glasses. Around 3 you are into laptops and camera bodies, 6 covers RC cars, drones, and game consoles, and the full 10 handles e-bike parts and large appliances. Auto mode matches a conservative preset to the screw it just identified and remembers your last setting between jobs. Prefer to drive? The app lets you tune the torque for each mode yourself.

When electric mode runs out of muscle, the S1 switches to manual on its own, a trick it inherits from the M1 Pro. The mechanism is rated for 30 kgf·cm of hand-twisted force, which handles the factory screw that laughs at motors. A 600mAh LiPo battery covers 900+ screws or about 90 minutes of continuous use, and USB-C refills it in roughly 70 minutes. An OLED on the body shows torque level, spin direction, and battery, and it even animates while charging. A full session of fiddly repairs fits comfortably inside one charge.

The Price of Never Guessing Again

The S1 suits anyone who repairs often enough to own a drawer of bits but not often enough to have a veteran’s eye, meaning RC builders, scale modelers, drone owners, and the friend who gets every laptop question. Arrowspace says the AI handles identification while your hand keeps the control, and that split feels right to me. My one wish is friendlier recognition for oddballs like JIS cross-head screws, the Phillips look-alikes in plenty of Japanese electronics. Arrowmax says updates will keep widening the 12 profiles covered today, so the wish has a path. A screwdriver that learns new screws over time is a fun idea for a tool that used to be a metal stick.

Pricing for a single S1 kit starts at $119, listed at 45% off, with $129 and $149 tiers also available. Every tier includes the driver, the illuminated smart case, 52 S2 steel bits, and a power tip extension. Shipping is an estimated $16 by air freight to anywhere in the world, so US buyers are covered, with delivery expected in April 2027. Two kits run $238 and three run $339, with shipping at $30 and $45. The optional Angle Screw attachment is sold separately, so check the product page for its price. A stripped screw can cost you a whole device, which makes $119 look like cheap insurance.

Click Here to Buy Now: $129 $215 (40% off). Hurry, only 40/400 left! Raised over $119,000.

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Leatherman’s Weirdest Tool Drop Yet Is Strangely Genius

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Leatherman has always been the brand you could count on to do one thing extremely well: pack an absurd number of tools into a deceptively small package. But Garage Batch #009 doesn’t follow that playbook at all, and I think that’s exactly why it’s worth talking about.

The Garage line is Leatherman’s unofficial skunkworks. It’s where the company test-markets experimental tools in limited batches, which means low quantities, no guarantees of a permanent future, and a demographic of buyers who treat a tool drop like a sneaker release. Batch #009, officially named the Adapter, is a ratcheting bit driver that looks unlike anything else in Leatherman’s catalog. Core77 put it best when they noted that if you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was someone’s industrial design school thesis project. That’s not a criticism. It’s kind of a compliment.

Designer: Leatherman

The Adapter is built from 3D printed titanium, which gives it that slightly precious, proof-of-concept feel you don’t usually associate with something you’d use to fix a cabinet hinge. It folds at a hinge joint and can be configured in three positions: fully extended for reach, bent at 90 degrees for torque leverage, and folded shut for compact carry. The ratcheting mechanism works in forward, reverse, and locked positions, so you’re not doing that annoying micro-repositioning shuffle every time you need to drive a screw. That alone is a genuinely useful upgrade over most compact bit drivers on the market.

But here’s the part that turns this from “useful niche tool” into “object I want to own”: the handle. Leatherman tucked a wood saw, a metal file, and two bits inside the handle compartment, all secured with a screw cap. They also stowed a mini ballpoint pen and an eyeglass screwdriver in there. If that sounds like the setup for a very organized person’s favorite fidget toy, you’re not wrong. The neon green accent strip on the handle doesn’t exactly scream jobsite. It says something closer to “I paid attention in design school and I have opinions about EDC.”

I want to be honest about the audience here. The Garage line isn’t really for the electrician or the contractor who needs to pull a hundred screws before lunch. It’s for the person who has a Wave on their keychain and a thing for limited-edition objects that are also actually functional. One reviewer summed it up with a note of friendly resignation: “I guess I have to accept the reality that Leatherman is like Supreme now.” That quote has been floating around the internet, and whether it’s a dig or a badge of honor probably depends on who you’re asking. I’d argue it’s both.

The drop sold out fast. High demand on a small batch is Leatherman’s way of gauging whether something deserves to graduate into a full production run, which is a smart and low-risk way to innovate. Not everything from the Garage line makes it. But the Adapter feels like a strong candidate for becoming a permanent fixture, because once you get past the art-project aesthetics, the core concept is genuinely practical.

Compact ratcheting bit drivers with smart storage have a real market. People are constantly trying to slim down their tool kits without sacrificing capability, and a folding driver that also carries your most-reached-for accessories covers a lot of ground in a small footprint. The 3D printed titanium construction keeps it light without making it feel cheap, and the three-position folding system solves an actual ergonomic problem that flat bit drivers have always had.

Whether you’re a gear collector who watches tool drops the way other people watch sneaker releases, or just someone who wants a smarter carry for weekend projects, the Adapter makes a case for itself without needing to oversell anything. Leatherman took a weird swing, and it mostly landed.

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Screw-inspired Stool Numbered Like a Sneaker Drop: Only 150 Made

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There’s a certain kind of object that can’t quite decide what it is, and not in a bad way. Furniture has increasingly strayed into collectible territory, and collectibles have crept into living rooms posing as furniture. The result is a growing category of designed objects that live somewhere between a chair and a limited-edition release, serious about craft but refreshingly light about everything else.

Carpet Company, the Baltimore brand known for carving out its own irreverent corner of the design world, leans into that tension with the S-TOOL, its first piece of furniture. The name makes no effort to hide the attitude, and the official list of potential uses runs from stool and ottoman all the way to footrest, ornament, chew toy, and, with admirable candor, trash.

Designer: Carpet Company

The form is remarkably direct. A 12-by-12-by-12-inch cube of 100% fiberglass, cast in a single unbroken gloss color, sits on four chunky legs that taper down to blunt, faceted points. The top surface carries a screw-head relief in each corner, molded flush into the fiberglass in the same color as the piece, which reads immediately as hardware but behaves purely as ornament.

The screw motif carries through to the legs, shaped like Philips screwdrivers that slot into the screw-head relief of another S-TOOL. It’s a small but loaded gesture, nodding to the DIY impulse of the design process without pretending to be handmade. Carpet describes it as hardware that speaks to how things get built, balanced against the glossy, almost candy-like finish to keep the whole concept from becoming too earnest.

The S-TOOL is a limited release, with only 150 units spread across 30 colors, five of each. Every piece carries a metal plaque screwed into the underside, detailing the release and edition, which gives the stool some of the same collectible gravity you’d expect from a numbered print or a signed sneaker. At 15 pounds, it’s substantial enough to feel like something, and that’s rather the point.

The packaging reinforces the whole thing. The box carries the same list of purposes, a column of color-coded screw illustrations previewing the full range, and a cartoon hippo mascot that’s equal parts absurd and charming. Carpet has always been deliberately playful, and the S-TOOL packaging reads like the product brief itself, a small manifesto folded around a cube of brightly colored fiberglass.

What makes the S-TOOL interesting is how much effort went into something that officially disclaims all responsibility. Carpet spent considerable time on proportional analysis to give the elementary form a sense of sophistication it doesn’t advertise, and it shows in how quietly resolved the piece sits. It’s furniture that doesn’t mind being treated as trash, but it’s built carefully enough that you probably won’t.

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This Designer Made the Screwdriver EDC Nerds Didn’t Know They Needed

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There’s something deeply satisfying about an object that refuses to take itself too seriously. The Drillbit Gyro, a concept design by Berlin-based designer Julius Works, is exactly that kind of object. It’s a spinning top. It’s a screwdriver. It’s the kind of thing you pick up off your desk when you’re on a phone call, and five minutes later you’ve forgotten what the conversation was about because you’re watching a Phillips bit twirl on your kitchen counter.

Let me back up. The EDC (everyday carry) space has a particular aesthetic, and if you’ve spent any time browsing it, you know exactly what I mean. Everything is titanium. Everything is milled from a single billet. Everything looks like it was designed for a spec ops mission in a mountain range you’ve never heard of. And look, there’s nothing wrong with that. Some of those tools are beautifully made and genuinely useful. But the culture around EDC gear has calcified into something predictable. Rugged. Tactical. Masculine in a very specific, unimaginative way.

Designer: Julius Works

The Drillbit Gyro walks into that room and does something different. It takes a standard 1/4-inch hex bit, a flower-shaped body machined from what appears to be stainless steel, and two small orange threaded grub screws that lock the bit in place. An Allen key is included to tighten everything down. That’s it. The bit slides through the center of the body, with the Phillips head poking out the bottom and the hex shank rising up top, and what you get is a perfectly weighted little top that also happens to be a functional screwdriver. You grip the hex shank between your fingers, give it a spin, and it goes.

The wireframe drawing included in the concept images reveals how clean the internal assembly is. The two grub screws thread in from opposite sides of the body, clamping against the bit shaft to hold it securely. It’s a simple, elegant solution. Swap in a flathead, a Torx, whatever you need. The modularity is baked right in.

But here’s what I think makes this concept worth paying attention to: it doesn’t apologize for being playful. So much of product design right now, especially in the tool and gadget space, is obsessed with justifying its existence through sheer utility. Every feature needs a purpose. Every gram needs to be accounted for. The Drillbit Gyro says, sure, I can tighten a loose screw on your cabinet hinge, but also, wouldn’t you rather watch me spin for a minute first?

That playfulness is a design statement. The scalloped edges of the body aren’t just decorative. They give you grip when you’re actually using the thing as a driver, and they create a beautiful profile when the top is in motion. The orange grub screws add a pop of color that feels intentional and confident against the brushed silver body. Even the packaging, shown in a foam-lined tray with each component nestled in its own cutout, suggests that this is something you’re meant to enjoy unwrapping. It’s gift-worthy. It’s the kind of thing you’d keep on your desk not because you need a screwdriver within arm’s reach, but because it looks good sitting there.

Julius Works, who operates out of Berlin and specializes in 3D and product design, clearly understands that objects carry emotional weight beyond their function. The Drillbit Gyro is a concept for now, but it feels ready for production. The component count is low, the machining is straightforward, and the market for clever desktop objects that blur the line between tool and toy is only growing.

Will it replace a proper multi-bit driver in your toolkit? No. Is it going to be the thing you reach for when you’re assembling a bookshelf? Probably not. But that’s not the point. The point is that not every tool needs to look like it was forged in a bunker. Sometimes the best everyday carry is the thing that makes you smile when you pick it up. The Drillbit Gyro gets that, and the EDC world could use a lot more of it.

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The First Screwdriver With an Open-Source Handle You Redesign Yourself

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There’s a quiet arrogance built into most tools. Someone in a design studio somewhere decided how your hand should hold a screwdriver, how long the shaft should be, how thick the grip ought to feel. They tested it on a handful of people, ran the ergonomic studies, picked a shape, and shipped it to millions. The assumption is always the same: one form, optimized for an average that doesn’t actually exist, should work for everyone.

Siddhant Rai Garg’s final-year project at Central Saint Martins, titled Not Just Another Screwdriver, starts from a different place entirely. It asks a question that most product designers avoid because the answer is inconvenient: what if the person holding the tool is actually the best person to decide what it should feel like?

Designer: Siddhant Rai Garg

The system is deceptively simple in concept. A permanent titanium spine handles all the structural work, the torque, the load, the mechanical reality of driving a screw. Everything else around it, the grip, the length, the feel, is modular and replaceable. Segments can be added or removed to change the tool’s reach. Grip files are open-source, meaning anyone with access to a 3D printer or a block of wood and some patience can shape their own handle. The titanium core stays. Everything around it is yours to define.

What makes this interesting isn’t really the engineering, though the material separation between structural and non-structural components is genuinely clever. It’s the philosophical shift. Most product design operates on a model of authority: the designer knows best, the user receives the finished object, and any modification is either warranty-voiding or just plain weird. Garg’s project flips that relationship. The designer provides a skeleton and a set of rules. The user provides the identity.

I find this compelling because it confronts something the design world talks about constantly but rarely acts on: sustainability through longevity. We’ve all heard the pitch about buying fewer, better things. But “better” almost always means “more expensive and more permanent,” which assumes the first version of a product will remain the right version forever. That’s not how people work. Our hands change, our tasks change, our preferences change. A tool that can’t change with us eventually becomes waste, no matter how well it was made.

Not Just Another Screwdriver sidesteps this by making the most resource-intensive part, the titanium spine, the permanent element, while letting the lightweight, low-cost components around it evolve freely. It’s not asking you to commit to one perfect screwdriver for life. It’s asking you to keep the bones and swap the skin whenever you need to.

There’s also something worth noting about the open-source dimension. Releasing grip designs as downloadable, modifiable files is a deliberate act of giving up control. In an industry that guards intellectual property fiercely, choosing to let users become co-designers is a statement about where value actually lives. It suggests that a tool’s worth isn’t locked into its factory finish but grows through use and adaptation.

Of course, a final-year project isn’t a product on shelves. There are real questions about whether most people want this level of involvement with their screwdriver, whether the modularity holds up under years of heavy use, and whether open-source grip files would actually build a community or just sit on a server somewhere. These are fair challenges.

But the idea itself feels like it belongs to a larger shift happening across design, one that treats users less like consumers of finished objects and more like participants in an ongoing process. We’re seeing it in modular electronics, in open-source furniture, in customizable prosthetics. Garg’s contribution is taking that thinking and applying it to something so ordinary, so taken-for-granted, that most of us never think to question it.

A screwdriver is a solved problem. Except it isn’t, not if you believe that the person using it deserves a say in how it feels in their hand. That’s what makes this project worth paying attention to. Not because it reinvents the screwdriver, but because it reconsiders who gets to decide what a screwdriver is.

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The Joystick-shaped Screwdriver That Makes Repairing/DIY Projects Fun and Intuitive

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Repair and assembly are usually framed as chores, tasks to be completed as quickly as possible, so we can move on to something more enjoyable. The bi:ts tool challenges this perception by transforming the act of tightening a screw into something closer to play. Instead of feeling like labor, the experience becomes tactile, intuitive, and surprisingly satisfying.

At the heart of the product is a joystick-inspired interface, borrowed from the language of game controllers. Rather than twisting your wrist repeatedly or navigating complicated buttons, you control the rotation using just your thumb. Push the joystick forward to rotate right and tighten, pull it back to rotate left and loosen. The mapping is so natural that it removes the hesitation many novices feel when they pick up a tool. There is no overthinking, no remembering instructions, just instinctive movement.

Designer: Changhwi Kim

Somewhere between the words “bit” and “beat,” the product invites you to find your own working rhythm. The motion feels less like a mechanical task and more like interacting with a game, where each rotation becomes a small, satisfying action. For someone new to DIY, even figuring out which direction to turn a screw can feel like a mission. The intuitive joystick mapping eliminates that friction, allowing the user to focus on the activity itself rather than the instructions.

This approach also reduces the learning curve often associated with automatic drilling machines. Power tools can be intimidating, especially for first-time users, but bi:ts lowers that barrier. Its lightweight build and ergonomic grip make it comfortable to hold, while the rounded edges soften the traditional perception of tools as harsh, industrial objects. Instead, the device feels friendly and approachable, more like a gadget than a piece of heavy hardware.

The design language reinforces this sense of playfulness. Bright, cheerful colors add a pop of personality, whether the tool is in use or simply hanging in the corner of a room. It is the kind of object that does not need to be hidden away in a toolbox. In fact, its aesthetic presence encourages visibility, almost like a design accessory rather than a purely functional item.

Practical details are thoughtfully integrated into the form. A loop at the top allows you to slip your hand through it, preventing accidental drops and keeping the tool within easy reach when you need both hands for something else. When you are done, the same loop makes it easy to hang the device for storage.

At the bottom, a smartly integrated niche stores different drill heads. This eliminates the need to search for separate parts or risk losing them. Everything fits neatly into the base, keeping the system sleek, compact, and ready for the next task.

bi:ts ultimately reframes what a tool can be. Instead of something intimidating or tedious, it becomes something engaging, almost playful. It suggests a future where DIY assembly, even something as routine as putting together IKEA furniture, can feel less like a chore and more like a small, satisfying game.

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Upgrade Your DIY Game with this Ultimate Magnetic Multi-Bit Titanium Screwdriver

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In every toolkit, some basic toolsets and an assortment of independent screwdriver attachments are available in case you want handy at any time because you cannot help but notice a loose screw or an awkwardly struck nail. If you’re one such individual; a versatile, compact, and durable screwdriver with multiple bits in the body should be your go-to option.

It all started with the original Ti-Mag project. No wonder, it was successfully funded on Kickstarter before it was delivered to the backers in January earlier this year. Now, after adopter feedback, the makers have upgraded the original Ti-Mag as the Ti Mag V2 with a foldable titanium body. Hence, it’s the perfect companion to tackling DIY projects at home or wherever the need to repair a situation arises.

Designer: Logical Carry

Click Here to Buy Now: $89 $108 (18.5% off). Hurry, only a few left!

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For the enthusiastic DIYer in you, who at any particular time has his/her tiny workspace overcrowded with screwdrivers, pliers, and other tools – some inside, other overflowing – from the toolbox; you know the significance of a toolkit that you can carry along in the EDC pack or in the pocket with comfort, and unfurl it show what you can do!

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Take a bow Ti-Mag V2! The ultimate titanium EDC screwdriver with multi-bits and a pry bar is completely scratch-resistant and designed to reach the narrowest of points you’d want to negotiate. The everyday carry screwdriver combines five interchangeable bits made in different designs and sizes. The screwdriver, in addition to magnetically holding these bits in the womb – within its 180-degree foldable design – also features a box cutter and functions as an incredibly cool fidget toy.

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The versatile new Ti-Mag V2 weighs a fraction over 100 grams (106 to be precise). It is incredibly pocket friendly, and comes with a five-bit compartment in a screwdriver CNC-machined from grade 5 titanium. Designed to address shortcomings of the debut model, the version 2 of the Ti Mag has a folding, 180-degree two-way design, which allows the top handle to wiggle half-way on either side providing an opening to access the assortment of screws residing within.

Pull out any of the five bits – depending on the screw size and type – you want to address. You can choose between Slotted 5.5, Philip’s PHO, Philip’s PH1, Philip’s PH2, or Trox T6, which attaches magnetically to the extending bar that looks in place when the action is in progress. When not in use, the bar remains firmly in place so you can even work in hard-to-reach and narrow work spaces.

With the Ti-Mag V2, you can feel the satisfaction that you have the screwdriver comprising different screw sizes and shapes that can take care of all possible scopes of work it is designed for. Obviously, made for carrying out various tasks, this conversation-starting magnetic bit screwdriver allows its pry bar to be used for removing nails and open boxes. And when all are covered and you don’t have any work; entertain yourself with the fidget toy it can be courtesy of four magnets.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89 $108 (18.5% off). Hurry, only a few left!

The post Upgrade Your DIY Game with this Ultimate Magnetic Multi-Bit Titanium Screwdriver first appeared on Yanko Design.