When I was young there was this show of TV called ”MacGyver”. The show was named after it’s main character, Angus MacGyver played by Richard Dean Anderson. MacGyver was an employee of the Pheonix foundation and worked as a de facto PG-13 mercenary. He was not above cracking heads with the blunt end of an AK-47 but had a distinct dislike for firearms in general and avoided said devices whenever possible.MacGyver was called in for all sorts of dangerous and near-impossible missions, ranging anywhere from retrieving stolen documents to returning a stolen horse. With his trademark mulligan and trusty Swiss “army” knife MacGuyver had an uncanny ability to escape death and/or injury at the nick of time, usually by constructing elaborate contraptions from everyday objects using his pocket knife. A feat nothing short of miraculous considering the build quality of these so called “army” knives, by the way. Although my contribution may seem a tad trivial in comparison to the TV series, I feel that it does qualify as a MacGyver maneuver.
Defining a typical "MacGyver" solution is not all that easy, but I've compiled a few short guidelines below; Any construction made for a single use constrained by time and/or resources. Reparations aimed at providing limited functionality until more time/resource consuming reparations may be undertaken.
Bonus for the use of unconventional materials/methods and creating a device for one time use only. In summation; an ad hoc solution for a specific task not ment as a permanent solution.
My situation The problem; sudden loss of partition F: and G: containing a large number of photos and MP3 files. Cause; no connection with pin number four on the hard drive. The pin was pushed back by the connecting cable which caused the soldering to break. The pin was bent and unconnected to the hard drive.
Materials used; rubber band, heavy duty tape, toothpick, CRKT Zilla-tool. Solution; remove hard drive. Straighten bent pin with Zilla-tool. Disconnect entire HD cable from the computer and connect to the hard drive. Cut the toothpick with the Zilla-tool. Tear of three pieces of tape for future use. Position toothpick against the lose pin. Holding toothpick with Zilla-tool, place rubber band around hard drive, pinning down the loose pin. Stabilise with tape. Carefully insert hard drive into computer and connect cables. Start up computer and make backup unto more stable disk.
The hard drive has been running flawlessly for a few days now, although it is in dire need of a more permanent solution. Sooner or later the heat from the computer will dry the rubber band to a crisp and the loss of downward pressure against the pin will break the connection.
The design of the Recoil is derived from Gerber's one hand opening system found on most of the company's pliers, such as the Freehand and MP600.
The "manual" one hand opening pliers are flicked open with a snap of the wrist and closed by pressing the "buttons" attached to the plier head. Unlike it's manual relatives, the Auto-Plier has spring loaded handles which makes the plier easier to maneuver with one hand. The downside is that the mechanism does take up a fair amount of space, which seems to be the proverbial price to pay for automatic mechanism in general. Unlike it's manual relatives, the Auto-Plier has spring loaded handles which makes the plier very handy for one hand operations. I guess it's hard to mention the Auto-Plier without having to mention SOG's ill-fated attempt at an automatic plier, the so called "Switch Plier". Perhaps "ill-fated" is a bit harsh, but the tools just does not keep up with it's competition - the mechanism is too much of a compromise and it limits the tools capabilities to take on anything else but light to medium tasks. The Switch Plier is small, compact and automatic but clearly not made to take the abuse of a full size multitool. Alright, let's take a closer look at the Auto-Plier.
The implements of the tool are stacked upon the spring mechanism, which can be seen here - also notice the lock release at the end of the handle. On the right side of the Recoil there's a knife blade and a cross driver/bottle opener/twine cutter blade and on the left a scissor and a flat driver/can opener/wire stripper. All implements lock with Gerber's "SAF-T PLUS locking system". I'm not sure what that means since Gerber conveniently left that part out on their web page.
Anyways, the locking system is not the ordinary liner lock used in most Leatherman tools. The implements lock in place using a small piece of metal which slides in underneath the base of the implement. It seems strong enough but it can only lock one implement at the time. If the blade is locked in place, the mechanism will disengage when the other implement on the same side is pulled out. The Wave on the other hand has 4 liner locks on the outside of the tool, one in each corner, but since it requires one lock for each blade it is space consuming. Gerber's locking system allows one lock for two implements which is a suitable compromise.
As for the implements they are all nicely rounded on one side and rougher/sharper on the other - which is most noticeable around the opening slots.
The knife blade has the rounded side against the thumb where as the implement on the other side has the sharper side up.
The scissor is folded up so that there is no pressure against the scissors spring when it is closed, which is kind of clever. If the scissor is closed to tight/hard while cutting it will lock in the closed position.
To release the scissor push down the lock which usually unlocks the scissor handles - if not, press the lock and push the scissor back slightly.
One advantage of the Wave's liner locks it that rotating the tool in your hand will give quick access to a serrated blade on one side and clip-point blade on the other. As the Auto-Plier has stacked it's implements upon the spring loaded mechanism, the implements are only available from one side. As I'm right handed I carry the tool on my left side, plier jaws down and "trigger" against my belt. That way I can open the blade with one hand, but this also makes it awkward to one hand open the implements on the other side of the tools. Then again I'm glad that Gerber did not make any compromises on the mechanism - it may be fairly large but it seems rather rigid and very capable. The strong suit of this tool is definitely the plier and it's opening mechanism, then again there isn't room for much else.
The two main springs in both of the handles provides the force to launch the stubby needle nose plier when the trigger button is pushed.
The plier, by the way, opens slightly narrower then those on the Wave and lacks a wire cutter groove for some unknown reason. The coil springs also holds the implement locks in place which makes the implements slightly heavier to open when the tool is closed but it's still light enough to open with one hand. As a result of this the Auto-Plier's implements are slightly heavier to open then those on the Leatherman Wave.
The trigger button has a safety underneath the head which prevents the button from being pushed while in the "SAFE" mode. The button has a spring underneath which pushes the pin into locked position when the plier jaws are pushed into the handles. The safety is made of plastic and does seem kind of flimsy, but if it fails or breaks it is unlikely to prevent the tool from firing. Although I cannot see an excuse for the use of plastic - it may prevent the safety from scratching against the finish of the handle underneath, but I prefer function over aesthetics.
The Auto-Plier comes with a "ballistic nylon" sheath with velcro closing. I usually don't like velcro but it seems to work just fine - although I doubt it's as durable as Leatherman's leather sheath with button closing. On the plus side the flap of the sheath is very fast to close as you don't have to align a button on the flap against the sheath.
My sheath for the Wave is rather worn, of the printed "LEATHERMAN WAVE" only the tattered letters of "WAVE" remains, the button is scratched and the flap has been imprinted by the top of the tool - yet there is not a single loose stitch on the sheath.
Closing the tool can be done in a number of minor variants. I prefer to switch the safety to "READY" while the tool is open, push the button, slightly move the handles together which will lock the button down, release the button, close the handles and push the plier against a suitable surface. The advantage to this method is that you don't have to hold the button down which gives a more comfortable grip. Lacking a suitable surface, the plier can also be closed by pinching the plier jaws between the index finger/thumb and pushing the plier jaws into the tool, which is easily done as long as you push the jaws far enough to lock. Pushing the jaws against our body is not recommended and not pleasant. Ways to fail in this operation is as follows - 1; close the handles before the button locks down, the button will then unlock as you release it and the pliers are locked in the deployed position. 2; not squeezing the handles tightly enough will prevent the tool from locking. 3; squeezing the handles to tight will prevent the plier from unlocking. 4; not pushing the plier far enough to lock properly and consequently discharging in a very near future. These may be seen as fairly negative points, but the tool has a 2 minute learning curve and I think that Gerber chose this method because is makes the tool very unlikely to accidentally close.
With the pliers locked in place it takes some force to close handles entirely. Pushing the button when the tool is locked and handles open will allow the plier jaws to slide back as the handles are closed, unlocking the plier jaws. The Auto-Plier has five springs in all; two main springs in either handle, one spring on the scissor, one spring underneath the safety and one spring above the plier jaws which spring loads the handles.
Below you'll find my demonstration of one hand opening the mechanism and it's implements. Not including the scissor - which is rather hard to open with one hand. Note that the blade is locked in place until the other implement is opened.
As you probably noticed, the Gerber Recoil Auto-Plier is not like most multitools. Gerber has made some design choices which makes the Recoil a rather unique tool - however some choices require trade-offs, so here's a short rundown; Function; uncompromising spring loaded operation. Trade-off; bulk, fewer implements, more complex operation then manual tools. Bottom line; a more or less perfect one hand opening plier. With a push of a button you will have a strong plier jaws with spring loaded handles for true one hand operation. The use of three implements on one "blade" makes the most of the Gerber's limited storage space. The scissor is the only tool of the Recoil that is awkward to open with one hand. Reliability; Good to medium. Single point of failure; the brass pin locking the tool. Should the pin get damaged, the plier jaws will not lock properly - although so far I've not seen any indication of stress on the pin. The plastic safety seems flimsy, should the safety break the spring underneath will be exposed. If the spring should break off, the tool will not lock unless the pin gets pushed into the locked position.
In short, the Recoil is a competent multitool which is some what limited by it's small number of implements - and a little wider bite wouldn't hurt either. The use of plastic, folded sheet metal and the uneven edged of the implements also somewhat reduces the overall impression.
