Made In The USA: Snap-On SSDMR4B

As always, these are free to read

i blame my brother for these stupid hats

Yesterday I asked ACF commenters which tools I should buy. As I expected, the responses were detailed, thoughtful… and have already cost me several hundred dollars. Thanks for that. (To be fair, I’ve also saved some money with your recommendations.) As with anything else men do in life, the selection and purchase of tools is a balance between fantasy and reality, with the former often taking an uncomfortably prominent position. In my tool-related fantasies I will be using the Nepros Ion Gold set to lovingly rebuild my 2.7L Macroblock V-8, somehow extracting ten more horsepower than the RPE crew in the UK can get while also spending (at least) $20,000 less.

My tool-related reality, however, is that since moving into my house three weeks ago I’ve spent more time using the above-pictured screwdriver than every other tool I own, combined. A few rooms’ worth of new shelving, the replacement bookcases for my mini-studio, a hundred other small tasks… all quite deftly handled by the

$76.50 plus tax and shipping

Snap-On 8-3/4” ratcheting screwdriver. It’s nearly triple the tariff of the similarly USA-made Megapro ratcheting screwdriver — more about that in a future article. If you’re horrified by the price, no worries; I can show you how to get the same thing for thirty-seven bucks. In the meantime, however, let’s see why this screwdriver costs between four and eight times what you’d pay for the generic made-in-China competition.

Those of you who are experienced Snap-On marks, er, owners, will recognize that this is a “hard grip” tool. Snap-On offers many of their tools in both hard and cushioned grip models, a practice mirrored by the Harbor Freight “Icon” brand that is aimed directly at Snap-On the way the Rivian R1T is aimed directly at potbellied balding henpecked California schlubs who will never tow anything heavier than a jar of Vaseline and a few poppers over to their wife’s daytime burlesque show.

(Naturally, this does not apply to ACF readers, at least two of whom own Rivians and are presumably using them to rescue untamed horses from wildfires or something similarly masculinadmirable.)

Many professional mechanics prefer the soft grip, but I have a little OCD when it comes to porous surfaces, which is why I had Corian everywhere in my old house and Cambria everywhere in the new one. Your mental illnesses may vary.

Why get a ratcheting screwdriver at all? Go assemble a half-dozen Ikea anythings and come back to me on that. Alternately, just get old. The continual loosen-and-reposition movement used with a standard screwdriver didn’t bother me one bit when I was twenty-five. Now it feels like I am using one of my wrist tendons to cut through another one.

Maybe you’ve been put off ratcheting screwdrivers by the crummy all-in-one tool kits sold in every computer shop and truck stop. Those have about ten “clicks” per rotation and are exceptionally sloppy. They also usually have a selector mechanism down on the shaft, where it is impossible to reach without taking the tool away from the job. The Snap-On, by contrast, changes direction with a twist of the handle-mounted ring. It has twenty-eight clicks per rotation, just under thirteen degrees of motion per click; this isn’t Project Farm so you’ll have to take my word for it. In practice there isn’t a lot of wasted hand motion, and once you’ve used the Snap-On for a while you’ll get a sense of how to minimize that lost distance by unconsciously resuming your twist motion the moment you feel the final available click in the return direction.

(If I had a Glock pistol, which I do not, I would liken this to the “fast reset” trigger technique in which you keep fingertip pressure on the trigger through the firing cycle, then just relax pressure until you feel the cruciform sear “click” through the pad of your finger, at which point you squeeze again. You’ll never win a pin match with a Glock until you master this, but that’s fine, because everyone knows that the coolest way to win a pin match is with a matched pair of blued Smith Model 25s, using half-moon clips and .45 ACP rounds. Sweep from left to right; you have one extra shot available to push a pin off the table. If you need to swap guns, you’ve already lost, but it’s a great way to show you can afford two of them. Elmer Keith would approve.)

Extra bits are stored in the handle, which screws open and is sealed with a rubber O-ring. The screwdriver shaft is knurled, which comes in handy more than one might think, and is also magnetic to retain the bits. The magnet might be a bit too good, in that it will magnetize bits so strongly they will occasionally stick on metal screws that are more strongly attractive than the stainless-steel-with-recessed-magnet shaft. To address this, pull the bit off the screw at an angle, which prevents the bit from coming out of the shaft.

You can drop this screwdriver as much as you like, but you shouldn’t use it as a lever or prybar. Snap-On is so serious about this they have a warning on the handle to that effect. In a pinch you could probably do it, but aren’t you already carrying a titanium prybar from LynchNW with you at all times? You’re not? Why? Because you have a life?

The ratcheting mechanism can be rebuilt for twenty-two bucks, and the rebuild kit includes all the wear parts, so this screwdriver should be essentially immortal. If you’re feeling lucky, it’s possible to get used examples on eBay for forty or fifty bucks, understanding that you might need to rebuild them.

At the moment, the SSDMR4B is available in eleven colors, from my default-choice green to red/white/blue. Nine of these have a plain stainless shaft; if you want black you can get Dark Titanium or… tan, for a “Black and Tan” screwdriver. I assume someone at Snap-On is either a Loyalist or an Irishman with a sense of humor. The price is the same for all the colors.

If $76.50 is a bit too rich for your blood — and I wouldn’t blame you for that — it’s possible to get something very similar for half-price, as the Williams WRS-1. It’s essentially the same screwdriver, made in the same USA factory, for thirty-five bucks. Even the bits are the same. Differences are limited to: shape of the handle, a slightly longer shaft without any knurling, and a different warranty procedure. If you’re a traveling enduro racer or shop mechanic, you should definitely get the Williams, if only because it’s less likely to get stolen.

Here in my barn, however, we’ll pay a few extra bucks for the fancy color and fancy name. It’s a charming tool, one with a considerable amount of thought behind it, and it is recommended.