Fix for broken Unifoil Ratchet Tool

Foils and Boards - Gear Talk
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My new Uni ratchet tool broke after a few uses. I think I was getting a little too heavy-handed with it as Uni says it shouldn’t be used to tighten screws fully. Hard to control yourself when your frothing to paddle out! The same thing happened to another friend recently so I imagine it’s a pretty common failure.

I went ahead and reverse engineered a beefier, 3D-printed replacement part that is made as two pieces so it can be installed without taking the whole wrench apart. I posted the files up on Thingiverse if anyone has a printer and needs one. Unifoil Ratchet Tool Replacement Collar by Jsonnett - Thingiverse

Pretty niche but hopefully others find it useful!

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Nice fix! Seen a couple other neat tools similar to this Kobalt drill Any one have a favorite they are using?

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I use diehard ratchets and crank the shit out of everything :rofl:

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I was using the Bosch GO Professional screwdriver, it works great, but now I just use the Unifoil ratchet tool that came with the kit.

Took me a few days to work out that with the Unifoil ratchet tool you got to pull the collar down to release the hex bit to swap it to the other size.

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watch out for using power tools to assemble your gear , ive seen fin boxes break and foils end up at the bottom of the ocean

yea the ratchet on the uni tool aint that strong, must swop the tool over to the fixed handle to torque up

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I was using a small 12v drill to run the long screws down into the Al mast of my axis setup. It was super fast which I liked bc those bolts (like the uni aluminum mast/fuse bolts) are really long and take a while to thread in by hand.

I would usually have to break those screws free with a t-handle torx though when disassembling. Then back to the drill to quickly back them all the way out.

The speed of a power tool probably isn’t as big of time saver for those with carbon masts as the screws that hold mast to fuse together aren’t nearly as long.

Maybe I need to work on a way to motorize the uni ratchet :joy:

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Axis alu fuse is so long, I toyed with the idea of one of these. 4 to 1 ratio. Pricey though.

Thankfully now on a carbon mast with short screws.

I did buy a normal Wera M40 and it has lasted super well, very rust proof.

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