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In this video, I want to talk to you about a new kind of screwdriver
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It's from a Canadian company called MegaPro, and it's their Mega Pro Precision Driver
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Why would you need a precision driver? Well, the bits are small, and they're specially shaped, and they're just what you need for working on electronics
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At least that's where I use my precision screwdrivers. And until now, I've used the collection that you see here
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It's just kind of a hodgepodge of drivers. Most of these drivers came to me just as freebies when I buy computer parts
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This is a new battery, for instance, for this laptop. It comes with a couple of drivers
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They're not just small. They're specialized in shape, too. They're not particularly high quality, at least not these freebies
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So that's one reason why I was particularly interested in this megapro
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because I know from past experience that MegaPro is definitely a precision driver manufacturer
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And I've made videos and written about their full-size drivers before. This is a ratcheting driver for just kind of regular screw-driving use
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This is only for precision use. It's like the full-size counterpart. It's got bits stored in the handle here
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interchangeable so it really takes the place of a lot of other drivers comes out
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like this and you can replace it with any of these one thing I really like about
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this is the the end part here this end cap is on a very nice bearing which means
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when you put it against the palm of your hand and you use it to drive it just it
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swive really nicely it it goes along with the whole idea of precision, essentially. It's a precision instrument for precision work. Now, this happens to be
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one of my favorite kinds of laptops. This is a MacBook Pro mid-2012. I rely on computers to earn my living
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Why would I be using a nine-year-old computer? Well, that's because the configuration of the mid-2012
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MacBook Pros was outstanding. Interchangeable memory, replaceable. battery, all kinds of ports and things on the side. I really prefer it to the more
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modern versions so much so that I actually have four of these that I keep in good condition ready to go They constantly being backed up So if something goes wrong something gets worn out
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I've got a replacement. I can just plug it in. I do the download of all the information and away I go
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And then I bring the worn out one up to snuff. And that's kind of what I'm doing with this particular one
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battery life isn't what it used to be. This charging port needs to be changed
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Here's the replacement part. That's where the charging port plugs in, but the contacts are getting corroded
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and they don't work reliably. So that's where this comes in. In order to get this part to replace that
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I basically have to take apart the whole laptop, fans, hard drives, everything's got to come out
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It's a pretty big job. and then I use my laptop so much that I actually wear out keys
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Not that I need to see what they say. My fingers know where the keys are, but this is the third, fourth, fifth time maybe
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I've replaced keys on this particular laptop. Here are the replacement keys here
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They're ready to go. So that's what I'm up to today. But this video is not about how I'm going to do all this
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because there's plenty of videos like this for this particular computer on
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YouTube I don't need to add anymore but this is mostly just about a review of the screwdriver
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which as I said I really like I've been using it for a little while now and it's a great
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driver it's it's far superior to the freebies that that you get and right now I'm
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using the Phillips bit it's a really tiny little little Phillips bit whenever you're
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working on electronics, you need to be meticulous, extra meticulous in fact, because a lot of the
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fasteners are unique. You can't get them at stores. They're just proprietary things. So I'm taking the
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cover off this computer. Now I know from a lot of past experience that there are two different sizes
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of screw. There is the longer one here, which goes in the
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three spots and then shorter ones all the way around. Not a big deal. It's just that you need to keep things in order
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In fact I actually have a collection of little parts When you connect with a particular piece of electronics like this and you make the choice to keep it up instead of Treating it as disposable
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Well, now you've got an opportunity to collect little parts and screws and fittings and things so that you're more likely to be able to
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succeed if you run into a bit of a problem So that's the Phillips driver in action there and I expect we're gonna see a fairly
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amount of dust. That's usually the way it is. Well, it's not too bad. These are the cooling
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fans here, and they're constantly drawing air in to cool all of this hardworking electronics
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But, of course, when it pulls in air, it pulls in all kinds of dust, too. So part of this
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procedure involves cleaning all this. As I said, I'm not going to go into all the details of
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repairs. Let me just say that standard wisdom says you should not vacuum
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the insides of a computer. Certainly I'm going to be vacuuming this
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and I've been taking apart computers like this and working on them. I've done it dozens and dozens of times over 15 or 20 years
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I do vacuum the inside of my laptop. I use a horse hairbrush, so it's not plastic, it's not synthetic
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It's not likely to... You won't build up static electricity. So that's really the danger is that you might zap something
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with a little shock of static electricity. but I've never had that problem
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I go gingerly. I just go where the dust is. And that works pretty well for me
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Yeah, this is kind of where a driver like this shines. And if you look inside, let me just take a look here with this illuminated lamp
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This is also a very helpful thing. This is a magnifying lamp with a built-in ring light
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So you can really see what you're doing. So once you get inside any piece of electronics
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That's where all these interchangeable bits really come into play, because there are quite a few different fastener styles
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I mean, there are the Phillips, which is just like a cross shape
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Got to get the right size, though, in order for that to work. Then there's also what's called torques
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That's a torques one there. Some more torques. Torcs is, the size of it is described with a number
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So for instance, if I'm not mistaken, I think that would be a T6 torques there
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Let see in this one So you see it says T6 torques and yep that the one for that screw there
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So I guess the advantage of the interchangeable style is at least two-fold. First you've got higher quality, higher-quality bits. The Mega Pro is a professional line. These are very hard wearing. I've never had a
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mega pro tip let me down by rounding over and because the metal's too soft. So that's one thing
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Another thing is variety and compact shape. You don't have to trip over a whole bunch of
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screwdrivers like this. And you know in the past these freebie drivers that have come with
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some of the components, repair components I've bought, they have let me down. I mean one time
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the driver bit was soft enough that it actually started to round out the head of the screw. And believe
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it or not, I had to drill out the head of the screw in order to get that little wee machine
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screw out. So whenever I reviewed tools, I try pretty hard to find the flaws because nothing
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in the world is perfect. It's a great driver. The only thing I can fault it for at the moment
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is that, at least with the collection of driver bits I have in here, there is not one called
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a trilob, which is what I have here. It's like the... It's a fill
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The Phillips driver, it's like a Phillips driver, but instead of four arms, it only has three
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And in this case, the trilob driver is what you need to remove the battery
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It's the only trilob fastener in the whole computer here. But I have talked to the Mega Pro people, and they tell me that there are more than 90
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different precision driver bits in the world. It's quite a varied collection, and they're always adding new ones, so quite
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adding new ones. So I'm sure the trilob is going to be added soon. Maybe they've even got it now
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and it's just not in the handle. But bottom line is if you want to have success, if you want to have
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do-it-yourself success, creative success, success at repairing things, you just need good tools
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And that's kind of an investment that I'm surprised a lot of people don't make. You know
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they'll cheap out and they pay for it and they wonder why their DIY life isn't what it should be
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equip yourself properly with high quality tools, even professional grade tools. I mean, that's what I do. I'm not a professional computer guy here, but I have found that good tools matter here
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just like in any other area of metalworking, woodworking. And I think you like the Mega Pro line. I know I certainly do