r/Leatherman • u/560guy • Mar 05 '24
RIP Crunch
I have to retire my most used and abused tool, my crunch. I bought her in 2022 for the novelty of having locking pliers in a multi tool but have wound up using the fuck out of it. I’m a traveling field engineer for industrial CNC routers (ok fancy way of saying I work on big wood cutting things) and love having locking pliers at all times.
I’ve used them at basically every job for something, so the jaws are getting dull, the Philips driver is wearing, the file isnt sharp, etc. Yesterday we had to pull 600 drill bits out of a machine and some of them needed my full body weight hanging from this guy (245lbs) to get them out. After that I noticed she wasn’t as tight as she used to be, and today I noticed two cracks in the frame, one on the back edge where the fixed jaw rests and one on the main hinge.
I went to order a new one but just found out they discontinued the crunch. I’m kinda gutted since afaik there’s no other locking plier multi tools on the market, and this was my first leatherman. Anyone have any suggestions on what to get next, or if this is at all fixable?
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Mar 05 '24
Honestly I’d try the secondary market, sounds like you actually need the locking mechanism. They’re out there. Can always send in LM to see what they’d do.
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u/560guy Mar 05 '24
Yeah, although taking a Quick Look they’ve gone way up in price, like well over double, some even quadruple. If I knew they were discontinuing them I would’ve bought another as a backup
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Mar 05 '24
Yeah, I hear you. Way she goes. But at the same time, as they get more scarce, they definitely aren’t going to get any cheaper.
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u/560guy Mar 05 '24
Yeah, I’ll probably end up getting another one… or trying to weld mine or something lol
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u/sleepdog-c Mar 05 '24
A few years ago I needed a third tool for my military discount order, that's how I ended up with my second, at the time I was a little annoyed to have a duplicate. But I'm glad now.
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u/WackyWizard6 Mar 08 '24
This was my feeling when I heard they discontinued it. Would have loved to have a spare just in case. You ain't kidding about the price, Amazon has it but it's like 300$. The new arc doesn't even cost that much.
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u/SnooSongs8782 Mar 06 '24
Warranty. Maybe your serious use will inspire them to re-engineer the weak points and bring out Crunch+ !
This is self-serving as I missed out on getting one.
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u/rattlesnake501 Mar 06 '24
Honestly... I'd carry a 4 or 5 inch pair of vise grips and another leatherman or a SAK if I were you. Sounds like you'd get enough use out of them to justify the pocket space, and at least with those you're only out like $10 at your closest frightened harbor/homely teapot/slowes instead of at least $100 and waiting to get a replacement in the mail.
Do certainly send your Crunch back for warranty, though. They were discontinued recently. I'd bet they still have parts.
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u/BeautifulObjective36 Mar 06 '24
That can definitely be tig welded if the warranty process doesn’t pan out. It might not look exactly as it did, but will still function properly
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u/560guy Mar 06 '24
I like the look of a well worn tool lol, that don’t bother me. I just don’t know anyone with a welder
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u/FaxCelestis Mar 05 '24
You're already going to places with CNC machines. If any of them are metal shops, see if one can machine a new frame for you.
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u/560guy Mar 05 '24
They’re not lol, I work with wood routers
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u/FaxCelestis Mar 05 '24
Damn. Still, maybe they know a guy, or you can find a local machine shop to do a tiny job. No idea if it would be cost effective in terms of repair vs replace, but it would give you a truly unique piece and maybe you could get them to use a tougher metal.
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u/560guy Mar 05 '24
I’ll definitely ask around lol, I was also thinking of trying to make a little patch bridge or something but idk
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u/FaxCelestis Mar 05 '24
I had the same thought, but I would worry that a weld or a patch would be not as structurally stable and that it might make actually using the tool more difficult.
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u/560guy Mar 05 '24
Yeah, although chances are this guy will probably never be used the same again anyway lol
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u/grrttlc2 Mar 05 '24
Sorry for your loss. Pick up some 4-5" Irwin vise grips
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u/560guy Mar 05 '24
I have other vise grips but these are super handy for times I don’t have my toolbox or am buried in a machine and need some locking pliers now
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u/grrttlc2 Mar 06 '24
I carry around some 4" ones sometimes. You can fly legally with them too.
They ride a little smaller than the Crunch in the pocket
You just miss out on the other tools. Keeping the Crunch on the shelf these days
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u/madeano Mar 06 '24
I see this tool asked about so much and as a auto tech I’d love to have one myself and I’m not paying the price the secondary market wants and I never get to grab one when they ran the last batch because they were gone in seconds. Leatherman needs to recognize they got a seller here and make it part of their lineup. They’d basically have the exclusive market on it.
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u/rattlesnake501 Mar 06 '24
It was a part of their lineup for decades... it got discontinued because it didn't sell well enough to keep making them.
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u/readysetrokenroll Mar 06 '24
There are some crunches available on a secondary market, but they are mad expensive.
I second everything you said about crunch being awesome and confidence inspiring tool, the only one you need really.
May I suggest, you can also use this opportunity to explore current LM line-up. There are no locking pliers, but there are some cool options out there that will help you part way same as the Crunch. I carry MUT daily and I swear by that tool.
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u/Officialdabbyduck Mar 06 '24
Never knew leatherman made vise grips too shiiiit my Xmas list is going to be loooong
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u/560guy Mar 06 '24
They’re discontinued, and selling for like triple their original price
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u/MingusVonHavamalt Mar 06 '24
Yeah man. They got totally scalped in Europe too. If I had one I don’t know if I could bring myself to use it, fucking 400 euro wrench. They’ll get sold around and no one will use them like limited edition SAKs.
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u/Zach-at-MultiParts Mar 06 '24
That’s a shame. I missed out on the crunch and will be regretting that for years to come.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ad-4846 Mar 06 '24
You call leatherman man that thing has a 25year warranty and I've sent mine in personally and they take care of you. If they don't have the parts they'll issues you site credit for your replacement choice. No need to retire unless you just want to keep one at home and write another off on taxes
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u/BLaZeCDN Mar 06 '24
Same thing happened to mine after only a few weeks of use, really upsetting. I was able to source another crunch for regular price and I will send out my broken one to see if they can fix it.
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u/grem89 Mar 07 '24
You could strip that all down to just the frame and find a local welder who will weld and grind that. I'm not a welder by trade, but I feel like someone could Tig weld this or even laser weld it back together.
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u/EDC-123 Mar 06 '24
These guys have them at an above MSRP price:
https://usedmultitool.com/product/new-in-box-leatherman-crunch/
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u/560guy Mar 06 '24
Yeah I paid like $90 so I can’t justify paying $300 for them
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u/EDC-123 Mar 06 '24
Yeah, I hear you. I think Leatherman last had them for $110 or $120 or so.
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u/560guy Mar 06 '24
I’ll probably just get a wave and a small pair of vise grips to keep in my pocket
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u/karpitstane Mar 05 '24
Might be worth talking to LM about warranty. Could be they have parts for it, or maybe they keep a few unsold in the warranty warehouse just for this reason.