Tuesday 6 January 2015

Today's Review: The Improved IKEA Allen Keys


Well, Christmas is truly over, and now there's a mountain of toys that require storage in my tiny place. Our regular January tradition is to order a buttload of furniture from IKEA, so we can rearrange our rooms and maximise any storage potential we have. I love IKEA. They provide practical, simple, and cheap furniture. Sure, you may have to put it together yourself, but that's not really much of a problem. I've seen countless situations on TV and the like in which an inept man can't follow simple pictorial instructions, or there's a vital piece missing or left over, but I've never encountered any of those problems. 

No, my main concern has been with the allen keys provided. They're always moulded all the way down in that horrific hexagonal pattern, that drives into my flesh the more I screw, leaving my hands bruised and beaten after a lengthy furniture assembly session. I was fully prepared to review my excruciating ordeal with allen keys tonight, using my freshly mangled claw hands, but what should I see upon opening my flat packs? Improved allen keys!

Look at the craftsmanship on these babies. The hexagonal death grip is gone, replaced by a smooth, cylindrical handle that didn't hurt my hands at all. Sure, I got a little pain from the very end stages of screw tightening, but it's nowhere near as bad as the ordeal I used to suffer. To top it all off, check out that plastic doohickey surrounding the allen key at the top. That fell out of my largest piece of furniture, a spanner handle-like attachment that you can perfectly slot the allen key into for more leverage, plus plastic is certainly easier on the palms. So what I was expecting to be a painful, long lasting screwing experience was improved immeasurably by these well designed wonder tools. Well done IKEA, well done.

My rating: 5/5

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