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Simple Machines

|< < Prev #3239 (April 29, 2026)

Title text: It's hard to decide which simple machine system to invest in. DeWalt makes a great lever and inclined plane, but I hear Milwaukee's wheel-and-axles are really good.

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Explanation

There are a lot of simple tools used to give a mechanical advantage in various things. The 6 most common ones are called simple machines: a lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge and screw. Additionally, there are all-in-one tools that are made with multiple features, such as classic Swiss Army Knife that combines various different forms of blade (which in part act as levers and/or wedges, depending upon use) along with some non-bladed tools (such as the corkscrew, which naturally embodies the same forces as the 'simple screw' itself). This comic combines both ideas, suggesting the existence of an all-in-one instrument with all six simple tools. The tool shown merges them by mounting multiple components (no longer being quite so a 'simple' machine), some of them with multiple purposes depending upon application. For example the lever and the inclined plane are both present via the same core rod.

Having one of these "all-in-one" devices does not mean it does everything you can do with different combinations — the choice of components and how they interact (or don't get in each others' way) is important for the function of a particular device.

There are obvious drawbacks to having this 'all-in-one' tool. The tools all have varying uses, some very different from one other, and you would find it unlikely to find many devices in need of all the tools together in a spot. So such a tool would be largely useless compared to its singular variants. As well as that, the tools come in many different sizes as well, meaning unless it has special adjustable sizes (which could well be impossible, to account for all the different sizes)^{[citation needed]} the tool would be unlikely to be the right size to fit many features! As well as that, though Randall claims he can stop buying simple tools thanks to his all-in-one, in reality you often need more than one of the various tools for projects- particularily screws, of which there can be hundreds in a single project. So a thoroughly useless innovation.

The title text is a joke about what brands to choose. Milwaukee Tool and DeWalt are two common tool companies. The text points out that as both companies have advantages in certain simple tools, then deciding which to use for an all-in-one tool would be difficult. This is also likely a reference to the problem of choosing which tool company to use. As for battery powered tools, the batteries are not usually interchangeable, so once you buy a few tools from one company, you are stuck using only that company, as you already have "spare" batteries for all of the tools.

Transcript

[A rod with a square cross-section is shown sloping from top-left to bottom-right. At the bottom-right, it has a wedge tip. At the top-left, it is threaded and has a long nut on it. The nut has an eyelet where a rope is connected. The rope travels taut around a wheel on an axle connected near the wedge-end and then lies loose with a hook on the free end.]

[Caption below comic:] I can finally stop buying simple machines now that I got an all-in-one tool with all six of them.

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