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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 & screw. Additionally, often for various purposes all-in-one implements are made with all the features - a notable example being the classic Swiss Army Knife. This comic combines them, suggesting the existence of an all-in-one instrument with all 6 simple tools - Although, artistically enough, the tool shown combines the lever & inclined plane into one rod, so it's actually only 5 of the tools - which is a concept not existing in real life^{[citation needed]}.

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 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, & 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.

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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