The Blade Base Gears strip immediate on use. Poor material design.
590655
Beware- the rubber mating gear pieces under each blade base- stripped out after a couple uses, they need to be a harder tougher material so as not "shred" . Chopping onions, little of no control, turns veggies to mush. I would recommend- Buy a Ninja Master Prep.
3687308
'Tooless Chain Tensioner' broke within 1 Hour of use.  Gears inside stripped?  Total fail.  Very disappointed with this Makita.
4008440
The screw threads attached from the handle on top to the grinder blades easily became stripped, effectively making this device worthless.  After an email exchange, they have agreed to replace with a similar item without a crank, a satisfactory solution to the problem.
1697400
The exposed gears and flimsy tension wire of this winder are major disadvantages. The slightest variation in feed tension causes the tension wire to loosen and fall flat, causing the exposed winder gears to chew up and wind the yarn around the inner axis. Heaven forbid you are looking at the wool or somewhere else while winding...in two or three revolutions, you have to dismantle and unwind...a major blow when nearing the end of the process. Vibration and turning the crank handle seems to be the culprit...again, there seems to be too much play in the gearing to ensure a secure ball winding result.

I tried varying speed, tension, ball size and stress on the crank...all with same result. Disappointment

This one is headed to the sadder but wiser pile of poorly designed objects to be ignored, discarded or passed on to another soul.

You get what you pay for, in this case.
1290032
The first day I owned the knife, the blade chipped. After a few weeks of wearing it on my pocket, the clip broke off entirely. I love the Hinderer design of this knife and I love my other Kershaw knives that I've owned in the past but this one was a total dud. I honestly blame the quality control and the materials that are used in making this knife. It comes down to cheap Chinese steel. Do not buy this knife.
81744
Based on all the positive reviews I purchased this Black & Decker edger several years ago and used it three to four times per year. While the unit does have lots of torque, I noticed several shortcomings that other reviewers  have already mentioned :

- Cheap plastic handle; broke after the first year
- Unit tips over easily (balance weight inside motor housing is not big enough)

Yesterday, the edger started to make a high pitch noise and no longer drove the edger blade. Looking at the parts diagram I suspected that the reduction gear between the motor shaft and the blade shaft had been damaged, so I disassembled the unit. Sure enough, the large gear had been completely stripped by the smaller gear, and Black & Decker no longer provides this service part. The large gear appeared to be made of aluminum (soft metal), whereas the small gear attached to the motor appear to be steel.

As a result, I had to throw away the entire unit which still had a perfectly good electric motor.

I cannot recommend a product that is not repairable because of lack of service parts, and I can't believe Black & Decker is still selling this edger, even though
some of the critical service parts are no longer available.
1711676
I bought this to spread mulch, buying it on Amazon primarily because of price - it's very similar to other's sold at Home Depot.  Within a couple of hours of use, the fork loosened from the handle and now twists anytime I pick up unbalanced load, dumping the load.  It's rendered the tool useless.  Unfortunately, it looks like the manufacturer uses a curved, heavy duty plastic collar to attach the fork to the handle; there is no evidence of any type of screw or rivet holding the fork to the handle so I can't even repair it myself.  Poor design - already looking for a replacement.
3535375
This fan vibrates against the housing LOUDLY.  It isn't the blades rubbing, but the housing itself. Poor design and manufacturing.
1426953
Gears failed after one use.  They are very poorly made, the metal used in the gears is of poor quality, the design is poor.  Bottom line, this looks good on the outside but look under the cover and you will find that it is no good.
1119542
died after 2 months. plastic gear stripped. poor quality mechanical design
2726389
Design & Quality issues with the Gerber Crucial -

1) Carabiner and Blade are on the same end/axis of knife. If you are using the carabiner for carry, it must be closed before using the blade. Not very efficient. I usually have something I'm holding with one hand and need to be able to grab my knife and open the blade with the other hand without having to open/close other tools. The Carabiner and Blade should be on different axis so as not to interfere with the function of one another.

Or, as another reviewer suggested, the Carabiner should be mounted on the outside and be removable with screws.

2) Calling one tool a Phillips-head screwdriver is a misnomer - It is USELESS for this purpose. The head is as flat as a flat-head screwdriver with two slight indentions on each side that give the impression of a Phillips-head when looking at a picture. The two barely raised edges do not provide any additional gripping surface when turning a screw. It would have been better to offer a second half size smaller and thinner flat-head instead.

A better description would be one flat-tipped and one pointed-tipped screwdriver.

3) It is weightier than a standard pocket knife but shorter than most standard sized multitools.

4) This product is made in China. I know, I should not be surprised, but I expected better from Gerber.

Overall, not a bad concept, but still has some design work needing to be done.

**** Update: November 7, 2010 ****

The spring on the carabiner popped off and was lost. An internal frame pin/rivet came loose blocking the blade tip from closing all the way. Poor workmanship.

When returned to Gerber for warranty repair, they replaced with a new tool.

**** Update: August 27, 2011 ****

The flat head driver now has metal broken off on both corners of warranty replacement tool. Weak materials.

Like I said - Design & Quality Control Needs Improvement . . .
2816744
As many other reviewers have said, it's an example of poor design and material choices.  I've had this for less than a year and am chucking it out after the tensioning wheel broke.  I've never put it in the dishwasher but the plastic still crumbled.  So much for materials choices.  The wire goes through a shallow groove and around a smooth rounded surface to where the tensioner is.  If you tighten it up enough to stay in the groove when you cut the cheese, it pops out because it pulls around to the side of the round surface. (See image) Imagine trying to tie a string tightly around a billiard ball and you can see how this is poor design.  Add the lack of adjustability, and this one's an all around loser.
296855
Simply put, this is a poorly machined tool, the tiny screw holding the cutting blade is poorly chosen and made from a non tool grade metal. The screw strips quickly, and rusts, allowing the blade to rotate and come loose quickly. I used this once, just once, and the top came off, sadly I am 4 days from being able to return in, I may try gluing the screw in, but I will not be able to trust this tool
577454
Bought this one to replace my old Dewalt grinder that finally gave up after 15+ years. Using it to grind down a weld, it caught and jumped. After this it would not spin, but the motor worked fine. The armature shaft is threaded and has a nut on it that holds the pinion gear in place. This shaft sheared off. I found it and the nut in the packing grease inside the gear housing. Not sure if this was a defective shaft or just poor quality. Seems to be a design flaw (IMO). Only way to fix it is to replace the entire armature. Might as well buy a new grinder. I would not recommend.
15318
It's plastic and that should have been my first clue not to buy it.  It is skipping gears (because it's all plastic) and does a so-so job.  I should have spent the $3 more for the metal one.  It does not slice or core.
4879867
Poor blades.  I wasn't cutting that hard of material and the blades lasted all of 20 seconds. Literally 20 seconds.  Maybe good for plastics or wood.
1536333
The slicer seemed nice but the motor gear broke  a couple of minutes in using it. I would not recommend this product refurbished or brand new. Unless you want to purchase a new plastic gear every five minutes...