Modifying Leatherman Multitools: Part I — Rebar+

My Leatherman Rebar, purchased in 2014, was quite worn out from constant use .. The Flathead screwdrivers were broken, and the Phillips screwdriver was quite worn out ..

Аt 2021 I found on the forum forum.multitool.org several interesting solutions on how to expand its functionality a bit ..

The war made its own adjustments and only by the end of 2024 I managed to collect the components, tools and do what I had planned ..

Before getting started, I strongly recommend reading the forum thread of The Hacked Leatherman Owners Club — here you will find a lot of related information .!

To produce this modification, I used parts from two other Leatherman multitools ..

Leatherman Wave Original (Wave first generation) has already been discontinued, but on the secondary market you can still find them at very reasonable prices, often two to three times cheaper than more modern Leatherman Wave models ..

Leatherman Wave / Wave+ (Wave second generation)

I purchased bit holders on the local market, and took spare parts from Wave Original (Wave first generation) directly from the multitool itself ..

However, these and many other parts for multituls can be found on etsy.com or ebay.com by searching “leatherman parts replacement” ..

Previously, they could only be ordered from the USA (etsy.com / ebay.com), and that was quite an expensive pleasure, comparable in price to a full-fledged multitool .. 

More cheaper options are now available from aliexpress.com ..

You can find them by searching “Wrench Multitool Spanner For Leatherman” ..

Their name in the search will be “5 Point Star Torx Screwdriver Bit 1/4 Inch” ..

*In case you need to disassemble Leatherman Wave / Wave+ (Wave second generation) here is awesome instructables .!

 ( ! ) To disassemble the Leatherman multitools ( ! ) will need to know exactly which side of the multitool the bushing is on, and which side the screw is on: the bushing must be fixed with one key, and the screw must be rotated with a second key .!

Otherwise that can be damage the frame of the multitool because the bushing has a notch due to which it fits tightly into the frame on both sides ..

All Leatherman multitools have the same screw location, i.e. in order to determine exactly where the screw is located, it is enough to remember that's location .!

Open the multitool as shown in the picture, in this position there will be a bushing on the left frame at the top and a bushing on the right frame at the bottom: they must be fixed by one of the keys, and use the second key to rotate the screw .!

Remember when disassembling and when assembling your multitool: fix the bushing with one key and rotate the screw with the other .!

Bit holders taken from the Leatherman Wave / Wave+ (Wave second generation) are backward compatible with the mounting locations on the bushing and fixation on the Leatherman Rebar frame: you can simply swap them without making any physical changes, and vice versa, tools from the Leatherman Rebar can be installed in the Leatherman Wave / Wave+ (Wave second generation) ..

The only thing that is important to remember: it is necessary to take into account that the the tools must be arranged in such a way that they do not interfere with the pliers closing ..

Backwards compatibility between Leatherman Rebar and Leatherman Wave Original (Leatherman PST also) is not possible - it is only possible to install tools from older versions of Leatherman multitools into newer ones, but such tools need to be pre-redo and for this I used an engraver ..

As a result of these changes my new Leatherman Rebar performs all its and additionally acquired functions and I'm very pleased with the new scissors and additional bits, and the Phillips screwdriver most used in everyday life, although not fixed, is always at hand ~

Soon it will be the fourth year of the war in Ukraine and without the support of democratic countries we would have fallen long ago in the face of the aggressor - this is unprecedented support, but in war there is always not enough of everything, alas..

If you can provide all possible assistance, please pay attention to https://www.hopp.bio/medicine4ukraine — over the past years this impeccable volunteer (a mathematician in peacetime) has collected and delivered many tons of tactical medicine .!

💙💛

Glory to the Heroes and Victory to Ukraine .!