__hetz

Reads like the typical NWO, Great Reset conspiracy nuttery. Maybe a sprinkle of Bill Gates population control, eugenics, etc. I'd say I'm surprised but I'm not. You can street view their location and it looks like shared office/warehouse space. They probably employ less than 10 people and, if SprocketFox reached out to the correct email or whatever, the company clearly isn't concerned about PR and such. Obviously don't have an office clerk or the sort handling the emails when the reply includes whataboutism and conspiracy theories.

I don't remember anything worthwhile but one alarm/camera installation I was on years ago was for two dudes working out of the loft above a household garage. Two-man hand-soldering operation assembling boards at a private residence in a major tech corridor (big name mil contractor offices up and down the main drag). Probably just bid on a contract, got lucky, and started cranking out components for god only knows.

Takeaway being they're "regular" people, even if they're manufacturing high-end hardware for weather balloons, so nuttery is still on the table.

Edit: But I too am deeply curious about cheese fortune telling. And again: Tyromancy
Oddly I've actually heard of oomancy prior to the article although I can't remember where or why. Tea leaves as well, but that's hardly obscure. At any rate I now have a literal grocery list of divination woowoo to read up on.

If the guts are held in with a snap ring, I could see someone blowing them out while smacking something with the backside. Only on models like those pictured. They have a hole all the way through with a dial to change the drive direction and a thin snap ring keeping everything in.

Models with a solid back and drive switch, there's no real way to put force behind the guts to push them out the front. Those usually have a faceplate held on with machine screws. If they've somehow stripped them and/or their holes out, I'd be impressed. But, for that odd scenario, if there's enough meat left they could probably tap the holes the next size up and get the next size screws. All that assuming they haven't lost any of the internals (small springs and pawls).

As the other reply pointed out, rebuild kits are also a thing. You can pretty much be assured any tool truck brand (Matco, Snap-On, etc) has rebuild kits for their ratchets. Harbor Freight even offers them for order with their more expensive "Icon" line of tools. Granted an in-store, lifetime warranty exchange would be even easier and they'll probably just hand you a new ratchet without questions.

Late edit correcting myself: HF doesn't offer rebuild kits for their ratchets. I was mixing up the fact that some Snap-On kits will drop into some Icon ratchets. You're basically stuck trading in if it's borked but at least their warranty is solid.

I overlooked it but the snap ring is actually visible under the drive plug on the left. Also the ratchet on the right looks like it probably does have a switch style drive selector instead of a dial. The back of the plug on that one has the push button to release the ball detent in the... "anvil?" That's what you'd call it on an impact gun anyway. I just realized I have no idea what it is on a ratchet. Just a "square drive" I guess.

I can give another good anecdote for this.

Crank shaft holder for Toyota/Lexus. You attach it to a breaker bar, that you can let pin itself against the frame or ground, while reefing on a torque wrench to get the crank nut back on - something like 283 ft-lb for my truck iirc. Not a small amount of force if something breaks or slips and things go flying.

One of the good, brand name options is made by Oni. It's also over $60. You can get a knockoff for between $15 to $25. The bad knockoffs are just the ring portion shoddily welded to the "arm" (where you connect your breaker bar), and those two halves often come apart at the welds under use. The good knockoffs are obviously cast as one piece from a mold that was probably made from an Oni or similar. They get a questionable dull black coating, lacking the polish and clean finish of the name brand, but they're still a singular solid tool.

Not knowing which one will hold up and which one might give you summer teeth is a huge risk for any uninformed home gamer just trying to DIY some auto repairs on the cheap.

So the people who "can barely run their phones" are also the ones consciously seeking out adb files and acknowledging the warning that pops up when they proceed to install them? Because it seems like every single time I heard of a bunch of rubes being pwnt, they'd all installed some fake tool or Jerry Smith tier bubble popping game that unsurprisingly ended up being malware... distributed by the fucking Play Store. When Google's "Play Protect" doesn't seem to actually matter, why would anyone want to allow them to then monopolize app distribution under the false flag of "security?"