Clip-on Drill Holders: A Swatclips Story

Drills and the Dakota's-

When one door closes another door opens. As the saying goes. In 2008 we were framing an apartment building in Montana. The job was not exactly going great and money was becoming scarce. The job got red tagged for overhead power line issues and we found ourselves with fifteen employees, payroll due and no way to work.

We had heard rumors that all kinds of work was happening in North Dakota due to the oil boom, so we packed our tools, our men and a wall tent and headed for the Balkin oil fields not really knowing what we were in for. The first job we found was a massive pole barn that had been blown over and abandoned by a crew out of Kansas. Beggars can’t be choosers and we most definitely were beggars.

I realized pretty quickly that the tools we had in our beat up trailer were not the proper tools for installing exterior metal, so reluctantly I headed for the hardware store  to buy a couple new drills and impact drivers. I bought two Makita drills, impact driver combos and headed back to the jobsite.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before one of my men dropped it out of a man lift onto the concrete floor. I watched two hundred and fifty dollars explode on the floor. They say that necessity drives innovation. Whatever it was that experience motivated me to make a drill holster that actually worked.

A Need for New Innovation-

I didn’t want something bulky that took up too much space on my tool belt. It needed to be secure and accessible. I needed to know that whether I was climbing through trusses or crawling in crawl spaces my drill holders was with me ready  to use.

The Swatclips Drill Clip does all that for me. It took years of engineering and failure to make drill holders that are modular, secure and quite frankly awesome. The fact that it fits on my tool belt or on my work pants is great.

It fits all the major brands and does not take up half of the room I have on my waist. Everyone has a unique way of working but we all need security with our tools.

A Final Thought-

It’s been over a decade since the Dakota oil boom. I often look back and remember that brand new Makita crashing on the floor and the door it opened for me that day.

These days I no longer worry about wall tents and waiting in line for a shower at the Stanley Cenex. I also don’t worry about dropping my drill.