14 November, 2013

Ti2 Sentinel

What is it?

A titanium tube for holding small items like pills, matchsticks, pens etc. Most unique feature: there are caps on both ends, so it's very easy to eject stuck items. It started as a project on Kickstarter that got >600% its original goal.

It's quite expensive, but I can't stop thinking about it, or find anything similar. I've also got a few different kinds of things I want to keep inside, but none are valuable enough to justify the expense.

Gear Websites

If you search for this, you'll find it mentioned on many gear websites. At first I was excited to find so many sites to discover new products like this, but I was always disappointed. I don't want a new booze flask, or motorcycle, or someone trying to reinvent the notebook! I think I should start my own site only featuring things that I find cool.

Note: consider Uline's clear plastic tubes - http://www.uline.com/BL_3651/Clear-Plastic-Tubes. Meant for shipping things. Double ended, with caps.

I found a very similar commercial product on eBay:
The "NAGATAC Cretaceous Titanium Dual-end Survival Container Waterproof Life Capsule". Also made of titanium and double-ended, about the same price, even has a glass-breaker! Note: there are a few other titanium capsules on eBay, and some are even double-ended. Brands to consider: Tiremet, RockBros and Titaner.

Update 2 Jun 14
Well, they've finally done it. There's a knockoff on eBay. I've already bought the original one but haven't written about it, so I'm not interested in this. In case anyone is:
It's listed as "High strength Case Waterproof Capsule Seal bottle Protect Outdoor Gears" by the seller "edcgears". Notable differences: This one is made of aluminium, and the threads look much thinner/narrower, so they'll be weaker. Only one size. Of course, it's much cheaper.

It's interesting seeing knockoffs on eBay. There's this product called the Munroe Mega Dangler, made by Munroe. It's a titanium clip you're meant to attach keys to, and you can clip to your belt/outside of pocket. The original is about USD$70, but eBay has a knockoff stainless steel version for USD$10. And there's this Sentinel. The creator of the Sentinel on Kickstarter, Mike Bond, has several other projects: the Sentinel X, a larger aluminium one meant to boil water. On the very first picture of the eBay page above, it looks like there's a Sentinel X on the left edge of the picture, so they probably have a knockoff of that. He also has a Para-Biner, a carabiner with added functionality, and they also copied that, but in stainless steel instead of titanium. So it looks like some manufacturers are actually monitoring what products are popular and imitating them. It's actually surprising these products are so popular - I thought they're a niche hobby.

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