I have to admit to being a cheapskate and consequently appreciate Aldi tools. I bought their biscuit jointer and found the second one ok after some adjustment, as described in the “Aldi offers 9th October 2008” thread. I also have their router and router table. The Aldi router I bought last year is good enough at the price and I found it to be much better than the Screwfix equivalent, I have them both :wink: I accept that neither will last as long as my old Bosch router but they were much cheaper and I won’t be upset if lost, stolen or dropped onto the concrete floor!
The Aldi router table, also bought last year, is not very good the legs and wings being a bit light and flimsy pressed steel. However, the aluminium plate itself I found to be adequately stiff and flat and the NVR switch works well. I found fitting the router to the plate fiddly but secure once in place. It is ok if it is going to be a semi permanent installation but a pain if you frequently need to use the router freehand. The fence is poor, plastic and not straight! Despite all its faults I reckon that it may be worth buying the current offering as a source of parts for fitting into a better shop made stand. The plate, NVR switch and feather boards would cost more elsewhere. When I have time I will let the plate into a piece of laminate faced worktop to make a bigger heavier router table. Until then I use the Aldi table well clamped to my workbench which makes it very useable. One good thing is that it is very light to move around, helpful when you don’t have enough bench space.
I didn’t think much of the router bit set. I may be unlucky but the tip of one of the bits chipped off the first time I used it. None of my other bits have lost parts of the carbide cutter.
This week I bought a set of five Aldi forstner bits for £2.99. I was a bit dubious but tried them and found all cut nice neat and clean holes in both a piece of Larch and a piece of Beech. They are only carbon steel and require a fair bit of pressure to cut but didn’t heat up. As I am not likely to use them frequently they seemed worth buying at not much more than the price of a pint. When I wear one out I will replace it with a good one. I did shy away from the plug cutters also on offer as cheap ones (Am-Tech) I was given a few years ago quickly heated up and lost their edge. If any one is brave enough to try the Aldi ones I would be interested to know if they prove ok
Regards
Graham
