Buying cheap tools

[Rodpr]

Don't get me started on the pads where clogging is the limiting factor

Apologies if this is common knowledge but artificial corks from wine bottles work really well for unclogging sanding disks and belts!

 

[Adam W.]

How?

I look at the label of course.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Just about everything we buy will have Chinese components.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Apologies if this is common knowledge but artificial corks from wine bottles work really well for unclogging sanding disks and belts!

Not so good as a lump of cured silicone from a forgotten opened tube.

 

[Adam W.]

Just about everything we buy will have Chinese components.

No, Lie Nielsen, Veritas, Knipex, Wera and Skelton saws don't. Festool don't outsource to Asia, all My Makita tools are made in Japan, my lever hoists are made in japan. All my carving tools are UK or Swiss and the rest is vintage English.

I'm confident that I have no Chinese tools in my workshop at all and I don't buy nickknaks or gadgets from the likes of Axminster, Screwfix or any of the big stores.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Good for you.

 

[satinet]

I buy some of my hand tools from Aldi or Lidl. In particular screw drivers and odd stuff like drill bits. To me they are consumables because I work on sites and they just disappear over time.

I'm a bit funny about my hammers. I like estwing but my favourite hammer is a hultafors, other than a large framing hammer but they're different things. I've got way to many hammers for what a sane person needs.

 

[Fergie 307]

By that time Black and Decker quality had declined - my B&D hammer drill was bought in 1969 and I was using it yesterday (had a new switch and makes a bearing noise but still going strong), perhaps it should be in the Guinness book of records. It's hard nowadays to define "cheap".

I still have my father's Wolf electric drill, I think it was called a Sapphire? I am going to guess early 1970's.
No speed selection, no hammer function. Looking well used but still going strong.

 

[Jameshow]

No, Lie Nielsen, Veritas, Knipex, Wera and Skelton saws don't. Festool don't outsource to Asia, all My Makita tools are made in Japan, my lever hoists are made in japan. All my carving tools are UK or Swiss and the rest is vintage English.

I'm confident that I have no Chinese tools in my workshop at all and I don't buy nickknaks or gadgets from the likes of Axminster, Screwfix or any of the big stores.

I must get my life so sorted like yours!

 

[Adam W.]

It's all just a façade, in reality I'm in turmoil.

 

[Mickjay]

It sure was , they also did a grinder and polishing attachment, the good old days eh!

They also did a jigsaw attachment too. It did work after a fashion but was very unweildy as you can imagine!

 

[Keith 66]

A few tools that were cheap & that performed way above their price would suggest. Lidls PowerFix Japanese saws, I bought two of the small ones about 4 years ago, £5.99 each came with a spare blade, they have been heavily used & are still going. Also Powerfix dremel accessory box, everything you would need to keep your dremel or proxxon or whatever going, drills, diamond burrs, mounted stones polishing stuff, sanding mandrels & sleeves, cutting discs & more. Extraordinary value at £19.
These are exceptions usually cheap stuff is rubbish!

 

[evildrome]

A long time ago I bought a cheap desktop drill press from B&Q.

I bought that one because it was cheap but actually, it had a massive cast iron head, base & table.

It was really very heavy. Which is what you want in a small drill press.

And it was fine on bigger holes but I noticed when drilling tiny holes that the drills would break.

I checked the spindle and it had that click click thing when you pushed and pulled it sideways.

I took it apart. There was about 1mm slop total in the side to side movement.

Everything about it was built like a machine at 3X what I paid, except the spindle fit.

Looks like rather than drill under size and then ream, they just drilled on size which usually leads to a slightly oversize hole.

Sadly, if the slop had been WORSE I could have fixed that by simply sleeving it out but a sleeve with 1/2mm wall thickness at 40mm diameter and 2" long is a bit tricky.

I resolved to bore the head out and sleeve it. Its been in my "projects" box ever since... might do it one day.

It annoys me that something that could have been an excellent tool was ruined for the sake of one extra machining op.

 

[Adam W.]

@Phil Pascoe , I lied, the hat that came with my Vicmarc lathe is made in China.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

So is half your car, your TV, your washing machine, your computer ...

By the bye.

 

[Adam W.]

They don't live in my workshop as tools, but I understand where you're coming from.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Sorry, I wasn't aware you were referring only to tools in your OP. I agree with you on hand tools, but it's difficult with power tools. It's practically impossible to avoid Chinese manufacture in most other spheres -if the item isn't Chinese, its components will be.

 

[scockram]

I used to love making go carts as a youngster with my younger brother , we had a decent hill where we lived and would spend hours and hours riding downhill and having to avoid the lorries going to and from the industrial estate at the top of the hill . So much more fun than the modern day kids that spend hours playing with Xbox and PlayStations and not being active. A good example of how these threads go off topic yet still remain within the woodworking theme

Go carts! Fond memories. I think I spent most of my free time making and riding these, between the ages of about 10 - 16. Along with my brother and a few neighbours and friends. We started with proper old spoked pram wheels and progressed to industrial castors, solid plastic, nylon I think. They were much better as far more robust and you could also skid then easily, (the diameter obviously decreased with time and there was an associated smell).

I agree;- so much better for youngsters minds and bodies than sitting inside playing games consols or TikToking, or whatever they do these days. Even with the added danger of having to avoid cars and tractors coming up and down the lane quite frequently. If we weren't go carting we were roaming the local fields and woods, climbing trees and damming streams etc. Though to be fair we were lucky to grow up in the country, and there was a lot less traffic in those days. Mid 80s - mid 90s.

We also raced skateboards, but sitting down or lying back on them rather than standing. That was a lot more scary than the go carts. Think Skeleton Bob or Luge in the Olympics.

PS. Sorry for the digression!

 

[kinverkid]

Apologies if this is common knowledge but artificial corks from wine bottles work really well for unclogging sanding disks and belts!

My advise is that from a H&S point of view you should only ever buy cork sealed wine. The metal ring left behind by the screw-top bottles can cut your lips.

 

[aet1]

I learned from my father, albeit later in life, that only the rich can afford to buy inexpensive tools that are used on a daily basis. He was an avid woodworking hobbyist after he retired, but not a good judge of quality when it came to buying tools. His unintended motto was "buy cheap, buy often", and he certainly lived up to this. Unfortunately, he never threw out any of the broken tools and added them to the Expanding Closet of Misfit Tools for others to find later.

After our father died, my brother and I cleared out his shop so our mother could enjoy the use of the garage for her car for the first time in over 20 years. We found dozens of broken drills, sanders, jigsaws, circular saws, biscuit joiners, hand tools, socket sets, screwdriver sets, and so on. My brother was initially interested in salvaging the tools because there were no obvious signs of abuse. However, as he worked his way through the pile of corded 3/8-inch drill motors, he discovered that they had simply worn out and could not be repaired.

Individually, these were inexpensive tools and would have been welcome additions to the occasional DIYer or handyman. However, the volume of broken inexpensive tools was sobering. Rather than spend money one time on a quality tool with a decent warranty, he spent many times that amount buying lower quality tools that were built to a price point. At the time he would have bought the first batch of tools, the most expensive equivalents would have been much less than the cost of half of his failed collection.

Even with the tools that still functioned, the lot had no value and no one was interested them. We hauled several truckloads of his shop to the landfill and the garage was used as a garage for the first time.

If you are going to use an Aldi, or similar, inexpensive tool infrequently, or even once, then I see no reason to ignore them and they could be good value. However, if you are going to use the tools daily, for extended periods of time, or as a source of income, then you might want to be prepared for frequent replacements.



I respectfully disagree with this statement entirely. You are welcome to visit my shop if you are on this side of the Channel and I will show you what effective dust collection looks like. I still vacuum stray chips from time to time, but the easiest way for me to reduce the cleaning and suspended dust is to collect the dust and chips at the source. Unfortunately, the less expensive power tools I've owned do not do even a reasonable job at this.

When I moved my shop from the garage to the basement, dust collection was the focal point of my shop design. The equipment layout was balanced between workflow and the dust extraction distribution. As I replaced the small powered tools, the dust collection was always a key factor, while cost was never a factor.

When emphysema is diagnosed you look at dust collection in a different light and remember all the times you have not considered it.