The realities of tool ownership...

[nickds1]

Saw this on the Northern Line last Sunday.

Plainly copywriters have no idea at all about the realities of tool ownership...

Made me think though. I can't even remember how many drills I have, but it's certainly *way* more than 2.8

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Interesting! I have:
Mains-powered drills x4
Battery powered drills x2
Pillar drills x2
Hand-cranked drills x2

Although only half of each type would probably count as ‘currently working’.

 

[Rorschach]

Power drills, umm 4, cordless 3, hand drills maybe 5 or 6, not sure. Pillar drill, 1, lathe 3.

 

[Selwyn]

Renting often never pays well.

By the time you go to pick something up and drop it off and hire it

 

[clogs]

my wife just ask's "how many xxxx does 1 man need".......hahaha
I just say not as many shoes as u....

 

[novocaine]

The British population is approximately 60m. It os a fair spilt of around 30m male and 30m female. The average length for sex is 3 minutes. So a cock is used on average.......

Basically we dont need cock, you'd be better to hire one.

 

[MARK.B.]

You been talking to my Mrs novocaine

 

[Monger]

Renting often never pays well.

By the time you go to pick something up and drop it off and hire it

I think a drill is a poor example. Renting ladders makes sense.

Much more economic to purchase a drill rather than drive in traffic to the hire place every time you need one. And have to go back as you forgot a screw.

Would make more sense to borrow your neighbours drill every time. Not sure they’d be happy if it broke though.

 

[flying haggis]

Renting ladders as suggested is ok if you have a means of transporting them or are happy to pay the delivery charge. the downside is if you decide that you are going to paint the soffits on aparticular day and it then pees it down you have wasted the hire charge. If you have somewhere to store a ladder Gumtree etc is your friend.
like this on my local Gumtree
https://www.gumtree.com/p/ladders-handtrucks/extending-ladder/1409988148I thought about renting a long reach hedge trimmer to do our hedges but worked out that over the lifetime of using one it worked out cheaper to buy my own. then if it rains it waits till next week, and you dont have to do all the work at once if you own as opposed to hire

 

[Rorschach]

Very few tools (excluding plant such as diggers) works out to be more economic to hire rather than buy. Even if you don't have the space to store it or need to use it again it can often be cheaper and a lot less hassle to buy new or second hand, use it and then sell it on afterwards.

An example, I can buy a new concrete mixer for about the cost of a weeks hire, I can buy a second hand mixer for about the cost of a long weekends hire. I can sell the new mixer for about 50% of new price so in reality very cheap, I could sell the second hand mixer for probably almost what I paid for it, possibly even more if I cleaned it up. So why hire?

 

[Cirks]

On a purely financial basis, there are probably better examples to use than drills as most aren’t stunningly expensive for the diy type tasks that someone who doesn’t own one already is likely to use one for (eg putting up a shelf or drilling for a few screw holes etc). I can fully understand hiring though for those who barely ever use tools (unlikely to be anyone on this site).
I did think about hiring 1st fix nail gun when I built my summerhouse but in the end bought one with aim of reselling.....of course I’ve still got it! Not sure when I’ll use again though.
Looking on local neighbourhood sites, I can’t believe how many posts there are asking for a handyman for really basic tasks (flatpack assembly; putting up shelf or picture) so those people more likely to pay someone to do a job than to hire a tool.

 

[Geoff_S]

Let’s just add borrowing into the mix. Now, where do I start?

 

[Droogs]

B&D designed their home DIY tools in the 80s to have a motor life 3 hours before component failure. They had calculated by the time the machine had reached that point, most had been owned for at least 3 years and a big chunk over 4 by the buyer. Hence the reason for the very poor quality of DIY tools when compared to those used by serious amatuer and professionals.

 

[Rorschach]

B&D designed their home DIY tools in the 80s to have a motor life 3 hours before component failure. They had calculated by the time the machine had reached that point, most had been owned for at least 3 years and a big chunk over 4 by the buyer. Hence the reason for the very poor quality of DIY tools when compared to those used by serious amatuer and professionals.

Any evidence for this, or just another urban myth?
Making cheap tools is not the same as purposely designing them to fail at a specific point.

 

[Droogs]

As stated by ex B&D employees who where members here many years ago. There are some threads about it and stuff from a good few years ago.

 

[Rorschach]

As stated by ex B&D employees who where members here many years ago. There are some threads about it and stuff from a good few years ago.

Sounds like a good yarn from old chaps wanting to make their lives sound more interesting to me. A lot of effort to design a component to fail purposely over just throwing in the cheapest part they could that would do the job for a while.

 

[Droogs]

I ddin't write it very well they didn't design it to fail just made sure it lasted long enough

 

[DIYDad]

Saw this on the Northern Line last Sunday.

Plainly copywriters have no idea at all about the realities of tool ownership...

Made me think though. I can't even remember how many drills I have, but it's certainly *way* more than 2.8

View attachment 115656

 

[Rorschach]

I ddin't write it very well they didn't design it to fail just made sure it lasted long enough

Ah ok that's a different then. I can absolutely see their R&D department saying "We think this will get used for 3 hours over it's lifespan, we tested this motor and it lasted more than 3 hours, so that will do".

 

[Jonm]

B&D designed their home DIY tools in the 80s to have a motor life 3 hours before component failure. They had calculated by the time the machine had reached that point, most had been owned for at least 3 years and a big chunk over 4 by the buyer. Hence the reason for the very poor quality of DIY tools when compared to those used by serious amatuer and professionals.

I bought a B&D drill in mid 70’s, 1/2 inch chuck, two speed hammer drill. Used it extensively, you could remove the chuck and add on attachments like circular saw, jigsaw, sander, bench holder etc. I remember borrowing a circular saw attachment.

I used it extensively, hammer action went first, bearings rattled, had to rebuild the switch but when you pulled the trigger it went round and round. It ended up permanently in a bench clamp with a grind stone in it till I obtained a bench grinder. Threw it out in a house move.

It lasted a lot more than 3 hours. Perhaps the 1980’s policy lead to its demise, from one time market leader.
Picture of drill model (not the actual one) attached