Thread: How bad can a cheap angle grinder from china be?

Bought one, $25 bucks from memory. . Used it to cut steel then for ceramic tiles. Did a lot of work. Mate was doing kitchen, went on loan. Then I did my kitchen. I was 99% done then the begger died. Now they all come with spare brushes. most of which are the same. So stripped its head off. Brushes were knackered, had about 3 more sets from Chinese tools. Wacked a set in and off we go.
Bought a sander, sanded plaster walls, choked the thing up till it went POP, took it back and got another. Had 3 years warranty, I had 3. Did every nasty thing I could do to these things. How they make a quid I will never know, but I love them.





















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My sympathies - even the Chinese make lemons sometimes - ( home of citrus - heh heh)
Strangely, I have been thinking a lot about my own Chinese angle grinder over the last week as I have used it almost daily.
I bought it about 15 years ago from Woolworths - yes Woolworths, not even Big W - for $20. It is the well known and respected Iron Horse brand - so cheap that the name is on a sticker - which has resisted falling off for all these years.
Well I just cannot kill this little beast even though I expected it to last about 10 minutes.
Doesn't help you with your POS, but it is a good news Chinese tool story anyway.
Cheen Up
SG

Bought an el-cheapo from SupaCheap many years ago as I had pavers to cut -[wasn't going to use my good Makita for that job]. It came with a side handle which my Mak doen't have so that was also a plus. From memory it was somewhere between $35 and $40 - I can't seem to kill it with a stick - cut heaps of pavers and some bricks from both sides, demolished a brick BBQ by cutting the mortar between the bricks - only thing I do is to give it a blast of air to get rid of the dust every so often.

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

Against my own better judgement, I purchased a cheap chinese angle grinder. It's lifespan was quite short as I decided that it was better off in the garbage bin than in any place near me.

Problems evident after five minutes of use:

• A screw had vibrated out from the gearbox to motor connection and was completely missing
• Another screw on the gearbox to body connection had vibrated half out
• Considerable oil leak from the gearbox
• The connection cover protecting the electrics at the back was a clip-fit. It unclipped with almost no force whatsoever.
• The 'friction' clamp holding the wheel guard had loosened; another few minutes of use and I reckon it would have fallen into the spinning wheel, putting it nicely off balance

I found all this out as the (Australian) made wire brush I was using gave me a nasty bite; a few of the wires were double length (they seemed to have folded over in manufacture rather than being cut off, and in use they popped out and acted like a whipper snipper on the exposed skin on my fingers.

I think if something has this many faults you should return it rather than bin it! The seller needs to know that the things aren't even up to there own low standards.

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

• The connection cover protecting the electrics at the back was a clip-fit. It unclipped with almost no force whatsoever.

Report it to the local state/territory electrical authority - it shouldn't be on the market. It should require a "tool" or considerable force to expose the electrical terminals.

It is a little difficult to avoid chinese power tools when quite a lot of brand name items are made there also, some almost as bad as described above.

Regards Mike

If China ever gets its manufacturing quality control issues properly sorted we'll all be out of business. Their gear can be really good, but right now it always seems to be something a lottery.

Originally Posted by Pete B

If China ever gets its manufacturing quality control issues properly sorted we'll all be out of business. Their gear can be really good, but right now it always seems to be something a lottery.

China's manufacturing can be as good as the best. It is the Western CEO's and Bean Counters that we should be attacking. They set the price and specifications. The Chinese work to that and no more.

Pete

Alll electrical devices once had to be checked by each states electricity supply company before release to the public. Has that idea gone with a lot of the other ideals Australia once had? Australian made white goods were tested for about three months before they were okayed for sale. Now we see from this forum where some of these imported (land fill) tools can kill us. We recently had an angle grinder die halfway through its forst disc. It was changed over for another which lasted 1.5 discs. We took our money back for that one. If we all took our money back they would soon stop trying to unload this rubbish onto us.

Some Chinese made tools are heaps good, while others are not worth a brass razoo. Also depends where you buy the tool too, as quality Australian Tool Importers do get their tools made in China to their preset specifications, ( and so do Makita, Hitachi, etc.),- but everything is tested before it comes to Aust, and IF it is not up to scratch then the product/s are not allowed to be sold here. Same applies to accessories, such as drill bits; blades; cutting / sanding discs, etc. Some are rubbish, while others go the distance,- such as Flexovit Angle-Grinder discs,- they are a quality product, and well worth the extra Dollar spent, while the imported ones, although heaps cheaper, quite often literally fly to bits, which can be rather scary at times even though one is wearing safety gloves, goggles, etc. Been caught with the cheap stuff, now only buy the quality stuff as know what I am getting,- and IF it is faulty,- I can get a refund.

Roger

The truth is that appart from "prescribed articles", there is no electrical authority approval or inspection required to market electrical products in Australia.....there has been no change to this for a very long time.

I'm not sure or right up with the current details of what is and isn't "prescribed", But I know the certain power tools and accessories not intended for domestic use are excluded from being prescribed.

NOW
The rub is that there is no effort being made at any sort of wide spread inspection or compliance checking.

The australian standards relating to the matter are very specific, but it is left up to the importers and distributers to ensure that what they sell is compliant......untill the $h!# hits the fan.

I have come across item after item that does not comply with the regulations over the years.....and in issues fundamental to the australian regulations.

At one time Choice used to have a page of recalls and bans in the back of the magazine.....they had to put that list on line several years ago because of the sheer volume or recalls and bans that had to be listed.

So the only solution to this is to report any obvious non compliances to your local electrical authority.

Let me tell you if you are caught at any stage of the distribution in QLD with a non compliant item they can kick you turn you arround and kick you again.

FURTHER
The australian electrical standards and the state regulations have now changed focus from specific requirements (which still apply) to the concept of being "fit for purpose".

So if you have an electrical item that more or less fall appart in you hands regardless of the specifics of how it is constructed, it still represents and electrical non-compliance.

Now here are two crucial principles of electrical safety.

Appart from the usual expectation that the uint should not have exposed electrical parts or conductors and should not cause shock at any time.

The item must be be constructed in sufficiently durable manner as to stay in one piece and not potentially fall appart exposing electrical parts.

Secondly "a tool" should be required to open any part of the item that allows access to electrical parts or terminations.

To certain extent, this rapid exchange thing is not doing electrical safety any favours.
I dare say that there are plenty of electricaly dangerous tools that are returned and exchanged every week.

These tools should have been reported to the electrical authorities.....but if you do that you don't get ya money back any time soon.

All this and we havn't discussed consumer protection yet.

Be certain, there is plenty of non-compliant and dangerous carp out there.

Before you plug anything in conduct you own basic common sence inspection.

cheers

Originally Posted by soundman

Be certain, there is plenty of non-compliant and dangerous carp out there.

...and very fishy, too!


(Sorry, soundman. I could not help myself. )


.

yes indeed....I tend to use the work carp because crap usually gets parsed into ####.

But carp are a crappy fish anyway


On the subject of dangerous carp....anybody remember The Goodies, "Cod Almighty" episode.

I still chuckle every time I hear "Tulips from Amsterdam"

cheers

Edit..well what do you know..you can say crap on woodwork forums.

Edit..well what do you know..you can say crap on woodwork forums

Always been able too.