Thread: Cheap Power Tools

Hi,

Theres plenty said about cheapo tools all over this forum - so it may be worth your while to search around, the summary is :

cheapo is good so long as you dont mind a bit of compromise in quality and workmanship or throwing it away WHEN it breaks. some offer good warranty periods too.

My opinion : get the good one that way you'll only have yourself to blame when you farg up a job, not your tools )

Picked up an XU1 Angle Grinder from Bunnies for $18 on the weekend. (they have power drill, jigsaw as well for same price)
I can't even buy a kids play tool for less than that!

Did a bit of grinding around the house. Not bad. If it lasts past the 6 month warranty, it will be $18 well spent

If you're in for the long haul, then grab some better quality tools.

Its not a bad idea to start with some middle of the range tools with a good warranty and see how you go with it ... how much use do you get out of it .... is it worth while .... and then when it dies look at upgrading if the use you get out of it justifies it. I would go for the GMC range over the super cheapies .... my GMC range now extends to the mitre saw, 1250W router and bench grinder. Now from my use of these three tools I have been very happy with the price paid all around $100 each .... thats not a bad setup to start of with for less than a good quality SCMS. After using these tools I will keep the bench grinder as I don't think it will ever die, I will upgrade the mitre saw to a SCMS (Makita clone) as I get alot of use out of this ... and I will upgrade the router next time it dies as it again gets plenty of use.

GMC (2 year replacement warranty) tend to offer a good range for the price and if I was starting out I would prefer to have $1000 worth of lower quality GMC tools covering all the basics such as ... mitre saw, drill, grinder, router, jigsaw, lathe etc .... (having the right tool for each job) .... rather than to have one top of the range tool that can only do one job.

My opinion : Sure top of the range tools are great to have, but you are better to start of with the complete range of middle of the range tools and upgrade in the years to come.

Depends what you mean by "weekend warrior stuff". For tools that you are going to use for every project it is probably worth getting trade quality stuff. No matter what project you are going to do you will probably use a cordless drill, so probably worth getting a good one. Things like circular saw and router you will probably get use out of too. If (dare I even suggest this) you intend following the "orange" path you will need a good quality circular saw (at least when you recognise the futility of following this path you will have a good saw to show for it). As others have suggested, instead of buying a shed full of tools, perhaps look at buying a specific tool when you need it for a job, and if you know you will be using it more than very occasionally, buy quality.

If you are buying tools to build things to make a living, you have to think of cost vs benefit. If you are doing woodwork as a hobby you are probably doing it for pleasure. Good tools are a pleasure to use, poor tools will discourage you from using them and you will have wasted your money buying them.

Another option you may want to think about is asking on this forum if anyone has items second hand.

Just my thoughts...

I would also go with the idea of buying middle quality (or even sometimes cheap) power tools at first. This way you may be able to afford a useful collection.
A valuable point in this is that you frequently won't know if you need a tool until you have owned one.
You will also not know what features you would like or need.
Learning to cope with some of the deficiencies of the cheap item can be a useful lesson in itself. For instance, the cheap SCMSs are generally not as rigid as their expensive brothers BUT they can do good work if you learn to push straight, follow the line and don't make it work too hard.
I should add - these comments don't apply to hand tools - with hand tools buy good ones, cheap ones are just for throw away jobs. The only thing you might learn with cheap hand tools is how to sharpen them - you will gets lots of practice!!!
That's my 2 bobs worth anyway.

I would agree with the cheap hand tools .... stay away. I didn't have any pliers so I went to Bunnies with the GF ..... unfortunately that limited the spending power ... she selected a pack of three cheap pliers ..... Ok I thought, they are cheap but they have long nose and two regular pliers. Yesterday I was trying to remove old carpet nails from some recycled jarrah floor boards .... I tried the regular pliers and found that the carpet nails quickly stripped the teeth on the pliers and that the end of the pliers didn't meet. I then tried the long nose .... the carpet nails bent the end of one of the arms. I had to go to the grinder and turn it into a stumpy long nose.

So don't buy cheap hand tools.

I had a Black and Decker handyman drill about 25 years ago when I built a 40' x 8' timber deck on the back of my house. I was drilling holes for bolts and burnt out the motor in one day so I went out and bought an AEG that could power a small car. I'm ashamed to say that while drilling one particular hole, the bit dug in a little more than I was ready for and the drill spun around and threw me off the deck. (I was only about 120 pounds at the time.)
I still have that drill and I think it will be working long after I'm gone. If you are young buy the best you can afford, treat it well and it will last you a lifetime.

I forgot to add that I went to the local cheap tools place to buy some phillips head screwdriver bits for a cordless drill. They were selling a pack of ten double ended bits for next to nothing so I thought I would try them. Even if only one worked properly it would be worth it.
Alas!!! Ten double ended bits equated to 20 screws. As each screw bit into the soft pine the tip of the bit either broke or rounded off.
Do the chinese use the flame of a candle to temper steel or is it a cunning plan to get us used to accepting cheap rubbish?

For weekend use some of the industrial tools are not viable. Two years ago I paid $400 for a cordless drill with two quick charge batteries. Both batteries now only hold about two minutes power after being fully charged. Replacement batteries are $90 each so on the basis of that I could have got a GMC cordless for $100 and used it for two years and just be replacing it now.

cheers,
Rod

Adrian, I may be trying to teach a duck to swim but I've generally had really good luck with the disposable philips head bits for a cordless. I get best results with a slow drill speed (stop and start technique for hard woods) and posidriv screws. As a matter of fact I rarely buy new bits - I've had the old ones for years and they get shitloads of use... I usually buy new ones as impulse purchases (Eg when they have a cheapo fly by night shop that sells all sorts of crap and they have a set of bits with a sexy little rubber holder or something - I like the little holders as they outlive the bits...)

Gentlemen,
Firstly for Sir Stinkalot - a combination plier nose sufaces should NEVER meet. This is so that the cutter blades behind the serrated elipses (for cutting wire etc) actually meet and close. The best test for a combination plier is to place a piece of paper between the nose surfaces and it should move easily whilst clamping the plier. If it doesn't then discard the pliers.

My view on cheepy tools.
Again hand tools must be the highest quality. As an ex tradesman I may be bias but its hard to give up buying Stahl Willie or Gedore (W/Germany).

In the power department its a case of look past the gimmicks and consider what holds it together as this controls accuracy. I have recently purchased a sliding compound mitre saw. I ended up with the Ryobi which only has a single slide bar but at least the frame which holds the motor assy is cast metal. The ozito was plastic. My thought was I won't use the saw a lot so that wear in the slide bar wont be an issue, but when I do it must be accurate, therefore a single slide bar is OK (just). A plastic frame can only lead to large amounts of inacuracy - not good for mitre joints in clear gloss timber skirts.
In the case of a hand power drills, sanders or jigsaw etc, these are already inacurate devices (not precision) so why not use the cheapy. If you replace it once a year then your probably still in front.

best wishes
Mark

Rod

If you bought a GMC 2 years ago for $100, you could have replaced it every 6 months and you would have been square now. I don't like buying 'cheap' tools, quality I mean, not price, but when it comes to cordless drills I regard them as disposables.
The normal inaccurate tools like finishing sanders, belt sanders, drills and grinders are definately on my cheap list. Just make sure that you have one electric drill with lots of grunt! Nothing worse than trying to drill a hole in the wall and the drill takes up smoking! The same applies to portable saws....the elcheapos are fine for MDF, Particle board, 19 mm boards etc, but hey I love some grunt when I have to do serious cutting.
The cheap power tools definately have a place in the market, especially for those things that we don't use often. In my case I bought a cheap 4" angle grinder for my biscuit attachment, as I found that disassembling the thing everytime I need my good grinder was just too much trouble.

Have fun

Further to my comment about the garbage coming out of China. I looked through a batch of spirit levels and with the shop owner's help I determined that if you were to build a house with one of them, any furniture with castors (is that how you spell it?) would end up rolling down to one end of the house. Maybe gravity is a little different in China.
It didn't surprise me really because on a recent trip to New York I looked through a batch of Chinese made souvenir thermometers at the Empire State Bldg and without a word of a lie all of them showed different temperatures.

With MASS production feeding those of us willing to accept the product out of the Chinese factories one has to remember that very little if any QUALITY CONTROL is probably in place hence the cheap tools that abound.

This HAS TO BE BORNE IN MIND WHEN SHOPPING therefore we cannot expect too much in terms of value in an long lasting tool.

It's a cultural thing that we Ozzies like all else like to save a dollar but we also have to think in terms of practicality and the long term if we're there for quality.

The Taiwanese were doing the same for years until some of the American name brands upgraded the demand for a better finished tool to feed and satisfy the market.

Everyone is aware here in Oz of what the market forces dictate amd as a consequence there is now a levelled market to cater for all and sundry whether dollar driven and forethought for quality.
What the output from asian based outlets has done is effectively freed up a market allowing all an approach to an otherwise expensive pastime/interest so some kudos must be given in that regard .

Cheers