My family always cringe when I come back off of a holiday down in Butlins as one of my favourite things to do is buy tools from Lidl ( I love Lidl tools, cheap but really good quality as I have found over the years). So I decided to try and put a smile on their faces Tools by CrapBag posted 2 Jun 2019 at 00:06
I've had a cautious approach to power-tools made available from there - are they long lasting/reliable tech. ...? LOL @ Zelda 'crystal find' .wav
I think they are really good, I have about 8 of their power tools and they feel good quality and I have had no issues so far. 2 drills, 1 impact driver, 1 sabre saw, 1 jigsaw, 1 plane, 1 small drill and the only corded tool is a palm sander. My compound mitre saw is made by JCB but is also a great bit of kit. The charge on the batteries last for ever, I use my two drills the most and have used them alot I over the last few years and I think I've only charged them about 3 times. They are made by a German company and I googled it a while back and people were saying it's the same company that makes black and decker stuff but I'm not 100% sure on that.
My corded drill is black and decker, is twenty years old and still works like new and yet has been used to death. I think people need to realise that these tools aren't going to be as good as the top brands like Makita but those brands are professional grade stuff and are designed to be used as such, yet the tools you buy from Lidl still come with the same 3 year warranty for alot less money which gives me confidence. As a home user I don't know why people need pro stuff unless you do an awful lot of DIY, anyway I'm happy with my purchases
Imo, buy cheap and if you break it then you need a better one. If you don't break it, a better one would have been a waste of money. That said, I like buying refurbished or on-sale Makita kit because I like my tools to match.
The cousins of durability are reliability and quality. I've gotten so sick of going to use some cheap tool to find that it's not working because some part has perished or it wasn't treated like a delicate Fabergé egg in storage so something flimsy has snapped off, and even when working will weeble-wobble all over the place or require heapings of elbow-grease to actually do anything (e.g. 'hammer drills' that require leaning on and half an hour to drill a hole in old hard brickwork, which a proper rotary hammer will go through like soft cheese). You trade the extra cash for the benefit of having the #$£&ing thing just work perfectly every time.
I have gone the same way with my woodworking/carving tools. The good tools just work, the edges stay sharp, they cope with whatever I want to do with them and are a pleasure, not a chore, to use. They will easily last as long as my knees are still good enough to stand at my workbench.
I've not had any of my cheap tools break yet and they've all been able to do what I require, nothings snapped off in storage. My only gripe is a little rubber has peeled off the triggers on my two cordless drills but its so minor it doesn't cause any issue. Just buy what suits yourself and your needs really. Tools with blades like chisels etc then yes I would buy quality for that.
Thats mainly why I ended up with Ryobi, thus far my list of their kit is getting somewhat large Drill Driver Impact driver jigsaw detail sander belt sander Chop saw Lawn mower Strimmer Fan Best bit of kit is probably the impact driver followed by the fan. Would never have thought a cordless fan would be as useful. Got a few batteries including the lovely bit 5Ah ones. They all use the same one makes life easy. Well I say all I ave a 12v electric screwdriver which gets abused for pretty much everything, same brand different battery. Only thing I wish I got on there was the pressure washer (yeah its a thing).
Yep, this is the right approach. Sometimes that's going to be cheap and cheerful, sometimes it's going to be high-end and expensive. Horses for courses.
I've been umming and ahing about buying a Japanese saw, just to try but, put off by the cost of buying something that I don't know if I will be able to get on with using. As I said before in this thread, I try to buy quality tools and this is not usually a problem as I know what I want and what I want to do with them and there are plenty of high quality tools out there which don't cost an arm and two legs, like the flash kit aimed at the well-off gullible types. With this in mind I found a Japanese saw (ryoba type), in Lidl for a fiver, this morning. If I don't get on with it, not much money wasted and, if I do get on with it, I can consider buying better ones, including other types, dozuki and kataba etc. Sometimes it is wise to buy cheap...
I saw (sorry) those the other day. Thought it was some mahoosive griddle pan spatula at first. My shed roof leaked in the corner I stored most of my power tools and ruined them. The only ones I've replaced are the plunge saw and bench grinder. My drills were stored in the garage.
