There’s nothing so expensive as a cheap tool

This is largely true. But occasionally there’s an exception that proves the rule.

I’ve had my Draper 4 1/2″ angle grinder for 5 or 6 years since I bought it from Wilko for, I think, £16. Angle grinders are simple bodging tools, and take a lot of abuse, so I don’t see the point in buying an expensive one.

This one’s on its way out, the bearing’s got more play in it than a cocker spaniel after a family bag of Haribo and the noise it makes seems to far exceed its humble 600W motor. But I reckon it’s been through about 40 Dronco slitting discs, a dozen flap wheels, and maybe half a dozen grinding discs. It’s had a hard life, but it’s lasted far longer than I thought it would.

I’m going to go an buy a similar one because I can’t for the life of me see what more I’d get out of an £80 Dewalt.

(I’ll probably take this one apart and try and replacing the bearing too, because that’s how I roll :roll:)

What cheap tools have you got that have given service far beyond their station?

But I reckon it’s been through about 40 Dronco slitting discs, a dozen flap wheels, and maybe half a dozen grinding discs.

Thats only a day’s work though 🙂

the bearing’s got more play in it than a cocker spaniel after a family bag of Haribo

Well, I laughed.

the bearing’s got more play in it than a cocker spaniel after a family bag of Haribo

Might well be phrase of the day.

My echo brushcutter was bought second hand in 2010 for £120 and is still going without any repairs, only replacement of wear and tear parts.

Angle grinders are simple bodging tools,

and yet once you have used a good quality one youll not go back to the HAVS nightmare that is a cheap shit one.

Many cheap ones lack a deadman switch as well.

of course if your bodging only lasts a few minutes thats not an issue – ive used mine for hours and days at a time…. im not a great welder but im a deft hand with the grinder 😉

Indian ring spanners that I got from my dad nearly 40 years ago. Not Britool standard but do the job.
13, 15, 17 replaced with Britool over time.

A B&Q ‘performance’ SDS impact/demolition hammer, was <£50, couldnt justify Blue Bosch at ~£400 did some serious chasing and demo work on our last renovation, still going strong and paid for itself many times over.

Also a performance mitre saw, still going strong after a few flooring jobs and awhile on log burner fuel duties.

Erbaur (I think Screwfix) router that cuts worktops as well as brand names costing many times as much. It also weighs many times as much which would get tiresome if used every day.

Macalister (B&Q) SDS drill that was a revelation for drilling concrete. So good for the money I forgive it for throwing a chunk of concrete at my new prescription Oakley glasses the day I got them.

Lime squeezer. Free with a bottle of horrible Havana Club rum, I’d never have bought one but it has transformed my cocktail making

im a deft hand with the grinder

I thought that was an app rather than a tool 🙂

I thought that was an app rather than a tool

what ever floats yer boat fella. did wonder what your user name refered too 😉

hey my welding might not be top notch but when i started out it was pressed to me the importance of getting a strong weld first rather than a pretty weld.

my weldings held up to some hellovabuse pulling broken down landies and recovering stuck cars 😀

Good grinders are much better for cutting sheet steel – cheap ones have play, so you can’t get a properly straight edge.

what ever floats yer boat

You never know until you try 🙂

[video]https://youtu.be/O_P22PvfKg8[/video]

I avoid laser tools then draper much prefer ck, bahco, although tape measures never buy expensive and never take them out to their max as the usually stay out then get put to sleep in a skip.

A few of us turned up for an evening ride. Mark had locked his bike with a cable lock and being a proper divvy had left the keys behind. Tesco’s multitool leatherman copy rip off managed to get through it and thus allowed a cracking Gower evening ride to occur.

when all is said and done though, the cable lock was probably made of stringy cheese.

Angle grinders are simple bodging tools

No, the reciprocating saw is the bodging tool. No one has ever used one for anything but demolition

FFS. 🙄

‘BOTCHING’

The word you are looking for is ‘BOTCHING’.

As in: “He made a right botch of that” or “What a complete botch job!”.

‘Bodging’ is a fine heritage greenwood craft involving axes, froes, draw knives, chisels and gouges and above all else . . . a pole lathe.

Had a 4 1/2″ draper surform with a wonky blade attachment that served me well for over 100 surfboards.

Used cheap silverline sanders too, they were crap and blew up after 6/12 months but came with a 3 year warranty.

Titan sds from screwfix with accessories. 50 odd notes.

Has removed lime plaster from every wall in my house, has removed tiles from people’s floors, has opened up fireplaces, taken down supporting walls.

It’s still going strong.

Bodgy you best tell the Oxford dictionary.

bodge
VERB

[WITH OBJECT]
British
informal
Make or repair (something) badly or clumsily.
‘the door was bodged together from old planks’
More example sentencesSynonyms
Origin
Mid 16th century: alteration of botch.

In the league of duff cheap tools id forgot silverline the Sunderland of tools now relegated but should have been down years ago

Silver line. The blue box of doom.

Sometimes some stuff out of toolstation is “unbranded” in the catelogue. These days if it’s silver line when they bring it to the counter I ask them to refund . Not wasting fuel to take it home and bring it back

Need a router maybe a couple of times a year.
Bought one for £28 from Screwfix yesterday.
Will report back after it’s first outing today.

I have a Draper grinder in the shed, it’s okay for bits and bobs.
Wouldn’t last a week at work though.

A set of three B&Q value chisels.

They don’t hold an edge for long but they sharpen easily and I have no qualms about using them where they might get damaged.

I have a couple of nicer chisels for neater jobs but I wouldn’t use those for some of the horrid jobs the cheap ones are abused on.

Also B&Q ‘stanley’ knives for about £3. Always have two or three on the go as they’re handy for all sorts.

Not a fan of cheap battery power tools. They (the batteries) never seem to be up to the job in the long term.

I think there’s a world of difference between cheap / cost effective for diy and using every day for your job.

FFS.

‘BOTCHING’

The word you are looking for is ‘BOTCHING’.

As in: “He made a right botch of that” or “What a complete botch job!”.

‘Bodging’ is a fine heritage greenwood craft involving axes, froes, draw knives, chisels and gouges and above all else . . . a pole lathe.

A botched job is a failure or incompetently performed job. A bodge is something else. Bodgers we’re pole-lathe workers – and in practice they were piece-workers. There aren’t many products that can be completely made on a lathe so they just made component parts – chair legs, stair spindles, spokes etc – and were therefore considered a lesser trade than the craftsmen that would then turn those components into functional furniture.

But people don’t mean ‘botched’ when they say ‘bodge’. If you bodge something together, it works – if you botched it, it didn’t.

A Screwfix biscuit joiner ( £60 ) seemed to do exactly what the others wold do and they were all 2-300 quid!

My Aldi axe, Homebase own brand chop saw and cheapo Titan chainsaw have all been bloody great 🙂

Hand drill I got free off my mum when her hubby died. Falls to bits everytime I use it, but its great for little accurate drills through plasterboard.

Lidl’s tool sale ages ago, found some picks, about £3.99. They have so many uses. How did I ever live without them? Like these

Not really a tool, but that cordless lawnmower from Lidl is fab too.

Fancy arguing the difference between bodged and botched and not knowing yourself 😆

Ive an aldi axe and a fiskars axe one can Julienne veg, sharpen pencils and trim your cuticles and one canny guess which