[Closed] Cable cutters - any bargains about?

I bought those pictures above from ebay and found them to be as good as my park ones.

Sounds good to me - there seems to be 2 main shapes, the ones above and these

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The first ones look a bit better finished to me & very similar to a few £20+ efforts i've spotted, will give 'em a bash

Cheers,
j

The difference will be in quality of the steel and longevity of the cutting edges. Infrequent use, unless you're a shop, would probably mean the cheaper ones will suffice for quite some time.

Dunno. I bought my Park ones 14 years ago & apart from grubby handles they are like new, even having (ab)used them cutting spokes, mudguard stays etc...

I bought those pictures above from ebay and found them to be as good as my park ones.

I wouldn't say that. (*have not experienced park ones).. however.

I have a set, they're good, but only been used a couple times.

Co-worker who recommended them to me runs a household where he, wife and kids have approx two bikes each broke his fairly quickly. he's gone and bought park ones now.

sometimes buy cheap, buy twice rings true.

I scrimp on certain tools and not others, for example. I'd use a cheap screwdriver, but not a cheap torx 10..

IMO, having seen them used many times a day, every day, for years in a workshop, the Park Tools ones are well worth the extra. I've seen cheapo versions end up crap/falling apart in a short space of time. OK if you're only going to use them once or twice a year though.

"I scrimp on certain tools and not others"

+1. I foolishly bought some X-Tools headset spanners because the PArk ones are so expensive, thinking such a simple tool didn't justify spending the extra. Silly move; the spanners had to be filed down before they fit the headsets. Manufacturing tolerances seem terrible (35.3mm for a supposedly 36mm spanner, and 31.5mm for the 32mm. Opening not even consistent along it's length). Other X-tools stuff has been ok though. I think their or Ice Tools cable cutters are ok.

The Park ones are good until the day you spark-erode the cutting surfaces by chopping through a loop the sparkie left you in the ring, forgetting to tell you it's actually the ring for the other floor and turning off your floor has left it live....

I've a few Park tools but they tend to be things I use more frequently - I have a couple of things i've used for cable outers before, a small cheapo bolt cutter thing but that tends to flatten them a bit - same with the side-cutters from the big random tool box, saying that they're fine once you re-shape them & open out the liners with a pen or suchlike, just thinking if there's a decent cheap set that gives a nice smooth finish it would be worth it, they won't get used very often - probably only on outers.

Previously i've totally mangled a set of these in about 10 minutes cutting a few outers & some braided disc brake hose - they developed so much play the jaws sprang apart & the outer cable got wedged inbetween them, sideways... no way to tighten them up either as the bolt is smoothed off on both sides, cheap, but utterly useless

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I went with a pair of Draper wire rope cutters from toolstation. No problems with them so far. Sticking a short end of scrap inner into the outer before trimming seems to make for a cleaner cut.

That's a good tip about putting a spare bit of inner in - someone had told me that before & had forgotten until you mentioned it 💡

Tredz have Park for £18 at the mo (£5 off sign up for their newzletter? Might be a minimum spend) (probably too late anyway)

Well spotted - I hadn't yet gotten round to ordering any as i'm waiting for a few other bits for the bike anyway, might just go for those! (the £5 off is fro orders over £30)

Cheers!
J