Since tidying* up my garage, I’ve started doing a lot more DIY and fabrication. I’ve also started hoarding tools on the off-chance that I might need them at some point in the future. However, a lot of these have been at the cheaper end of the scale and some of them have been downright rubbish quality.

I know that brands like AmTech and Silverline are automatically suspect for quality and durability, but what brands are decent and yet still cheap? This is more for power tools rather than hand tools, things like a pillar drill specifically.

Are Draper any good?

* I can actually see the floor now. I still have work to do moving the boxes of my wife’s crap though.

Highly depends

Not possible to say all of any 1 brand is good or bad

Most of it is rebadged chinese tat- there are some gems to be had but highly tool specific.

I must admit ive started stopping buying the crap tools andjust saving a bit longer- as i find once i use the cheapo a couple of times its either wrecked or would be improved significantly by adapting it to be similar or the same as the better quality stuff.

If your only using it a couple of times a year then probably be fine.

Drill press – look up the youthbe reviews of the chinese import stuff- alot of that couldnt drill a straight hole if they tried. I ended up buying a used high quality press off of mcmoonter for the same money as a cheapo chinese one. So solid compared to chinese ones.

Record, axminster power tools, some draper and avoid machine mart,silverline for expensive stuff try auctions and second hand tool dealers.

Wadkin for old woodworking stuff.

axminster power tools

Their drills / lathes are just rebadged Chinese stuff as well, in fact it’s very hard not to find stuff which isn’t. If you compare all the makes (axminster, machinemart, etc) around the same price point their models are almost identical bar a different colour paint job and a different style of switch….

I have a record power lathe & pillar drill and the quality is quite good. I was hoping to find a Meddings pillar drill on eBay but waited & waited for one to come up within a reasonable distance but it didn’t happen. Meddings drill are excellent quality.

If you don’t mind older machines then Wadkins for tablesaws, Startrite for bandsaws.

Axminster kit is pretty good quality too. My tablesaw was cheap but I made it very usable with an aftermarket Axminster fence.

If you are getting into machine tools, don’t forget about dust extraction – it’s so important. I have a Camvac system & it works well in my little shop.

Thanks all. At this stage, the setup will have to be benchtop for a drill, so that will be the limiting factor on a lot of the stuff that I have seen on some sites.

The main drive for all this is the desire to be able to control the angle of holes in things to a better degree than I can now. I’d also like to be able to cut slots in sheet metal in a way that didn’t look like a dog just chewed it. It must be old age that is making me want to actually make something well rather than just throwing it together.

Anyway, I digress. Thanks for the advice so far. I’ll keep lookign for stuff.

Buy stuff as you need it, and get the best you can afford at the time (obviously, within reason). You’ll only ever regret buying cheap stuff, unless you’re only ever going to use it once or twice.

aye was an old meddings i bought – its been a cracker – after some minor repairs at the start :d

I sometimes wish id bought a mill/drill – but for a meddings milling machine id have to have tripled the budget for a cheapo one.

I also picked up an elu flip saw for 100 quid – that had been rewired and new blade on – its far far far superior to my 160 quid evolution firewood saw- but not in ways that affect the finish , its just much nicer to use , its quieter , the adjustments are much easier – which is nice if you have alot to do.

definantly finding older used stuff to be of better quality for my money as you would expect – how ever like bikes there are some jokers who are just selling the name , ive turned up to a couple of items where the sellers asking pretty much top dollar(close to new) for the used item and its been a bag of crap – then gets all up-etty when i say im not buying it or try to haggle it down a fair chunk because its trashed – “yeah but its paslode its worth it , you can get all the spares” -“yeah good luck with that” – i ended up buying new