'Own brand' tools - 'snide goods' and not fit for purpose ?

and your cryptic point is ?

 

Power tools alway go for reputable brands, like Dewalt,Bosch, etc, well woth it for the three year warranty, etc.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for.

 

A marriage licence costs £35, with no warranty or cooling off period

 

Pretty much, but not always. Price isn't always directly proportional to quality, as 'quality brands' often have cheaper ranges now that kid the occasional buyer into thinking they're getting a quality product. Stanley springs to mind with screwdrivers etc.

If money is tight then go for mid range tools. The ones you use the most will wear out quicker so you replace those with better quality items that will last.

 

Hmm, I wish a marriage only cost £35. Got married in August, and the ceremony (at the local registrars) cost us around £340. (well worth it though)

 

Indeed, I think a lot of us have gone down the journey of buying 'silly' tools. This has been brought about by doing the job in a learner's approach. There is a vast collection of such tools which are invented to entice the 'bodger' into thinking its a neat way to accomplish a task. Such tools are unlikely to be used again. Once you know how things are put together, you are more likely to go the whole hog and do a thorough job. In doing so your tool needs are simpler and you look for better quality and performance.

But if you look at some things such as clocks and radios and computers; they all had a period where the general public were happy to tinker about with them and contribute to their development. Power tools have had their own development. I think there is a lot of 'sillytronics' out there with products ie kit which can bring your car to a grinding halt, and its a guaranteed extra 400 quid to do a 'diagnostic'; which more often than not is completely pointless.

 

Good on ya. Black&Decker all the way!

Mr. HandyAndy - Really

 

If you need a tool to make money with and if it fails you will lose money then buy the best you can afford, if not then it is a gamble.
Cheap Chinese tat can last and I have rubbish tools that I bought 15 years ago that are still doing their job if treated carefully.
I have killed numerous top range cordless drills and screwdrivers but they get a battering day in, day out.

 

Must comment on CGN's comment about Stanley tools. At one time,they were quality,but no longer. Nowadays they seem to be made down to a price, which if they have a "Fatmax" label,is vastly inflated. Going back to the postings about Chinese power tools, I have a Metabo sander,made in the PRC & cannot fault it,so I suppose it's down to quality control.

 

True Malkie. The good Stanley gear can often be picked up at boot sales for pennies while everyone else is lured by brand new shiny tat.
I always try to buy decent gear but occasionally take a punt on something that I think I may not use very often. I was wandering round Lidl a few months back when one of their multi tools caught my eye. I bought it as I had a job in the morning that would lend itself to such a tool and at £19.99 was a steal. Still going strong and tbf, if it packed up tomorrow, I wouldn't care too much as its got me out of a few scrapes and I consider that its already paid for itself.

 

Erbauer = JCB (B&Q) with a different paint job = cheap Chinese tat

Titan = McAllister (B&Q) with a different paint job = cheap Chinese tat


Best place for this **** is in a skip. If you get 6 months of pro use from any of these tools you are very, very lucky. I've had Erbauer tile cutters, diamond blades, core bits, etc. and they've all performed way less than a cheap brand-name equivalent.

 

Hny

 

When I got married a licence was 7/6p but I got her for five bob because Mitcham was out of the London area, bargain I reckon!

 

In reality I buy tools based on how much I am going to use them.
A Combi drill, mitre saw, 1/2" router, trim saw - buy the best I can afford. A multi tool, detail sander, belt sander that I use for 10 minutes once every week - buy any old tat and replace it when it blows up. A track plunge saw- I buy the best I can afford as even the cheapest are expensive.

Many own brand tools are perfectly good for DIY use but not to be slung in the back of a van 5 or 6 days of the week. Also many pro tools are just not worth it for the average user. Why would someone who puts up a shelf once a year need a £300 Combi drill?

Though my concession is a Titan 5 kg drill. I bought one 5 years ago as my Dewalt died and it has broken up 12" thick concrete slab, stripped the render off 7 houses, drilled countless drain & extractor fan holes. The clutch went on it last month and I replaced it with....
a £60 Titan 5kg with a raft of bits included. A cable installer turned up with a Makita sds and tried to drill through one of those 70s concrete filled walls and gave up. Took less than 30 seconds with that piece of DIY tat.

 

Ah that cheap old challenge tat, the first power tools I bought at the age of about 12 were usually Challenge, and to be fair I still have a challenge belt sander that I can think of no reason to replace. I actually have some fond memories of that cheap tat!

I buy quite a lot of cheap tools, I have no real need for top of the line kit. I make an exception when it comes to my combi drill / impact driver, but in general my power tools are cheap ish.

I can't really agree with many of your points though threeof, I don't think anyone is trying to pull a fast one, or lure unsuspecting people in with cheap tools in glossy boxes, cheap tools aren't as well made - that should be so obvious that there is no deception going on. What do you want them to do, highlight the products features as 'probably not square, blade is made of cheese, warranty is only 12 months' etc then wrap them up in newspaper to make it really obvious that the quality is poor?

If you want protection from being lured into buying tools that don't work, then I think you need to find an honest to god proper hardware store. One near me feels like 'safe shopping' - it's not always cheap but they know their stuff and they don't stock anything rubbish. But sometimes they only have one option when it comes to a tool, and it can be pricey.

I prefer the option of being able to make up my own mind. The £50 titan circular saw I bought (and left the supplied blade on) will not give as good results as the Bosch Pro saw that I wanted to buy, but I was laying chipboard T&G flooring, and the Titan is more than capable of ripping through chipboard with enough accuracy for the job. If I was trying to get finish quality cuts in solid oak, then I would not expect the Titan to do the job (unless maybe I changed the blade to a Freud).

With reference to you other thread, I cannot see how you bought a £100 router and expected it to be of a comparable quality to a router that could easily be 4 times the price.