Hand Tool Price vs Quality -- Keep my Money for Larger Shop Tools?

[thkoutsidthebox]

...my 18V cordless drill was cobbled together from bits my Dad found in a skip! Hey, it works though! And it was free!

Thanks for the comments folks. ayteebee, now thats something I can certainly respect. I believe if you can make it do, and if you cant then learn how! ......

But I think for this that I should buy decent tools.....since it is for business, cant imagine what HSE would say if I cobbled together my own tools then took on some employees!!! But hey, I'd love to make my own tools for working after hours. Any more info on the 18V? Was it badly in need of repair, or was it literally 'bits' that ended up sticking together and coming to life?

[ayteebee]

imagine what HSE would say if I cobbled together my own tools then took on some employees!!!

Hmm, yeah good point!

It was literally that Dad came home one night with a bag full of motors, gearboxes, controllers, and cases and said "Andy, I've got a project for you". Most of the bits didn't work or were for different drills and the case is a bit rickety, but apart from that it works fine. I also have a few motors and gearbox bits left over - some of which found their way into my A-level Design Technology project!

Unfortunately the speed controllers had capacitors across the power terminals to protect the circuit from voltage spikes and stuff and on two different speed controllers these capacitors decided to explode, which was very scary!

The drill cases say "Edge" on the side, but I've searched for "Edge drills" and similar things on the internet and nothing came up. I don't mind if it's a dodgy make though, as long as it doesn't kill me...

[RotarySMP]

If you are going to be using hand power tools all day in a shop, go for pneumatic tooling. Much lighter and smaller for the power.

[ayteebee]

Hmm, pneumatic tooling, I've always been curious about that. I might start a new thread about it. (I'm not hijacking the thread!)

[thkoutsidthebox]

I was considering pneumatic tooing. It seems to be of a comparable price and sometimes cheaper than electrical, but I decided against it because I just dont know enough about it to make good purchasing decisions. I might end up with a shop full of dud tools!

[ger21]

Good quality pneumtaic tools are not cheap, and use a LOT of air. They also tend to be quite loud, imo.

[soapy]

Personally, I buy the cheapest damn power tools I can find, and simply buy two of them. I have, due to this, four 24V batteries for my 2 24V drills, 2 12V batteries for my two 12V drills, and 2 18V batteries for my 18V jigsaws. Happily, the 18V batteries fit in the 12V drills, and give an extra boost (not that it is needed)

I then buy branded screws, and use high quality bits. I use incredibly cheap chisels, but they are carefully sharpened. I use very nice branded drill bits in my cheap as chips SDS hammer drill, and I bought a diamond stone and learned how to re-sharpen the tips. (Takes me 30 seconds, about the same time as swapping the bit would)

Sometimes this technique isn't a success. I bought a cheap disk cutter, with a 10" blade. The bearings were badly lined up, and the blade wobbled about 2cm as it rotated. I sold it for a £20 loss at a car boot sale, after it had paid for itself via the one job it was really needed for.

I save time on jobs by having a drill and a screwdriver bit in different tools to hand, and I have a metal cutting 3.5" disc cutter and another with a metal grinding wheel on it, and a third with a wire cup. I have a wet grinding wheel that was about £50, with the slow wet wheel and a polishing cloth on the other side, along with my £15 bench grinder with the usual coarse and fine wheels.

Forget buying Dewalt and using cheap driver bits, they will snap off when you meet a tough screw. Try it the other way around, and you will be fine!

Also, these €10,000 machines you claim you need... unless they are in constant use, I'm sure you could either build a jig to do the job for 10% of that price, or spend 1% of that on the hand tools and time to learn how to do it the old fashioned way.

[Cam129]

It is important to have good tools for work, they have to be much better than "home use" grade tools. $25,000.00 dollars worth of high grade power tools is a lot of this type of equipment. I agree with your thoughts on saving money for the big stuff, but I would simply buy less of the good stuff. Find a good trusted local supplier, and buy that new DeWalt industrial grade power tool when you actually need it.

Not wanting to contradict what I have just said, but I have purchased a Chinese made recipracating saw for $49.00 that has done the work of a higher priced saw, I did have to replace one small cheap metric allen screw that holds the blade. My Chinese made side grinder was bought for $10.00 at a discount tool business. It has went through years of good service, home plumbing projects, cutting steel floor bolts out of concrete in a textile plant that was closing, cutting locks for neighbors, remodeling a rental house and a few of my brothers projects.

Buying cheap tools is somethng of both an art and a science. Being able to see what is in the box is a big help, careful observation is one way to not fall for something that has an obvious quality problem. Talking to other users of tools is another way to find out what is OK, down at the cheap imported tool store. The people that make cheap junk, know it's cheap junk. They are not beyond using shrink wrap and nice plastic cases to hide this fact.

One thing about quality, just because one company is making good stuff now,doesn't mean they will always make good stuff. Grandmother had a Hotpoint brand refrigerator that lasted 50 years. I bought one and it lasted a year or so and the compressor went out, about 24 hours after the warranty expired. Lucky for me, after a heated exchange over the phone, the General Electric people sent out a repairman to replace the compressor at no charge.

[jinu117]

Good hand tools are bases of rest of things... Fortunately, I do use these tools daily bases and anything subpar will show it's color in few months time frame. Funny enough though, there are some tools I buy from HarborFreight which works better than some named brand ones (not powered ones but just hand tools) but those tends to be rare and not cheap really (about similar price as what you would see at HD, etc).
I tend to prefer Makita for power tools (especially the 18v Li-ion series), klein/GB for hand tools, and some flukes, etc. Actually, think my "handtool" section probably costed hell lot more than the Syil X3 and LG500 laser engraver combined -0-. Some of HVAC/R related tools are just rediculously expensive unfortunately...
However, there is night and day difference between good tool and so-so tools on job efficiency, frustration, and cleaness of what's done...
However, I can't imagine someone who occasionally uses certain tools spending 3-4 times more money for similar kind of tool like I would... It would be hard to unless you know you will be using it for a decade (most of my tool never last that long though...)

[MFassler]

Well,as someone who loves tools,and even thou I dont need anything too do my job really,I still buy tools. Quality over quantity,but I have a quantity of good tools,and only by the best I am able to at the time.For instance cordless drills I have Dewalt and milwaukee.indicators and such I only buy Brown and Sharpe,all of my hand tools are either snap-on or craftsman from sears. as far as hand tools go,Just make sure they have a lifetime warranty which here in the states can be found many places including home depot etc. since you are in Ireland I have no idea what places you guys even have that have such things but I would imagine there is someplace similar to what we have.also keep in mind having all this stuff is great,but you need something too put them in,buy quality tool boxes such as kennedy or something,dont waste your money on something like a snap-on tool box or something.I have seen and known people who have spend around 10k just on their toolbox alone(thats just silly if you ask me). Also keep in mind the nature of your business,get the essentials first.things you dont or wont use as often should not be an initial priority.

[thkoutsidthebox]

Hi folks,

Since I posted this I have bought items as I needed specific tools. I've bought the best I could and haven't been sorry, and always bought the boxes with them also.

Space is still limited so the larger shop tool purchases have been delayed which left me with more cash for smaller items.

Anyway, I went with quality and in hindsight am glad, so I suppose this chapter is closed for me. L8rs.